David Booth, former CIO for the City of Edmonton (Alberta’s second-largest city, Canada’s fifth-largest) describes how Edmonton has reinvented itself with forward-thinking policies and technologies that support seamless collaboration.
David led the team through many changes over the last few years including a vision that articulates how voice, video, and data come together encouraging collaboration like never before and completely independent of location. This means people with access to an Internet connection can have video chats, work simultaneously on documents and presentations, and have “face-to-face” meetings.
Of course, it is more than that too. It is a move to a paperless environment, but when printing is a must, it includes printing from any printer anywhere — safely and securely. It is about having a single number where you can be reached for all devices: PC, tablet, smartphone, desk phone (if you still have one) and a single voicemail that can be read or listened to from your email, which you can also access from any smart device.
In this interview, David shares some thoughts on what innovation means today. He talks about sustainable innovation and the need for IT to adopt a new paradigm wherein they are not trying to control and deliver everything, but are creating platforms through which others who know the organization can continuously deliver innovative solutions.