Industry Innovation – Tech Stories & Articles

The Internet celebrated a 50th anniversary in 2019. Designed and built for long distance communication, who would have thought it would be such a marvel for physical distancing, to fight a 2020 pandemic? Each reader, during these unusual times, will have used the Internet in different ways, for services they now depend on. It could […]

Today’s story began as I watched Caroline Somers teach “Product Management” at the Entrepreneur’s Edge program of OCRI, a week of intensive half day sessions on how to manage a new company, or a new product line. As an industry veteran at Cassidy Bay Group, she outlined the challenges of clarifying market needs, and defining […]

‘Back in 1992, we saw great potential on the Internet – but we asked ourselves “Can we turn it into a business network?”’ recalled Tony Rosati, VP Marketing and Business Development at TimeStep, one of our local Newbridge Networks affiliates. This question lead to a new business direction for the young company founded by Rosati […]

Is your company seeking partners to integrate your products into theirs? Or do you want to build in specialized software products from other companies? Consider partnership marketing. To get readers some lessons in partnership strategies for market development we talked recently with Glenn Sparkes, Canadian Area Manager of SunSoft, the software division of Sun Microsystems. […]

Is your company connecting all available market information with revenue projections? The CEO, investors, and employees of a high-tech firm have a vital interest in this question. To get a venture capital perspective we talked with Rick Charlebois, President of Capital Alliance Ventures Inc. In his view, there are typical strategic concerns: ‘For an emerging […]

Just another road trip? NOT! In June 1994 Simware Director of Marketing Barry Gander gave Tim Mills of Capital Research a go-ahead to visit 12-15 ‘typical’ clients. A few questions were used to start an in-depth dialogue – What are your perceptions about Simware? Our communications? Getting information about new software products? Key discoveries The […]

Web-watchers talk about selling software on-line, often opening with the comment “Security is a big problem with doing business on the Web, because clients are not comfortable with sending a payment on-line.” For software marketers, the biggest problems are the human persuasion problems – the seller needs a chance to interact with the buyer. In […]

Client service can make you grow rapidly. Here is an example of how client service and good customer relationships can be woven into an effective Marketing plan. A Real Situation At Chipworks, president Terry Ludlow reports that his team has achieved rapid growth since founding the company three years ago. They provide technical analysis of […]

Successful partnership can make you a market leader. Every challenge is unique, but there is a pattern to finding good partners. A Real Situation Simware Marketing Vice President Chris Fedorko already knew his target market well, but wanted to get leverage through partners. Even though Simware has an established direct sales team, his new product, […]

Great new products often grow from a solution looking for a problem. Match your strengths to the problems you find to create winning opportunities. Try the SWOT method. Here’s an example: At Microstar Software, Peter Jordan and Shaun McEwan (now CEO and COO, respectively) were on a venture capital tour several years ago. Their new […]

It was a bright sunny morning several years ago, when Cognos marketing managers Robin McNeill and Rob Rose were on wing to Boston to demonstrate their latest versions of “Business Intelligence” desktop tools. Their audience would be several top opinion leaders. Know Your Clients – Know your Technology: Mix & Match for Fun and Profit […]

Marketing can and must be done at world class levels for the Ottawa valley technology community to thrive. Good marketing is not hocus-pocus or magic. A structured planning process works, just as it does in hardware engineering or software design.   The Marketing Column This column will build marketing process awareness to help readers run […]

“Is there any way to deal with the complaint that there is insufficient marketing expertise in Ottawa to build world-class companies?” said the SCAN editor’s email, which landed very late one evening, but compelled me to answer. In a nutshell, my view is that Ottawa companies have access to all the marketing talent needed – […]

At Digital MediaWorks (DMW), founders and co-CEOs Roman Mitura and Dean Klimchuk told me the story of landing their first big order. The company designs Virtual Reality software, with products aimed at special applications – e.g. assessment of ADHD (Attention Deficit & Hyperactivity Disorder) in children with a DMW product called “VR Classroom” that simulates […]

When does a young company consider a name change? Why? When referred to FirstHand Technologies, I learned that a name change had been made recently (“formerly SIPquest”) and felt there may be a story about Positioning strategies, and how they change with market evolution. FirstHand takes VoIP mobile via OEM channels Product Line – I […]

Just four years ago, Lumenera was founded with no VC investment. It has since grown to about 65 people, and continues to be self-financed. What are the keys to finding a market and product idea that can perform like that? How do you get market traction quickly? Lumenera finds gaps and builds to fill them […]

Have you ever called 9-1-1? For North Americans, most of those calls are handled by software and systems from Plant/CML, a recent merger of Plant Equipment Inc. and CML Emergency Services (CML), who now have about 60% of the North American market for this technology. Golden Gate Capital of San Francisco, who also owned Plant, […]

The San Diego beaches are sunny and inviting, but Andrew Kozminski, CTO at Kanata-based Pronexus Inc., took time from his travels to call me to discuss an interesting, high profile partnership. While he was on the road in southern California, company colleagues were in Barcelona, Spain at the huge 3GSM World Congress of telephony, where […]

At Cyrium Technologies, Edward Sloot has assumed the presidency at an exciting juncture – Cyrium has superb energy-saving technology under development, and is planning for the next challenge, going to market. Introduction was provided by Raj Narula, senior advisor to Cyrium and a veteran Ottawa technology entrepreneur. I visited Ed, Raj, and Mike Manson at […]

In the lobby at Liquid Computing, a monitor rolls a slide show of the company’s markets, product line architecture, and advantages. Their target buyers are users who need High Performance Computing (HPC) – like scientists doing calculations on global climate change, or engineers doing simulations of the power and noise levels generated by a new […]