Job Specification

Purpose :

To create, manage and deliver strategic direction and operational planning to senior mangagement for I&IT infrastructure and telecommunications products and services, supporting mission and business critical applications across the Ontario Public Serivce (OPS) including accountability for managing a portfolio of services.

Key Responsibilities :

Strategic Planning Support and Coordination
Develops Service Strategic Plans, Infrastructure Roadmaps, Service Concepts, Service Proposals and business cases for the Enterprise Strategic Planning Processes to ensure reliable, secure and effective delivery of technology services for the OPS.
Delivers Service Roadmaps and Plans by engaging accountable I&IT Directors who provide service evolution requirements while ensuring alignment with feedback from the vendor community, industry research companies and I&T Clusters.
Produces collateral, in consultation with ITS Directors, that will evolve services as per agreed upon strategic direction in line with the Service Strategic Plans and Infrastructure Roadmaps.
Identifies and assesses risks, issues and impacts of new IT services or enhancements to new services and infrastructure. Drafts and develops business cases (i.e., Service Proposals and briefing notes) recommending next generation services based on technology trends, service gap analysis, risk and business value to I&IT Clusters and client base.
Analysis, Consultation and Advice
Leads horizontal reviews to ensure business alignment between I&IT services (i.e., Service Concepts, Proposals and Roadmaps) and business strategic plans (i.e., I&IT Cluster Plans).
Gauges the effect that the Strategic Planning Process has on the the organization (i.e., policy and program areas) with respect to changes to processes and functions required to support services across the I&IT organization.
Evaluates and recommends strategic technology direction and best practices for all IT services (i.e., Application and Mainframe Hosting, Telecommunications and Desktop).
Advises and recommends IT Directors and CIO on multi-million dollar investment allocations in IT Services to support critical applications.
Project Leadership and Management
Facililates stakeholder engagement with ITS Directors and business areas (i.e., Clusters and other I&IT areas) by ensuring IT and business perpsectives and viewpoints are in alignment in order to enable the successful delivery of the Service Planning Process.
Defines service requirements for new and exisiting IT services by leveraging developed multi-dimensional toolsets that capture horizontal inter-relationships between services from a financial, technological and organziational perspectives.
Provides expertise and guidance, on the best use of the organzaition's service planning services, to mulitple functional areas and technical leadership and mentoring to other staff and team members.

Knowledge / Skill :

Knowledge of and skills in:
Ministry business directions and core businesses to ensure client's system needs are met.
Business strategy planning by developing current states of IT and business and identifying future goals and objectives in order to develop strategy roadmaps.
Government and industry trends, directions and standards as well as central agency standards, policies and directives required to interpret vendor and Infrastructure Controllership Strategy inputs to the planning process.
Technology management, network operations, and current and emerging industry technology in such areas as: high-speed local and wide area networks, email, broadband data communications and internetworking, storage technology and storage management, Intranet/Internet technologies, N-Tier architectures such as J2EE and .NET, personal computers and peripherals in order to properly identify potential technology alignment areaswithin different IT services.
Gap Analysis, SWOT (Strenght, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats), Goal Setting Theories and Cost Benefit analysis in order to identify implicit business needs and risks and develop new and innovated approaches to delivering IT services.
Project management techniques and methodology to deliver Service Planning Process collateral on time, estimate and control expenditures.
IT Service Management and ITIL processes for service delivery and service support are also required. ITIL processes are a set of defined levels requiring certification.
Oral and written and communications to provide instructions, advice, options and reports.
Standard computer applications (word processing, spreadsheets, presentations) as well as MS Project, MS Visio, Adobe Acrobat Pro.

Interpersonal / Influencing Skill :

Facilitation skills to facilitate stakeholder engagement with ITS Directors and business areas (i.e., Clusters and other I&IT areas) by ensuring IT and business perspectives and viewpoints are in alignment in order to enable the successful delivery of the Service Planning Process.
Partnership building skills to work with delivery partners within ITS to jointly meet the client requirements using the ITS Business model and the Cluster business model.
Customer Service skills to meet the requirements of ITS stakeholders in the Service Planning Process and deliver collateral in the appropriate timelines and be responsive to the sponsor's needs.
Communication skills to communicate to stakeholders the purpose and benefits of the collateral in the Service Planning Process as well as to convey the impact and relevance to their respective service and how the collateral documents the strategic evolution according the stakeholder input.

Analyzing / Problem Solving Skill :

Analyzing and problem solving skills to:
Identify new ways to evolve services from a technology point of view and to assist non technical service owners and directors to think creatively and propose different options available to ITS from vendor scans or ICS scans.
Research technical options with vendors, suppliers and external consultants in order to gather information and address conflicting options.
Identify trends and potential risks on the IT environment, the future direction, and the initiatives required to achieve the desired future environment.

Decision Making / Responsibility :

Responsible for:
Providing horizontal reviews of Service Planning Collateral against Cluster Strategic Plans and recommends alignment with those plans so ITS Strategic Plans can be aligned to cluster plans.
Recommending strategic direction of IT services based on internal and external business scans, and industry trends taking while ensuring OPS and I&IT strategic goals are met.
Conducting industry research, market scans and vendor consultations to ensure future IT direction meets OPS business needs in an efficient and cost effective manner.
Has latitude to:
Evaluates current IT service offerings in terms of financial and organizational capabilities and provides advice on how to solve problem areas and/or make changes to accommodate future strategies
Advises IT Directors and policy makers (i.e., ICS, SMT, ITELC) on the recommended way to control the delivery of IT services via policy, directives and/or guidelines.
Decisions are guided by the framework of established government/ministry policies, relevant legislation, and protocols, such as GO ITS Standards, Results-Based Planning Guidelines, I&IT Directive, I&IT Strategic Goals, Procurement Policy, Procurement Directive, Enterprise Vendor of Record contracts and Enterprise Vendor of Record Program.

Contacts / Stakeholder :

Accountable Directors and CIO to assess and prioritize the current state, functionality, costs and challenges of delivering their current portfolio of services and to research, deliver and recommend future state options for their services or to develop and deliver business case analysis and results.
Vendors to inquire, assess and prioritize the current and future functionality, viability and costs of vendor services and to evaluate the apropriate opportunities.
Research and consulting firms to inquire, assess and prioritize technology and business directions and to evaluate the apropriate opportunities.
ITS CRMs/I&IT Clusters/OPS Clients and partners to inquire, assess and prioritize the current and future functionality, viability and costs of ITS services and to evaluate the apropriate.
ITS SCM/Legal/Privacy and Security/Architecture to review Business cases, RFIs, RFPs, RFSs.
ICS to ensure alignment between IT Services and business goals and to provide direction on development of policies and guidelines affecting client program areas.

Guidance / Supervision :

Provide expertise and guidance to clients on the best use of the organizations service planning services.
Provides guidance and supervision to staff and project team on planning, setting objectives/goals and the direction of the activities.
Provides guidance and advice of a technical nature that leads to the development of policies, processes and business cases, RFI, RFP, RFS.

Demands / Pressures :

Work Demands :

Constantly deals with unexpected changes to deadlines, tight time pressures and conflicting work demands and priorities and demands from multiple contacts/clients/supervisors.

Mental / Sensory :

Frequent requirement to concentrate when negotiating funding issues or making presentations, listening intently in meetings or discussing/obtaining complex data and information.
Frequent requirement to concentrate when analyzing business and technical research material, RFP, RFI, RFS, white papers, contracts, business cases, policy papers, proposals, blue prints and design solutions.

Conditions / Environment :

Works in a typical office environment, with occasional travel to other sites.