Deetken Insight Newsletter
Winter Edition | December 2024
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Hello Saskia,
Happy holidays to you and yours this season!
As we close out 2024, we want to take this opportunity to thank you for placing your trust in us–everyday. We feel privileged to work alongside our clients to solve some of our province’s–and our nation’s–most pressing challenges and to help improve the lives of all Canadians. It is an honour and a responsibility that we take very seriously.
2024 has been a year of new beginnings at Deetken. We launched our newly designed website, deetken.com. We introduced artificial intelligence (AI) consulting services in partnership with Cypress AI, and we announced the launch of Middle Ground, a revolutionary new AI-powered public engagement and consultation tool, in collaboration with Coast Communications and Public Affairs. Below are just some of the highlights from the past 12 months:
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Launched our newly designed website, deetken.com, with a bold new homepage, a new tagline–Strategic Insight. Sustainable Impact.--and our expanded breadth of services and industry expertise, client case studies, testimonials, and more.
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Grew our team size by 37% from 2023, adding 18 new team members with diverse backgrounds in public policy, business & financial advisory, economic modelling and analysis, healthcare analytics, project management, IT consulting, organizational health & wellness, child/youth and family systems, and business development.
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Welcomed 10 new clients in 2024 in BC, Ontario and in the federal government.
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Continued to expand our operations in Alberta and Ontario.
- Currently, we are serving 3 government clients in Alberta and 4 clients in Ontario and have dedicated team members located in Calgary, Ottawa and Toronto.
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Launched AI consulting services in partnership with Cypress AI, a Los Angeles-based pioneer in AI technologies, to provide expert guidance to organizations that are seeking to harness the power of AI to increase efficiency, innovate and grow.
- Together, Deetken and Cypress AI have developed innovative AI solutions for a number of our clients to meet their specific business needs, such as rapidly mining 1,000-page policy documents, automating health care chart reviews, contract tracing for infectious diseases, and more.
We have also achieved numerous accomplishments for our clients this year:
- Completed an operational review of a social service ministry's mental health programs, services and operations and developed strategic & tactical roadmap for improvements;
- Developed a funding framework and model to transition a mixed market of service providers to a publicly funded social service;
- Completed an evaluation of multiple ministry programs serving children and youth;
- Conducted a strategic review for a new business division of an energy company;
- Completed a comprehensive review of an employment support program for a provincial government, identifying opportunities to improve its overall effectiveness, transparency and accessibility;
- Developed a comprehensive strategy and roadmap for the deployment and use of clinical frontline communications tools and technologies for a provincial health agency;
- Completed a review of an education program for diverse learners for a BC provincial ministry;
- Prepared a research report on the current state and potential scope of economic trade integration in the Cascadia megaregion for a regional economic development agency;
- Identifying and prioritizing potential use cases for generative AI to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of business operations for a provincial health agency;
- Supporting a provincial kidney care program to address staff shortages and adopt a new model of care; and providing preliminary capital planning and mitigation strategies to expand dialysis facilities and address potential funding shortfalls;
- Developing a performance management framework to support the migration of ERP functions from current tools to cloud-based solutions for a provincial health agency;
This season, we are proud to announce we are supporting Atira Women’s Resource Society and Food Banks Canada by matching Deetken team member donations for the holidays. This is our 6th year giving to Atira, which provides housing and services to women and children affected by violence in BC.
As always, thank you for your continued support of our business.
Best wishes for a warm holiday season and fruitful new year.
Sincerely,
The Deetken Insight Team
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We’re excited to welcome two new, talented professional to our team! | |
Christina Lim (she/her) joined Deetken as a Senior Associate, specializing in healthcare analytics. She has over 17 years of managerial, statistical, clinical and operational analysis experience in the health care sector. She is trained in statistical modelling, program evaluation, indicator development, surveillance, knowledge translation and facilitation.
Most recently, Christina managed the biostatistics and analytics team at Cardiac Services BC. Prior to that, she served as the Provincial Lead of Biostatistics for the Provincial Blood Coordinating Office of the Provincial Laboratory Medicine Services in BC. She has also served as Manager of Data Analytics for the First Nations Health Authority and has held various analytics roles at Providence Health Care and BC Cancer Agency.
Christina holds a Master of Mathematics in Biostatistics from the University of Waterloo and a Bachelor of Science in Statistics and Mathematics from the University of British Columbia. She has also completed a two-year leadership training program offered by Providence Health Care.
In her spare time, Christina loves spending time with friends and family, cooking, playing board games, doing arts and crafts and solving jigsaw puzzles. She also enjoys volunteering at the Canadian Blood Services.
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Mike Koessler (he/him) joined Deetken as a Senior Consultant, based out of Sidney, BC. Mike is a senior project manager and business consultant specializing in IT and technology implementation. With over 35 years of experience, primarily in Ottawa and Victoria, Mike has worked extensively with IT professionals, including specialists and project managers.
Mike thrives in environments where he works closely with senior managers and end clients, addressing the complexities of IT infrastructure projects. His recent roles include leading the annual refresh of 10,000 workstations for the BC government. He has also managed business technology deployments for pan-Canadian projects, including payroll systems for the Canadian military across various regions, including the high Arctic and internationally.
Mike holds a bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Waterloo. He is a Certified Management Consultant (since 2010) and a Certified ScrumMaster (since 2020). He has additional certifications in negotiation and dispute resolution, Six Sigma Total Quality, proposal writing, and ITIL Foundations.
Beyond his professional work, Mike has been an active Rotarian since 2000 and is involved in various community activities through his church in Sidney, BC. Since 2012, he has participated in the 200km Tour de Cure bike ride, raising over $35,000 for cancer research.
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Congratulations to Marnie Seelen (she/her), Matty Singh (he/him) and Jim Knight (he/him) on their recent promotions! Marnie was promoted to Principal from Senior Associate, Matty Singh was promoted to Senior Associate from Associate and Jim Knight was promoted to Consulting Specialist from Senior Consultant.
Deetken Associate Partner Robin Shaban (they/them) has been elected to the 2024/25 Board of Directors of the Toronto Association for Business and Economics, the Toronto chapter of the Canadian Association for Business Economics (CABE). For more about TABE including a list of upcoming chapter events, visit https://cabe.ca/chapters/tabe/#overview.
Additionally, Robin was named a Fellow at Social Capital Partners, a Toronto, ON-based non-profit organization that supports transformative public policy ideas that reduce unsustainable wealth concentration and creates pathways for working people to build economic security.
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Client Success Stories: Case Study | |
Healthcare Labour Productivity Analysis & Options Development for Provincial Health Services Organization
Globally, many countries, including Canada, are experiencing a critical shortage of health professionals driven by an aging population and increased demand for health care services, among other factors. This shortage disproportionately impacts rural areas, which have difficulty recruiting and retaining new physicians and clinicians.
Our client, a health services organization serving rural and remote communities in a Canadian province, was experiencing similar challenges and engaged Deetken Insight to forecast the demand for health care professionals and evaluate options for improving health care labour productivity in the long-term.
Read the full case study on our website here.
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Upcoming Events: Join Us Here | |
Check out the events we've attended and will attend.
2024
- Sept. 16-18 - Safety of Our Cities Conference, Mississauga, ON
- Oct. 24 - Peel Regional Workplace Respect Symposium, Mississauga, ON
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Oct. 26-28 - 24th Annual Healthcare Summit, Vancouver, BC
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Nov. 7 - GVBOT's State of the Port: Enabling Canada's Trade - the Path Forward for Canada's Largest Port, Vancouver, BC
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Nov. 22 - GVBOT's TransLink’s Annual Address: Investing in Transit To Drive Our Economy, Vancouver, BC
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Dec. 4 - Connections & Conversations: CGLCC Matchmaking Evening, Toronto, ON
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Dec. 5 - GVBOT’s Charting the Course: A Resilient and Sustainable Ferry System for the Future, Vancouver, BC
2025
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