The technology strategy adopted by SNB has allowed them to retain a focus on their core business; creating public value through effective service programs. SNB cultivates internal expertise in the areas of gathering and analyzing service needs, developing service programs, and the maintenance of those programs over time. The success of their technology strategy rests primarily on two principles; buy, don’t build, system development expertise and leverage existing investments, in this case, investments in applications, hardware, software, and skills. Essentially, SNB invests in the resources (hardware, software, skills) necessary to maintain its service programs over time and buys the skills necessary to develop new services each of which are developed by leveraging the infrastructure resources already available. Developing specific new applications to support a new service offering, for example, is generally contracted out to appropriate experts. Using existing components and core capabilities, such as servers and authentication systems, to deliver new services, keeps the cost of new projects down, allowing SNB to think differently, when necessary, about a project of high public value and limited or even no financial return. Through this strategy, SNB is free to focus its expertise in refining their particular brand of market research, product development, product delivery, and quality control and to take some “risks” where others might not be able to.

A key partnership for SNB, in terms of its technology strategy, is the one they formed with CGI Information Systems and Management Consultants Inc. in the late 1990’s. CGI and SNB came together to develop applications according to the “spin the terminal” philosophy. This philosophy requires all new development to be conducted with the citizen user in mind, enabling the application at some point to be ‘spun’ to provide direct web access for the citizen. gBiz was developed through this process and has become the core element of the SNB technology infrastructure and a key factor in the flexibility and affordability of its business model.