The Clerk of the Privy Council creates the Canadian Centre for Management Development bringing together 35 senior services champions from all three levels of government in Canada. Their objectives include:
Dr. Ralph Heintzman founds the Citizen-Centred Service Delivery Network which expanded to over 200 service delivery champions. Their ongoing work include creating the Common Measurements Tool and Citizens First study.
Representatives from each province and the Yukon and members of the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat form a group called Senior Service Delivery Officials.
Flashback to 1976 - the Association of Canadian Informatics in Government is created in recognition of the benefits of cross-jurisdictional cooperation. It was deemed especially important in the deployment of information and communications technologies to support operation and program delivery functions of governments.
Fast forward to 1998, the group evolves into the Public Sector Chief Information Officer Council. Their collaboration remains an important forum for collective work, information sharing and learning.
Over 220 senior service delivery officials from the three orders of government in Canada produced the Citizens First report in order to establish which documented Canadians' expectations, satisfaction and priorities for service improvement.
Through Citizens First, Canadians across the country provide their thoughts about the delivery of public services, their expectations, and what they saw as the priorities for improvement. It provides the baseline against which progress can be measured.
The Common Measurements Tool provides a consistent approach which could be used by organizations at all levels of government for collecting citizen-satisfaction information no matter what the delivery channel.
To ensure that all aspects of client service are considered, the tool is conceived around five key elements: client expectations, perceptions of the service experience, satisfaction levels, levels of importance, and priorities for service improvements.
Citizens First receives national and international recognition.
The Institute of Public Administration of Canada recognizes Citizens First who wins the Gold Award for Innovative Management.
Citizens First 2000 is built on the first edition of the research, reaching more Canadians and providing invaluable insights to improve government services.
The Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management awards Citizens First 2000 with a silver medal.
The Public Sector Service Delivery Council creates the Institute for Citizen-Centred Service Secretariat. Having a strong administrative base, the Institute begins to officially deliver products and services to promote excellence in the public service delivery experience.
Initial support to the ICCS, the Public Sector Chief Information Officer Council co-funds and co-manages this common platform for research, best practices and benchmarking. The Institute of Public Administration of Canada serves as the incubator for ICCS providing the legal framework and administrative services.
Now leading the way, ICCS is now responsible for managing major inter-governmental research projects, housing the Common Measurements Tool and creates a best practices website as well as learning events.
ICCS becomes a centre of excellence for knowledge, collaboration and innovation in public sector service delivery.
The CMT Benchmarking Service is designed to provide CMT users with the ability to compare their results to those of peer organizations and, by doing so, to facilitate an additional layer of insight into their performance.
Each CMT user has the option to submit their survey data to the ICCS and obtain a customized CMT Benchmarking Report containing a question-by-question analysis that looks at their results through a range of lenses based on the profile of the organization (e.g., by level of government, service area, client type). The reports can be used to identify service gaps and best practices.
The Heintzman Leadership Award is named after Dr. Ralph Heintzman who founded the Citizen Centred Service Network. This prestigious award recognizes public servants within Canadian jurisdictions who demonstrate outstanding leadership in promoting citizen-centred service for Canadians.
Dr. Heintzman was also one of the chief architects behind the design, funding and creation, of the Institute for Citizen Centred Service. It was therefore, most appropriate that ICCS name its annual Leadership Award in honour of the person who provided the leadership to bring ICCS to life.
In collaboration with the Institute of Public Administration of Canada, ICCS replicates the study of Citizens First to provide Canadian governments with the knowledge and insights into the needs and experiences of the business community.
Public sector organizations receive the first analysis of drivers of satisfaction for business clients receiving government services. It also presents important initial findings and service quality benchmarks.
ICCS legally incorporates as a not-for-profit corporation creating its own board of directors with representatives from Public Sector Service Delivery Council and Public Sector Chief Information Officer Council. The first meeting of the Board of Directors and AGM is held.
Treasury Board of Canada presents to representatives across the world at the 2007 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development meeting in Madrid, Spain. Brian Marson shares how the Government of Canada is embarking on improving citizen satisfaction through a focus on measurable results.
All Canadian government departments and agencies directly serving citizens will use the findings of Citizens First and Taking Care of Business to adopt a systematic approach to service improvement. Such improvements will be gained by using the metrics of the Common Measurements tool metrics and Benchmarking Services.
Canadians love the telephone. Even in today's multi-channel world the telephone is one of the most frequently used service delivery methods - so much so that is often referred to as 'the people's channel'.
Expressed lightly, you could say that the primary goal of this Answering the Call project is to provide public sector service managers with insights that could change the telephone from a channel with ‘hang-ups’ into one that is a ‘ringing success’.
ICCS is commissioned to conduct research and publish a report called Answering the Call. This report provides a set of recommendations to significantly improve public sector telephone service delivery in Canada.
ICCS is commissioned to conduct research and publish a report called Clicks, Calls and Counters: Innovations in Municipal Service Delivery.
The purpose of the study is to document service innovations in order to encourage municipalities to adopt or adapt innovations and take innovative initiatives of their own.
Municipalities now have a toolkit to enable service delivery improvement, how to plan, design, operate, and measure the service delivery regime, and how to overcome barriers to service innovation.
10 years since its creation, ICCS is proud for the ongoing collaboration with all levels of government in the pursuit of excellence and innovation in public sector service delivery.
At the Ottawa meeting of the Public Sector Chief Information Officer and the Public Sector Service Delivery Council celebrate the 10th anniversary of ICCS since the conception.
Following a feasibility study, ICCS develops and officially launches the Certified Service Manager program. Designed by senior leaders from the Canadian service delivery community to help you gain trust from the citizens you serve.
This program offers a high-quality professional education opportunities to public sector service delivery employees of all levels of government.
The Enhanced CMT is designed to serve as a highly customizable and cost-effective survey solution that can be used to build completely new surveys or be integrated with pre-existing ones. Its users benefit from the ability to track their organizations’ performance, identify service gaps, and set targets by gauging client expectations.
It now contains significant improvements over the previous versions of the instrument:
The Municipal CMT is a survey design instrument that aims to equip municipal service managers with a state-of-the-art, accessible, and highly effective tool for measuring client satisfaction with local government services. It can be applied in surveys across a broad range of service areas, service channels and client types.
This new version provides a uniquely client-centred perspective on how municipalities meet the needs and expectations of their clients. The tool is designed to assist with the implementation of client satisfaction as a performance measure by collecting quantitative data that can be used to conduct statistical analysis, set goals, track progress over time and benchmark the results.
Following the success of the Certified Service Manager program, ICCS develops and officially launches the Certified Service Professional program. Designed by senior leaders from the Canadian service delivery community to help you gain trust from the citizens you serve.
Together, these programs offer high-quality professional education opportunities to public sector service delivery employees of all levels of government.
ICCS celebrates 10 years of operating as a not-for-profit organization in Canada. Over this decade, ICCS is pleased with being recognized nationally and internationally. Through successful collaborations poising ICCS as the centre of excellence for knowledge, collaboration and innovation in public sector service delivery.
Thanks to the visionaries of the past and present who helped create and continue to support ICCS as it continues to grow its mission to champion public sector service excellence by promoting and facilitating interjurisdictional collaboration.
ICCS launches a new edition of its tool, the foundational body of knowledge which is used in its certification programs, Certified Service Manager and Certified Service Professional.
Continuous improvement to this significant learning tool is critical to ensure that content remains as relevant as possible to the learner.
In this playbook, the focus is on how to leverage behavioural insights in order to shift citizens to online channels. Walk through a six step process to help you look at how you can apply insights about human behaviour to help shift citizens online. This approach focuses on designing solutions with the client in mind, first and foremost. This approach helps you to truly understand your client in order to help them make the choices that are in their best interest.
In excess of 500 candidates have successfully achieved Certified Service Professional and Certified Service Manager.
This is clearly a testament to public sector organizations across Canada who are committed to investing in their people. We will continue to make our training programs more accessible and better suited to meet the needs of clients.
ICCS celebrates 20 years of its flagship study, Citizens First. Over two decades, Canadians have been asked what they think about the delivery of public services, what are their expectations, and what they see as the priorities for improvement.
Use the research findings to gain a deeper understanding of how citizens experience government services. This knowledge enables you, as a service provider, to improve service based on a citizen perspective and empirical evidence.
Business First (previously Taking Care of Business) is a landmark study that explores Government-to-Business service delivery from the perspective of the business community.
As a public-sector service manager, you need an actionable roadmap to service improvement initiatives. By using Business First studies you will hear directly from businesses about their experiences, expectations, and priorities for service improvement.
Citizen First becomes the next generation of excellent public service delivery experience powered by the Institute for Citizen-Centred Service. The transition exemplifies a renewal of ICCS’ commitment and dedication to improving the public sector service delivery experience.
The new brand intends on placing the citizen’s public service experience first by empowering organizations to transform public sector service for today and the next generation.
Now available, a digital and modernized online service, Citizen First Analytics, leveraging the “Common measurements tool”. It’s an easy-to-use client satisfaction survey instrument that facilitates benchmarking across jurisdictions. As public-sector managers, you are quickly able to understand client expectations, assess levels of satisfaction, and identify priorities for improvement.
ICCS now provides online training that supports a citizen-centred approach to service delivery that meets the learning needs of today’s public servant.
It has also enabled the ICCS to expand its services to creating customized learning materials for government organizations in Canada.
Business First 2022 is the latest research study dedicated to examining how businesses across Canada view and experience government services. The resulting report tracks performance on key metrics, including recent service experience, and identifies existing service gaps, key drivers of satisfaction, and top priorities for service improvement.
The special focus of Business First 2022 is on examining how the business community perceives governments’ response to the COVID-19 situation. The insights contained in the report are intended to assist public sector organizations in introducing real and lasting improvements to their services in the context of the challenges resulting from the pandemic.
Citizens First 2023 marks the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Citizens First research series and, similar to the previous iterations, offers a comprehensive analysis of how government services are perceived by those using them and what the expectations are regarding the present and the future of public sector service provision.
The study looks in depth at recent service experience as well as overall service reputation, and examines specific aspects of service delivery. The special topics explored in the study focus on digital channels but also offer a closer look at other relevant and timely issues, such as governments’ performance vis-à-vis COVID-19. Particular emphasis has been placed on providing actionable insights and recommendations, with a view to enabling service executives and managers across all levels of government to introduce real and lasting improvements to the quality of services they provide.