Background
The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority (VFPA) is responsible for the stewardship of federal port lands in and around Vancouver, British Columbia.
The Port Authority manages over 16,000 hectares of water, more than 1000 hectares of land and approximately 350 kilometres of shoreline, bordering 16 municipalities and intersecting the asserted and established traditional territories and treaty lands of several Coast Salish First Nations. The Port is home to 27 major marine terminals, three Class 1 railroads, and a full range of facilities and services for the international and domestic shipping community.
Pursuant to the Canada Marine and the Impact Assessment Acts the Port Authority is responsible for the authorization and oversight of any proposed work or activity within its jurisdiction. They are accountable for permitting and regulatory compliance and to ensure the resulting development meets their land use guidelines. To do this, the Port Authority has developed the Project and Environmental Review – ePER, a review and approval process of which a key component on major projects is the Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Program (CME). VFPA required digital platform for collaboration with external parties and automation of long-running CME business workflows.
Project Goal
The major project goals were to:
- Streamline monitoring of compliance with permit conditions
- Formalize permit compliance expectations
- Develop tools to facilitate communications between the Port Authority and applicants and permit holders
- Provide an avenue for fair and consistent responses to permit non-compliance
Alianz Role
Alianz was selected as a sole supplier of ePER – a formal electronic permit application, risk and compliance monitoring system built on Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Portal technologies.
Challenges
We faced the following major challenges:
- Gaining executive support for organizational change
- Working with multiple departments reconciling priorities and principle business requirements for digital platform
- Defining and implementing security control procedure for digital platform
- Improving project management procedures and collaboration between business and IT departments
- Ensuring solution’s compatibility for cloud deployment while working with on-prem versions of Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Web Portrals
Major outcomes
VFPA has digital platform for regulatory and supervisory business framework. Platform allows VFPA to identify compliance risks and develop mitigation plans through the collaborative working environment, gain insight into compliance policies, regulations, and obligations in a centralized working hub.
Platform includes a secure Dynamics 365 web portal for lifecycles of permits, submissions of compliance reports and collaboration with external parties for risk monitoring and management.
Timelines and Methodology
Alianz delivered all phases of the project leveraging proven hybrid software implementation methodology, with development of specifications, coding, and testing done in 2-week long iteration sprints while all documented deliverables and solution feature sets have been provided to client as milestone deliverables on a monthly basis for formal acceptance.
At all phases of the project, Alianz was in close contact with business stakeholders and presented weekly demonstrations of solution functionality to refine platform functionalities. All documented deliverables and solution feature sign-off and training was provided for each milestone prior to formal acceptance and payment.
Project started in Q2 2015 . It has been delivered in several phases. Each phase had statement of work with specific scope, timelines, and budget.
Training
Alianz has trained system administrators as well as end-users over the course of the project lifecycle.
Support Contract
On going
Environment and Technology
Dynamics 365 CRM
Dynamics 365 Portals
Alianz
