Unanticipated significant IT issues bedeviled the SAAQ
The Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) recently launched a new transactional platform called SAAQclic in winter 2023. However, the launch was met with a mass of helpless clients rushing to it due to a three-week closure of branches.
According to reports, the decision was taken in December 2022 to postpone the launch of SAAQclic from January to February 2023, a period when the counters of the Crown corporation were more crowded. Despite the anticipation of increased foot traffic, the SAAQ did not anticipate major disruptions with the launch of SAAQclic.
Nadia Fournier, the director of government relations at the SAAQ, admitted that the project to digitize the SAAQ was "like Chinese" to her when she arrived in 2019. Despite this, she was responsible for coordinating the cooperation between the SAAQ and the consortium SAP and LGS, known as the "Alliance," before the deployment of SAAQclic in winter 2023. However, no specific individual responsible for this coordination is explicitly named in the available sources.
Jean-Philippe McKenzie, vice-president of secure access to the road network at the SAAQ, admitted that they saw major challenges in terms of digital services. He gave the example of a financial institution that would not update its application due to the risk of 50% of users returning to the branch.
In the lead-up to the launch, McKenzie realised on the Sunday before the launch that the operation would not go as planned due to authentication issues with the Government Authentication Service (SAG). At least five people from McKenzie's immediate entourage could not connect to SAAQclic due to SAG authentication issues.
Nadia Fournier acknowledged that it was not normal not to be "in the loop" of communications regarding the project, and ideally, she should have been informed. She also admitted that she did not verify the documents she received regarding the digital transformation project, including the briefs intended for ministers. These were prepared by the team of the Vice-President of Information Technologies, Karl Malenfant.
The only plan established by the SAAQ in case of a problem was to "switch to manual mode," that is, to act as if the branches were still closed. A SAAQ manager in charge of liaising with the ministers' cabinets testified that he was kept in the dark about the project files.
Nadia Fournier assumed that the senior management of the SAAQ had informed the office of Minister of Transport Génieve Guilbault when a first amendment of 45 million was approved for the "Alliance" contract, but she did not receive such a request.
Despite the challenges faced during the launch, the SAAQ is committed to improving its digital services and addressing the issues that arose during the rollout of SAAQclic. Further investigations are ongoing to identify the root causes of the problems and to ensure that similar issues do not occur in the future.
