White Papers and Case Studies

In late 2022/ early 2023, The City of Kelowna engaged Vivacity Technologies to engage in a feasibility study to evaluate ways to help transform the City into an intelligent city. From that feasibility study, the Vivacity team started developing VivaCitadel, our flagship data and records management software platform for municipalities.

Fast forward to December of 2024, the City of Kelowna went live with the First use case of VivaCitadel, the Property Information Request. At the time of publishing, VivaCitadel has been live in the City of Kelowna for over 6 months, with almost 1,000 Property Information Requests being processed through the platform.

The following case study walks readers through the problem we set out to solve, how we transformed the Property Information Request at the City of Kelowna, and the impacts VivaCitadel has had on the process.

Simpcw Resources Group (SRG) is the economic development arm of Simpcw First Nation. SRG is a diversified construction resources company, integrating various professional operational services while upholding the Simpcw culture with respect to the environment. With a team of approximately 140 staff, which includes financial administrators, managers, professionals, and technical staff, SRG oversees active and ongoing projects, explores the various business development opportunities, and manages sub-contractors. SRGs primary goal includes creating and fostering economic growth from the commercial development of natural resources within the Simpcw Territory, by competing work in the public and private sectors. Core services include Forestry, Aggregates, Pipeline & Civil Works, Construction, Environmental, Security, and Archaeological.

In March of 2023, the District of Logan Lake contracted Vivacity to help develop a Request For Proposal (RFP) to find a new Managed IT Service Provider. In order to develop an RFP that reflected the current needs and addressed the major pain points and requirements of the District, Vivacity conducted a partial IT Assessment. The purpose of the IT Assessment was to determine what those needs and requirements were, and what areas the District of Logan Lake needed the most support in. To get a proper view of the current state of Logan Lake’s IT environment, Vivacity conducted interviews with 6 internal stakeholders and identified the major IT challenges and gaps within the environment.

In our work with First Nations communities and organizations, we often undertake projects related to document management systems. While doing this work, we stumbled upon the concept of OCAP® (Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession) which is a guideline around data governance for First Nations in Canada developed by the First Nations Information Governance Centre (FNIGC).

Through the work we have done with our First Nations clients, we have come to realize that OCAP® is underrecognized, and many communities in BC either haven’t heard of it, or haven’t been able to implement it due to a variety of capacity, legal, bureaucratic, and financial barriers. Going through the process of looking into OCAP® for our clients, we’ve also come to understand just how much data on First Nations across the country is owned and used by people other than those Nations, in ways that are most often not to the benefit of the Nation.

We recognize that many nations across the province and across the country haven't had the opportunity or time to conduct research into data governance, although they recognize the importance it plays in their communities. We thought we would do that research ourselves and help make OCAP®, it's principles and solutions, and the steps nations can take to implement it more accessible. You can read about out findings in our new white paper: 6 ways to implement  OCAP® from an IT perspective: The need for Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession for First Nations data sovereignty.