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Why change the way we do eBusiness?

Director Military Family Services (DMFS) began the process of updating the eBusiness Centre with a simple, if ambitious, vision in mind: make the funding system work, and make it useful.

To achieve this goal, DMFS has refined the questions we ask Canadian/Military Family Resource Centres (C/MFRCs). We weeded out the questions that duplicate information we already know, and replaced them with questions that ask for the information that DMFS, C/MFRCs and the Chain of Command really need. We focused on addressing governance issues, improving financial management and performance accountability.

From this process, DMFS has developed a funding system designed to produce consistent, consolidated and complete reports to help manage the financial and performance aspects of the Military Family Services Program (MFSP). With those three C’s in mind, here’s a snapshot of the reasons behind the changes to come:

Consistent
The current eBusiness Centre reports do not use standard language to describe the activities and services which C/MFRCs deliver under the mandated components of the MFSP. This inconsistency makes it difficult for DMFS to compare activities, services and their related costs across the program. The updated funding system will categorize this information so that DMFS can accurately compare data program-wide, and each C/MFRC can keep track of how the centre changes over time.

Consolidated
Currently, the eBusiness Centre gives DMFS a snapshot of how C/MFRCs are using their annual funding from DMFS. In the future, we envision that it will also capture information on both annual funding and in-year funding adjustments such as professional development, project, and contingency funding. It is also our intention to capture revenue and expense information related to all mandated services, above and beyond what DMFS funds, to reveal the total cost of the MFSP.

Complete
By taking a big-picture view of managing the MFSP, the updated eBusiness Centre will produce more complete, useful reports for all stakeholders involved in the program: C/MFRCs, DMFS and local Commanders.

• C/MFRCs will have their complete program data stored in one place, so that whenever they need to present information to their colleagues, their local Commander, or DMFS, the data will be at their fingertips.
• DMFS will be able to accurately represent the true cost of running the program to all interested parties, from the Chain of Command to the general public. A more complete reporting structure will also allow us to present the MFSP’s case to our funders – the Canadian Forces and the federal government – so that we can make credible, statistics-backed requests for the funding required to provide high-quality services that meet the evolving needs of military families.
• Local commanders will be more informed about how the MFSP is delivered in their community. They will have access to reports that demonstrate financial accountability and performance management on the part of their local C/MFRC and DMFS.

The updates to the funding system have now begun, and will continue to be phased in throughout 2011/2012. We look forward to working with C/MFRCs throughout the launch of the new eBusiness Centre.