This research examines nine ICT-intensive and innovative projects involving both public and private sectors in the delivery of public services and attempts to identify their main critical success factors (CSFs). Several respondents from both sectors were interviewed. Results show that political leadership, thorough planning and communication stand out as the first necessary conditions to the success of ICT-intensive public and private collaboration projects, assuring projects the legitimacy, the direction and the implication most needed to attain success. When reflecting on some of the major issues confronting ICT-intensive projects, research results point to political, operational and technological issues such as lack of regulatory framework, deficit of technological expertise in public organizations or problems of integration of numerous governmental information systems. Canada's overall experience with ICT-intensive public and private collaboration projects is still at the experimentation stage. 419 Governments all over the world are increasingly turning to the private sector to gain access to human or financial resources not readily available, for the delivery of public goods or services to citizens and enterprises [St00]. Collaboration between the two sectors often takes the form of contracting agreements, of outsourcing or of public and private partnerships (PPPs). These projects can be classified into two main categories: infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, buildings, water and waste management, for one; and delivery of public services including portals, one-stop shops, networks and large databases, mostly information and communication technology (ICT) projects, for the other. This research project aimed at uncovering the critical success factors specific to ICT-intensive public and private collaboration projects in the service delivery category and at reflecting on the Canadian experience with these projects. 2. Specific Environment of ICT-Intensive Public and Private Collaboration Projects A public and private collaboration project is defined as “A reciprocal and voluntary agreement between two or more public and private or non-profit entities, to deliver government services.” [DP03:41]. These collaboration projects involve a formal agreement about roles and responsibilities. The participating organizations share a common objective, tangible and intangible risks, benefits, and resources. Moreover, if the goods are public, funds are usually private or, at least, shared by both partners. These projects include public and private partnerships but also public-public collaboration, whether horizontal (same level of government) or vertical (local, provinces and/or state levels). In many ways, they are like alliances or joint ventures with the difference that they always include at least one public partner. Figure 1 depicts the space of publicpublic and public-private collaboration in the large sphere of interorganizational collaboration. ICT-intensive public and private collaboration projects for the delivery of public services usually involve partners from two very different sectors, the public and private sectors. These projects aim at the delivery of public services to citizens themselves or to corporate citizens or enterprises. The universal character of most services confer to these projects a social capital and economic importance : electronic points of service for entrepreneurs, transactional internet websites for taxes, electronic toll motorways, computerized medical files, automobile insurance management and others. In brief, these projects are very complex, their scope is wide, the use of ICT is most intensive and the identification of critical success factors can only facilitate and improve their management. 420 Projects Factors issued from the literature review and affecting the performance of these collaborative projects were gathered into five main clusters (see figure 2): i) socioeconomic, political and cultural factors; ii) technological and sectorial factors; iii) partners objectives and characteristics; iv) project management factors; v) and collaboration and governance factors. The sixth dimension, performance includes project, relationship and service success or performance. PUBLI PU C- BLI PRIV PR ATE IV Publ Pu ic Priv Pr at iv e blic at Sect Se or Sect Se or ctor ct PUBLI PU C- BLI PRIV PR AT IV E- AT PUBLI PU C BLI PRI P VA RI TE VA Figure 1: Space for public-public and public-private collaboration The political, socio-economic and cultural dimension refers to government's politics and institutions that encourage or hinder certain initiatives [Ma96]. Hofstede and al. [HBS90] have acknowledged the importance of culture, values, rites and norms, security or authority known to influence citizens' expectations. The economy of the region and of the country also has a direct impact on the capacity of the state to lead such projects [Po90]. The most immediate environment includes the regulatory framework in use that dictates laws and regulations on commerce, propriety rights, citizens rights and acquisition processes on public markets [WB89]. Technology in this particular study is most important since information and communication technologies act as catalysts of economic development [Di98] and change agents [HD99]. Project environment refers to the industry into which projects unfolds. The third cluster gathers factors ensuing from the characteristics which model participation and expectations of each partner [CL88]. Collaboration is generally motivated by the need for control and access to resources [Wil92] but opportunism and asymmetries in information will render collaboration most difficult [MFH95]. Differences between the public and the private sectors have been identified as fundamental and will therefore amplify the difficulties in collaborating [\LN 99]; [DDK04]. Project management factors define the fourth dimension of the framework. These include trust [He01], early encounters and successes [LF99], strong leadership [SB94], presence of a champion and organizational support [VP95]. At each stage of the project, collaboration evolves and so does the relationship between partners [RV94] and success factors [PS88]. 421 socia econo ec mi ono c mi and a cultur cul al tur enviro env nment 2. Instituti tu onal on , tech te nolo ch gical and proje ro c je t environ e me nviron nt me 3. Characterist ri ic st s ic and obje ob ct je iv ct es iv 3. Char Ch ac ar te ac ri te sti ri cs sti and obje ob cti je ve cti s ve of privat iv e at partners er of public part pa ne rt rs ne 4. Coll Co abora abo tion ra process Project Sear Se ch ar Partnershi rs p hi Partnership for fo init in ia it tio ia n tio partners ne develo ve pm lo ent implementation Negotiat got io iat n io Commitm Commi en tm t Evalua alu tion Executio ut n 5. Colla Co bo lla ra bo ti ra on mode mo ls de 6. PROJECT, CT COLLAB LL ORAT OR ION AND SERVICE PERFORMA R NCE Figure 2: Clusters of factors affecting the success of collaboration projects The next cluster, collaboration models, identifies the structural and governance differences between partnerships [HH94]. For instance, a too wide decision process reduces efficiency while increasing coordination costs and complexity of deliberations [Pf95]. There exists a wide range of collaboration projects with different degrees of delegation: at one hand, outsourcing where government keeps a major control on activities and at the other hand, concessions where the private sector acts almost freely, in the framework of regulations or laws [BFM05]. Performance or success is a multidimensional concept and is particularly difficult to assess [BC99]. Looking at performance of collaboration projects, one must first include performance of collaboration between partners that leads to their satisfaction. The project itself must be evaluated using the Project Management Institute success triangle of costs, time and quality [PMI04] to which have been added three other factors, attaining the pursued goals, meeting specifications and expectancies. A final aspect, performance of the service which translates into customer satisfaction [BPZ94] is also of the utmost importance. Using these six clusters and their related factors, answers to the research question {\tt<\hskip-.5e<}what are the critical success factors of ICT-intensive public and private collaboration projects for the delivery of public services? {\tt>\hskip-.5e>}, were sought. At the same time, public and private managers were asked to reflect on the issues facing these projects. 422 A comparative analysis of nine case studies covering most of the Canadian territory was conducted. Yin (1994) suggests this research strategy in order to capture the structural, organizational and political complexities of a phenomenon. Cases were selected for their coverage of the Canadian scene, for their representation of different sectors of activities and for the variability of the types of partnerships. In addition, they all make a large use of ICT. A most interesting aspect of this research is the fact that most public and private partners as well as a few citizens to whom the services were rendered, were interviewed. In all, 112 interviews were conducted with a pre-tested interview guide; these included project managers, human resources technology and finance managers and representative of citizens, when available. Transcripts were coded separately by two researchers using the six clusters and related factors with a 85\% degree of concordance. Divergences were discussed and consensus attained. Content analysis was performed using Atlas TI, a qualitative analysis software. 5. Description of the Nine Case Studies The nine case studies vary at the project, partners and partnership, technology, activity sector and nature of service levels. Follows a brief description of each project: 1. {\tt<\hskip-.5e<}Partners in Change{\tt>\hskip-.5e>}, a performance based project conducted by the Ministry of Human Resources of New Brunswick with Accenture as private partner to reorganize the delivery of security of revenue services (information, counselling, education, financial support). The development and implementation of a case management information system is central to the organizational changes being