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Increasing Efficiency and Effectiveness of the Municipality’s Customer Services

This report focuses on a subset of all customer interactions. A significant portion of customer interactions involve the direct delivery of municipal services to customers.

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April 13, 2023

Building An Innovative Digital Strategy

Developing your first digital strategy can be a daunting task.  However with insights from our team, customer research and input across the organization we were able to create a plan that will truly impact both the customer and employee experience.

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February 8, 2023

Employee Experience – A View from our Alumni (Sami)

A glimpse into the employee experience as told by our alumnus.

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January 23, 2023

Cloud Services Advance Digital Transformation for Governments

Digital transformations can be challenging, while Cloud can help there are some pitfalls to avoid. Contact us for information on how you can optimize your digital transformation.

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January 19, 2023

The Biggest Problem With Remote Work

Remote work has proven that people can be productive, however certain aspects such as culture, communication, and collaboration will need attention as this article highlights.

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January 19, 2023

Business Strategy For The High Inflation Economy

Opportunities exist for businesses in times of high inflation and it’s not just about cost – pricing, products and prioritization are key.

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January 19, 2023

2022

Employee Experience – A View from an Intern (Sonika)

A glimpse into the intern experience as told by the interns themselves.

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October 25, 2022

Employee Experience – A View from an Intern (Michael)

A glimpse into the intern experience as told by the interns themselves.

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October 23, 2022

Town Endorses its First Digital Strategy

The Town of Milton has endorsed its first digital strategy. The approval, which came at the Sept. 12 town council meeting, brings residents a step closer to better access to town information and enhanced online services.

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September 13, 2022

2021

Navigating The Pitfalls Of A Multi-Year Digital Transformation

Working with Blackline as the pension plan's digital transformation advisor to the Board, the client is able to navigate common pitfalls. Our role provides a mechanism to educate and guide Board members on their role, the right questions to ask and how to interpret Management’s actions...

March 7, 2021

Council Endorses IT Collaboration Efforts

In 2019 the County and its seven member municipalities participated in an Operational Service Efficiency Review that included an exploration of common IT systems and resources between municipalities across the County...

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January 21, 2021

Review Of Economic Development

The review was not about the specific economic development campaigns that the County should conduct but more about the capacity of the department to deliver economic development...

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January 6, 2021

2020

Streamlining Regulatory Processes

As a national financial services regulator, a core service is auditing its members for compliance. Using lean practices, Blackline was able to document the as-is and to-be processes. A heavy focus of the to-be processes is modernizing them by using technology, data and analytics to reduce reliance on staff...

August 19, 2020

Information Technology Transformation

The Corporate Technology Strategic Plan outlined a new vision for Information Technology and a transformation plan that sets priorities and strategic technology initiatives for the next five years...

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May 25, 2020

Selecting Great Change Agents

Change is hard, especially in a large organization. However, some leaders do succeed often spectacularly at transforming their workplaces. What makes them able to exert this sort of influence when the vast majority can’t? ...

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April 12, 2020

Review Of Community Services

Cost effeciency review that completed a detailed analysis of 20 changes to operations that showed the potential to deliver approximately $6m in savings...

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January 20, 2020

2019

Making Time Reporting More Effecient

With all staff involved in the process, this efficiency review found opportunities to streamline the process across all departments that could save the organization an estimated 30,000 hours of staff time...

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December 17, 2019

Quantifying The Financial Benefit Of Shared Services

For smaller municipalities, scale economies are elusive. Municipalities in close proximity working together using shared services concepts offers one approach to accessing those economies.

November 20, 2019

Building A Business Case For Outsourcing

Working with a stock exchange, Blackline led a detailed analysis of their infrastructure expenses and future data centre strategy. The intent of the work was to help them assess options for their facilities and data centres. Blackline led a competitive procurement process (RFP) to compare options and develop a detailed business case. The case indicated a significant cost avoidance and reduced operating expenses...

October 2, 2019

Reviewing Operations And Community Services

Milton’s first review of services looked at community and operations. Our report analyzed 18 changes to operations that could improve service levels or reduce costs...

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August 26, 2019

Leaders Eat Last

Simon Sinek discusses the brain chemical biology of EDSO (endorphine, dopamine seratonin and oxytocin) and how it can define team culture and success...

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May 15, 2019

Building A Future-Ready Workforce

A large City has been experiencing significant growth over the past ten years. Along with the growth, certain departments also are at risk of having 30% of their workforce eligible for retirement in the coming years. This has created concern over an increase in work volume and a decline in staff, expertise and knowledge. Blackline's role was to assess the structure, work drivers and performance measures to help them create a plan to remedy the workforce issue…

April 14, 2019

2018

Creating A Service-Oriented Organization

We assessed a City’s services, identified 90 opportunities for improvement and built a business case for change. Using a design thinking approach and focusing on enhancing resident services, the City would transform the way it operates. Some example opportunities included - streamlining facility management - investing and scale communication services - implementing resourcing planning practices…

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December 17, 2018

What If…Smart City Planning Focused On Equity?

Most smart city strategies start with the technology and think of ideas to apply it, risking making social equity worse. But do these technologies have the potential to actually improve social equity? If cities started with social objectives, their strategies and outcomes might look very different...

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October 18, 2018

Remaining Relevent – Creating A Strategy That Improves Member Value

Working with an association, there was growing concern by members of value erosion. With the arrival of a new CEO, we were able to help craft a strategy that would fundamentally shift the role of the association. Focusing efforts on developing new revenue streams, exploring partnerships, leveraging data and greater engagement and understanding of its member segments...

July 10, 2018

Turbulent Times Creates The Need For A Fresh Strategy

The strategic plan of a regulator in the Canadian housing market came to an end, creating a void. We quickly pivoted our approach to focus on the immediate next 18 months to help provide stability within the organization and clear direction. During this time, we also helped to shift the focus of the new strategy to be less on "lots of projects" and more about measuring their completion, focusing on achieving key outcomes and demonstrating value...

May 19, 2018

A Digital Strategy To Help Enable Rapid Growth

The company owns and operates rental homes across North America. With an aggressive growth plan, the client needed a digital strategy to enhance the customer experience, find data-driven ways to deliver efficient property management services and establish agile internal processes to foster continuous innovation...

February 12, 2018

Older

Creating A Service-Oriented Organization

The review of all of the Town's operations identified improvements that would enhance services and reduce costs in some areas...

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November 30, 2017

What If…Blockchain Replaced Corporate Financial Systems?

Blockchain is a ledger of financial transactions. But isn't that exactly what corporate financial systems are? Blockchain seems to have the characteristics to replace these systems, and if it did, what would be the implications to the software vendors and the accountants?...

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August 15, 2017

What If…Traditional Industrial Boundaries Dissolved?

For two hundred years or so, companies have grouped themselves into industry segments. However, it seems that digitization and having technology as your core competence are allowing those businesses to enter any industry...

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February 14, 2016

Practical Activities For Change Agents

Somehow, a few isolated groups and individuals, operating with the same constraints and resources as everyone else, prevail against the odds. Yet, there are people in your company who are already doing things in a radically better way. Bringing these isolated success strategies into the mainstream can be a powerful tool to drive change…

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October 6, 2015

The Future Of Money

Mobile payments promise to increase convenience. Round the world, where traditional payment systems don't work there adoption is accelerating. What might that mean in developed economies...

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September 10, 2013

What Should Boards Be Asking About Mobile Payments?

The Board's role is to hold management to account and protect the interests of shareholders. Historically, this was substantially strategic and fiscal oversight. Today, much of the strategy and investment relates to technology that Board members often feel unqualified to question. With the emergence of mobile payments, what should Boards be asking?...

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July 12, 2013

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