Case Study

Empowering Municipal Asset Management through national collaboration with CNAM

Canadian Network of Asset Managers (CNAM)

icInfrastructure has been the Canadian Network of Asset Managers’ (CNAM) lead trainer and delivery partner since 2017. This long standing relationship has seen the development and delivery of many important resources for the municipal asset management industry in Canada and the team are very proud of these achievements.

With funding from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ (FCM) Municipal Asset Management Program (MAMP), the CNAM and icInfrastructure team made significant strides in supporting communities moving forward with asset management and infrastructure decision making. MAMP was funded by the Government of Canada.

CNAM’s AM101 Booklet - a 32-page booklet that provides municipalities with an overview of the What, Why and How of AM for their community. This was also professionally translated into French. 5,000 hard copies were printed and distributed across Canada, and digital copies that are available for free download.

Introduction to Asset Management Webinars – a series of educational webinars that targeted elected officials and municipal staff to provide then with a 1hr overview of AM. The webinars included a live Q&A with a group of municipal panelists who shared their experiences. It is exciting to see these webinars continue with a wide variety of speakers, these events are free to CNAM members and open to others for a small fee. Visit the CNAM website and sign up for the newsletter to hear about upcoming events.

In Person and Virtual AM101 Training Workshop - The AM101 Booklet was used to develop an 1-day AM Awareness course featuring the same content. This was initially delivered at a live in person experience next to conferences. We also evolved an online live delivery version and refined the experience to include more interactive exercises and discussions to improve engagement as we furthered our understanding of online adult learning. Hundreds have been engaged to date through this live training.

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Shift to Asynchronous ELearning

As icInfrastructure’s skills in adult distanced learning evolved, the AM Awareness training was moved to an elearning experience and hosted on icInfrastructure’s learning platform. Hundreds of staff and elected officials have now engaged with this program which is open to all – with discounts for CNAM members. Post FCM MAMP funding, icInfrastructure was retained by CNAM to continue the hosting and delivery of elearning courses which continue to be well received by the industry.

“I recently completed the AM101 and AM102 courses offered by CNAM, and I can fully attest that these are engaging, relevant and informative courses. The content was well-structured to provide a comprehensive and foundational understanding of asset management in manageable segments and is presented in a way that made complex concepts accessible to learners of all backgrounds and levels of experience.

The resources provided, including supplemental materials and discussion forums, enriched the overall learning experience. I highly recommend this course to anyone seeking a comprehensive and practical education that goes beyond the theoretical, providing the skills, tools and knowledge to employ asset management practices within their own organization.”

Filisha Jenkins, Manager of Asset Management,

City of Toronto, Ontario

AM Competency Framework and Workforce Planning

AM Competency Framework and Workforce Planning – recognizing the shortage of available talent and exponentially increasing demand for asset management knowledge, icInfrastructure and CNAM explored the developed of an Asset Management Competency Framework for Communities. The AMCF was developed to:

Provide alignment on the scope of AM, while highlighting the connections between the various professions that overlap with the interdisciplinary practice of AM.
Establish a shared understanding of the competencies that a community’s workforce should possess to best deliver their AM programs.
Provide communities with a foundation to identify AM capability gaps and a planning structure to address those gaps with targeted development opportunities.
Provide communities with better information to facilitate hiring qualified candidates in their organization.

You can access the AMCF for free through the CNAM website.

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"My office greatly appreciated the opportunity to represent the City of Winnipeg as a cohort community in the development of the Asset Management Competency Framework (AMCF).

I found that, through the collaborative discussions and workshops that were facilitated by the Canadian Network of Asset Managers (CNAM) the new framework captures the broad and diverse expertise shared by the participating national partners. Users of the AMCF can be confident that it will serve as a useful tool for all communities, regardless of their size or where they may be in their asset management journey."

Chris Klos, Corporate Asset Management ManageR

City of Winnipeg

Since the release of the AMCF, icInfrastructure has helped CNAM expand it into a comprehensive online resource for improving the AM capacity of public sector organizations in Canada. As part of this, we have also produced eLearning course content to compliment the document and further assist communities in their efforts to utilise the framework.

icInfrastructure was the overall Program Manager for all of CNAM’s MAMP programs, managing all deliverables, contractors and budgets on behalf of CNAM. We understand the challenges associations and government agencies face in the development and delivery of complex programs and we are well positioned to help.

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