Digital Divide

Why DND is changing

DND is the custodian of a massive real property portfolio, which includes land, buildings, and civil infrastructure. We are living in a unique time as rapidly maturing technologies offer real value to the way we manage our built assets, and these technologies are serving up unprecedented volumes of data. Along with the rest of the real property world, DND has been watching these advancements transform asset life cycle management. Innovative and digitized processes have meanwhile benefited other industries for decades. Like many organizations that experience a sea change, we have been called to action: Resolve a fundamental problem of inefficiency.

The problem with putting pencil to paper.

Ideas on paper signal a traditional design process, but the downside of paper-based workflows is that data doesn't always make it off the page. Even when architectural drawings transitioned to the screen through computer-aided design, there were missed opportunities to leverage data. This silo mentality of managing infrastructure and environment information in isolation is what has led to departmental inefficiencies and is the reason we need to move to a data-driven business model.

Like other owners of built assets, DND has relied on outdated practices where fragmented information management has translated to repetitive efforts, project information being lost at handover, and corporate systems that aren't integrated. At the root of this layered problem was a lack of trust in data.

A call to modernize.

As an agile steward of assets, DND responds to government-wide drivers while taking cues from industry and requirements from consultants. In 2016 real property management was centralized under one custodian, and the following year a new policy, Strong, Secure, Engaged, set the directive to modernize our business, with an emphasis on data management.

We have been preparing for a transition to data-driven digital workflows for years. Perhaps more than anything, the change requires a shift in how we think about data accessibility. Data should not be tethered to a single user or application or stuck in a silo that systems can't access. The true value of asset data is in its capacity to be centralized, verified, and shared.

ADM(IE) is exploring a phased transition to a hub-and-spoke management model that will enable data sharing and alignment of activities between functional and technical authorities. A data and analytics support centre will be positioned to provide governance, standards and coordinated data reporting to ensure that trusted data empowers all IE functions.

Spatial data for all.

Our early steps to improve data management trace back to the sharing of common technical standards and tools across CAD and GIS communities as a measure to streamline efforts. We later refined our focus to standardize real property spatial information according to areas of interest: buildings, site, infrastructure and land. It was through national workshops and communication across technical committees that we garnered consensus to shift toward maintaining “spatial data for all.” In the meantime, BIM was gaining momentum in industry as a game-changer for the built asset life cycle, and DND released a hybrid CAD/BIM Data Standard in 2012. All of this groundwork led to the development of a spatial data warehouse where information across the real property portfolio can be exchanged to inform various systems and processes.

The future is digital.

As many of our daily transactions have adapted to a digital landscape—from consuming news to banking—automated processes are changing how we interact with asset information. It’s because of industry advancements and the call to modernize that we’ve adopted technologies and processes such as building information modelling. BIM allows us to collaborate with key stakeholders across disciplines and maintain a “digital twin” where data can be checked and updated as changes to the physical asset happen.

We’re engaging with other departments such as Public Services and Procurement Canada to develop national data standards and share information with our broader community about embracing the digital built environment. We’re working closely with the Mapping and Charting Establishment to provide geospatial infrastructure and self-serve apps, such as a high-resolution map viewer that will change how people across the country interact with data.

We're at the brink of a new industrial revolution. The digitalization of our real property portfolio is paramount.