NEWS + EVENTS

Facebook for billionaires

jeroach — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:11:26 -0300

Author

David Shipley

Source

Telegraph-Journal, Published Friday September 5th, 2008

Reference

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/rss/article/406121

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Stephen Nickerson says he’d like to grow his company, RapidMind Solutions Inc., significantly and is looking at hiring another three staffers in the near term.

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IT Firm building a business by meeting the software needs of Fortune 100 firms, an Ivy League university

Steve Nickerson has a simple method for nailing information technology contracts with Fortune 100 companies.

He just calls them.

"I call people and I talk to them," says the 33-year-old Saint John IT firm owner, with a laugh.

"I'm really easy to deal with and I've got quality people. I'm very straightforward and they like dealing with me. It's not overly complicated."

Since starting his firm, RapidMind Solutions Inc., last year Nickerson has landed work with large firms including some that make household name goods as well as with an Ivy League university.

RapidMind stands as an interesting example of a successful New Brunswick IT firm that's developed a business around bringing projects back to the province. The firm is an exporter of homegrown expertise.

Perhaps one of RapidMind's most interesting projects is one it's working on for a top American university.

"We're working with one of the top Ivy League universities in the United States right now," he said. "We're basically doing a Facebook-type application for their billionaire alumni, which is pretty cool."

Nickerson said software he's building will help the university connect with potential wealthy donors, an important source of funding for the school.

It also has benefits for the alumni, he said.

"They can connect with their old classmates. They can make business connections which can increase the value of their firms."

Another project, for a Fortune 100 company, tracks a product's development from the research stage to the consumer household, including all of the steps it has to go through and levels of approval.

"Right now it's incredibility tedious and difficult using their current application to pull that off," he said. "We built an application that's a little faster, that's a little bit easier to use and it has a standard look and feel. Because it's a Microsoft platform, since we're doing it with SharePoint, it integrates with their existing Office applications."

Nickerson said he decided to start his own firm after working for an automotive software maker in the Port City.

"I felt there was a better way to build software and there was a better way to treat employees," he said. "We didn't get a lot of respect for the time and effort we put in. I wanted to start my own company where I wouldn't make the same mistake."

Nickerson said in addition to developing software solutions around Microsoft's SharePoint technology, his team also does consultant work. Other programmers or firms can hire several members of the RapidMind team to work with their staff in developing projects.

Nickerson said he'd like to grow his company significantly and is looking at hiring another three staffers in the near term.

But hiring staff has been a bit of a challenge.

"One of the problem's I've run into is that I'm trying to hire someone who is an immigrant, he's from Bangladesh but he's been in Canada and he's received his degree from here," said Nickerson.

But getting approval from the federal government has been a slow and frustrating process.

"They waited five months and then said no because I missed a form. But according to their website, I didn't need it," he said.

"It's been a five month process to try and get him approval to come work here and I have a huge shortage of guys. It's very difficult for me to find talented people. I finally find one, and I can't hire him."

R3 GALA Featuring Richard Florida

jeroach — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:59:00 -0300

Start: 2008-10-01 18:30

End: 2008-10-01 00:00

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Purchase your tickets online at www.nbif.ca or call 1-877-554-6668

On October 1st, the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation and Aliant present R3 GALA to showcase the work of some of the top commercially-driven researchers in New Brunswick at the Saint John Trade & Convention Centre – 6:30 PM.

With a keynote by New York Times best-selling author Richard Florida, the event is set to be one of the “must-attend” events of the season. Dr. Florida presently heads the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

Tickets include a cocktail reception and dinner plus four documentary-style presentations of some of the province’s top commercially-driven researchers.

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UNB researchers study change in N.B.

jeroach — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:39:35 -0300

Author

Alan Cochrane

Source

Times & Transcript, Published Wednesday September 3rd, 2008

Reference

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/rss/article/404090

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A three-year project underway at the University of New Brunswick to study changes in economics and demographics in this province recently received a financial boost of nearly $300,000 from the federal government to begin its work.

The Knowledge in Society Project is headed by Robert MacKinnon and Nancy Mathis of UNB. It received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

The funding will be used to hire undergraduate and graduate students to work with faculty members and community partners.

MacKinnon, who is vice-president of UNB Saint John, said the project will focus on four themes: human resources development, social development, innovation and access to capital.

"This project will capture knowledge that exists in the heads of a handful of leaders and make it accessible to others," said Dr. Mathis, executive director of the G. Wallace F. McCain Institute for Business Leadership at UNB.

"Harvard-style business cases will be written for MBA use and then edited for use in K to 12 as well as for the general public. The grant funding from SSHRC will leverage funding received by UNB from Francis McGuire, chairman of NB Power and President of Major Drilling in Moncton."

Rounding out the research team is freelance journalist Lisa Hrabluk.

As the project's administrative co-ordinator, Hrabluk will act as a bridge between the academic community and the wider provincial community.

Building a bridge to Silicon Valley

jeroach — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:36:24 -0300

Author

David Shipley

Source

Telegraph-Journal, Published Wednesday September 3rd, 2008

Reference

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/rss/article/403937

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Dan Martell, a New Brunswick IT executive, left the province for San Francisco over the weekend to seek out new opportunities. Martell says it is easier to found a high-tech company in the San Francisco area than it is to do so in New Brunswick. ‘All the expertise I need is here, within a 20-mile radius.’

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Young entrepreneur drawn to the epicentre of technology development

MONCTON - A successful New Brunswick technology entrepreneur is hoping to build a knowledge bridge between the province and Silicon Valley.

Dan Martell, the 28-year-old founder of Moncton-headquartered Spheric Technologies Inc., a professional services company that specializes in developing social network technologies for corporations, left New Brunswick over the weekend.

"One thing I've always been thinking about, that's been on the back burner, is to build a product," he said, adding there are limits to the business of billing people based on providing knowledge on an hourly basis.

Martell said he was drawn to San Francisco's famed Silicon Valley because it is an epicentre of technology development.

Martell said it is easier to found a high-tech company in the San Francisco area than it is to do so in New Brunswick.

"I feel like it's going to be seven times easier for me to do it here because "¦ all the expertise I need is here, within a 20-mile radius," he said.

"I like to say that the lights are green more often here in regards to people who understand what you're trying to do. The subject matter expertise for building a company the way I want to do it, venture-backed, that has really strong proven leadership team "¦ those people are here in abundance, where they are not in New Brunswick."

Martell founded Spheric in 2004. The innovative firm grew to 27 staffers by 2008 after starting with four employees. It has a presence in seven provinces in Canada. He decided to leave in April 2008 and his last day in an official capacity with the firm was in June. Martell has stayed on as a senior advisor to the young company after selling his interest in the firm.

Martell said he was able to leave the young company because it had successfully outsourced functions such as finance, human resources and even sales and marketing, leaving just the technical work to full-time staffers.

That, along with a solid management team, means the company will be able to continue to run as it has done in the past without him, Martell said.

Martell declined to say how much he earned from the sale of his firm.

He stressed that his decision to leave shouldn't be seen as a loss or as a negative for New Brunswick.

Martell said while he left the province to seek out a new challenge and try something new, part of his motivation for leaving is to build a bridge between expertise in Silicon Valley and the IT industry in New Brunswick.

"If it's raising capital or building a management team or understanding a new area of technology, be it mobile or online video, hopefully I can connect those people with the information or the person that's best suited."

Martell said he likely won't be a permanent resident of the U.S. West Coast.

"I am here but I don't plan on staying here. I do plan on coming back to New Brunswick."

Martell said when he does return to the province, he'd love to mentor technology companies.

"I think New Brunswick has every reason to succeed," he said. "I always thought it was sad that at one point we were one of the most innovative and high-tech provinces, if not geographies, in the world "¦ I'd like to see New Brunswick get back to that level and I think this is just is one small step in a larger plan to hopefully make that happen some day.

Woodstock's rising Internet star

jeroach — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 07:18:24 -0300

Author

David Shipley

Source

Telegraph-Journal, Published Saturday August 30th, 2008

Reference

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/rss/article/401424

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John Maduri, Barrett Xplore Inc.’s CEO, is a veteran of both Rogers Inc. and Telus Corp. He bought into the Barrett vision of bringing high-speed service to families and companies in the country served only by dial-up. ‘They have a vision,’ says Maduri of the Barrett brothers. ‘They want to see their communities rejuvenated, renewed, made stronger and they’re being absolutely aggressive and creative in ensuring they get broadband access to allow for that to occur.’

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Critical infrastructure Barrett Xplore Inc. is building wireless networks in rural areas

Barrett Xplore Inc., Canada's largest rural broadband Internet provider, is building its business by going where the lines from Bell, Telus, Rogers and others stop.

This week, the Woodstock-based firm took another bold step to extend its cross-country presence by acquiring a swath of 3.5GHz wireless spectrum from Alberta to New Brunswick.

The acquisition, from Toronto-based MIPPS Inc., extends Barrett's national reach to four million people from two million across Canada by giving it the ability to build wireless networks in new rural areas. The 3.5GHz spectrum is considered to be ideal for broadband wireless networks.

The move furthers Barrett Xplore's efforts to beam high-speed Internet access to rural Canadians who have found themselves without service because phone and cable companies find it too expensive to bring high-speed wired Internet service to their doors.

The company's fixed wireless and satellite-based broadband Internet services are also helping level the playing field for rural-based businesses by allowing them to tap into the power and potential of the Internet at speeds comparable to urban areas.

The firm, launched in 2005 in the hometown of the entrepreneurial Barrett family, is poised to become the province's next major telecommunications star.

Barrett Xplore Inc. was born out of Barrett Corp., a number of diverse wholesaling enterprises founded by Malcolm Barrett and now co-led by sons Bill and Ed Barrett. The satellite Internet enterprise seemed a natural extension of their successes with satellite television and, to some extent, Arctic Cat snowmobiles.

"Bill has said from time to time that distribution is in their DNA," says J.W. (Bud) Bird, a prominent Fredericton businessman and a member of the Barrett advisory board.

"They are two of the most entrepreneurial people I have ever met and they have an appetite for risk-taking that is larger than many entrepreneurs I have known," Bird says.

"They have also demonstrated some considerable skill at keeping their visions, aspirations and risks under reasonable balance and control."

For Ed Barrett, getting into the broadband Internet market was a natural evolution after Barrett Xplore's successful foray into the satellite television service through the Direct Choice and Star Choice services.

It provided the sales, distribution and marketing support for both, developing relationships with more than 3,000 independent dealers and more than 2,500 trained installers across the country.

While the Barretts sold off those interests and their earlier venture in Arctic Cat vehicles, they used those relationships to build broadband service across the country.

Ed Barrett speaks of satellite, and now wireless, Internet networks as an essential service and his company's work as a public service.

"Broadband communication is, and is going to be more so, critical infrastructure throughout the country and throughout the world. It will not be acceptable in future years, and some would say it's not acceptable today to not have access to broadband, regardless of where you live or where your business is," he says in an interview.

"We have the great good fortune to be in a business that, while we are accomplishing business results, because we bring broadband to non-urban Canada, we are actually doing a public good."

It is clear Barrett takes pride in his company's dual satellite and fixed wireless Internet services, a combination that makes his company stand out amongst competitors and enables it to reach all parts of Canada.

"Unless you're in a cave or under a rock, we can reach you across this country with broadband," he says.

Observers argue the company is a leader in New Brunswick's third major telecommunications and information technology wave - following earlier revolutions by NBTel in the early 1990s and the dot-com boom at the dawn of this century.

Saint John businessman and former NBTel CEO Gerry Pond describes Barrett Xplore as being of the same calibre as NBTel, a telephone company hailed for innovation.

"If I look at the timing of some of things they're doing with satellite and wireless for so-called remote or rural areas, I think the timing for that is now - the same way it was for NBTel with digital," Pond says.

"I think a company like Barrett is really going to change the equation of what's available in rural in areas in terms of service, quality and price."

Integral to the firm's success is the Barrett brothers' choice in a CEO - in launching the enterprise, they recruited John Maduri, a veteran of both Rogers Inc. and Telus Corp. who brought with him a wealth of experience in cable, cellular and Internet services.

He bought into the Barrett vision of bringing high-speed service to families and companies in the country served only by dial-up.

"We heard the personal message, 'My kids want to get access to this website, I want to get access to this content.' It was very much about personal applications - voiceover IP, surfing the web, online banking, all those personal, individual things," says Maduri, who today spends a good chunk of his time talking to community and business leaders about how his company can solve their problems.

Speaking on his cell phone while travelling back from meetings in northern Ontario, he says rural leaders are anxious to find ways to create new jobs while keeping young people at home.

"They have a vision. They want to see their communities rejuvenated, renewed, made stronger and they're being absolutely aggressive and creative in ensuring they get broadband access to allow for that to occur."

The company has invested more than $110 million in developing new technology and bigger networks, the bulk of it from the Barrett family themselves or by private investors won over by their vision.

This year, Barrett Xplore is expecting to surpass $100 million in gross revenues and has ambitious plans to expand its business.

This week's deal with MIPPs, terms of which were not disclosed, may just be the start.

While residential services represent about 80 per cent of the company's focus, it's also increasingly servicing companies in rural or remote areas like the Alberta oil sands.

"So many companies focus on the urban markets and Barrett really doesn't look at the urban markets at all," says Mark Goldberg, an Ontario-based telecommunications analyst who liked what the company was doing so much he joined its advisory board.

"Their key target, and what they've been successful at, is serving the under-served - going where the other service providers aren't focusing and yet where there is still quite a need."

2008 Canada-China Call for Proposals for R&D Collaborations

jeroach — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:24:10 -0300

Author

Henri Rothschild, PhD

Source

International S&T Partnerships Canada

Reference

http://www.istpcanada.ca/ProductsServices/ChinaProgram/ChinaActiveCFPs/index.html

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International S&T Partnerships Canada

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ISTPCanada and Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of China announce the 2008 Canada-China Call for Proposals for R&D collaborations

For detail information on the Call for Proposals, please check:

http://www.istpcanada.ca/ProductsServices/ChinaProgram/ChinaActiveCFPs/index.html

At minimum, the proposed R&D project has to:

include a Canadian company who will actively participate in the proposed R&D activities, have expertise in the proposed field(s) of investigation and demonstrate the ability to commercialize the resulting products/services,
involve research partner(s) in China, and
lead to new innovation and commercialization for the benefit of Canada and China.

The Program encourage the participation of Canada research teams involving industry-academic/institute partnership. The Program also encourages exchange of young researchers between the two countries under the R&D projects.

Important dates:

Monday, September 15, 2008 - Close date for Expression of Interest (EOI)
Monday, October 13, 2008 - Close date for Full Proposal

You are encouraged to submit the EOI as early as possible to enable us to provide early response to you regarding the submission of full proposal.

Please come visit our web site (www.istpcanada.ca) for further details or contact:

Stacy Chew
Country Manager for China
International S&T Partnerships Canada
371A Richmond Road, Suite 4, Ottawa, Ontario K2A 0E7 Canada
Tel: 613-729-3069, ext 223
Fax: 613-729-3061
stacychew@istpcanada.ca

Henri Rothschild, PhD
President and CEO
International Science and Technology Partnership Canada

Missing home delivery will be thing of the past

jeroach — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:22:58 -0300

Author

Michelle Porter

Source

Telegraph-Journal, Published Monday August 25th, 2008

Reference

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/rss/article/395727

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John Simon, vice-president of Kinek Technologies, says customers will receive an e-mail when an online-purchased package is available at their chosen pickup location.

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Saint John residents are the first in North America to try a service which will allow them to direct online purchases to a pick-up location of their choosing.

On Aug. 20, Kinek Technologies officially launched its new service, called KinekPoint, that will allow customers to avoid the hassle of missing home delivery.

The service has been available for a few weeks now, but company vice-president John Simon said they kept it quiet so the time could be used to work out any bugs in the software that was developed by the company.

"Approximately 75 per cent of online shoppers are not at home during the day. The average consumer comes home to a delivery notice and the realization that they will have to go to either a courier depot or a postal outlet in order to retrieve their purchase," said company founder Kerry McLellan.

Kinek is a Saint John-based technology firm dedicated to developing products that improve everyday life.

Participating retailers include Lakewood Guardian Drugs on Loch Lomond Road, Millidgeville Pharmasave on Millidge Road, UPS Store on Rothesay Avenue and Kennebecasis Drugs on Marr Road, Rothesay, are offering the service to their customers. Quality Convenience in the uptown and Millidgeville has also confirmed that it will be participating and will be up and operating in the next few weeks.

Almost any business can become a depot, as long as it has established hours of operation, a computer with Internet connection, and an area in which deliveries can be securely stored, said Simon.

There is no cost for signing up and inclusion in the KinekPoint network is free for depots, he said.

The service works this way: Using a Google Map application on the KinekPoint website, consumers direct their packages to a location where they have easy access and will receive an e-mail notification when it arrives. For a small fee, consumers can pick up their parcels at any participating location, be it a retailer down the street from their home, office or the drugstore where they pick up their prescriptions.

Only a couple of dozen have used the service so far, but Simon said he is expecting use of the service to grow exponentially as word gets out.

"We're expecting it to grow quite quickly. The long-term plan is to watch it expand quickly across Canada. Once we have a larger foothold of consumers in Canada, we want to begin marketing in the United States," Simon said.

The company is planning a marketing blitz in October, capitalizing on the lead-up to Christmas when shoppers order gifts they don't want delivered at home and send packages to friends and family.

"Frustration with deliveries is a nation-wide problem. And Canadian consumers are shopping online in greater numbers than ever before. Saint John is an ideal launching site. The city and surrounding areas have distinct districts, all of which can benefit from having KinekPoint depots," said Simon.

Consumers can learn more by visiting the website. Retailers interested in adding a KinekPoint Depot service to their location can visit www.kinekpoint.com.

Can you deliver?

jeroach — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 14:07:05 -0300

Author

Derwin Gowan

Source

Telegraph-Journal, Published Saturday August 23rd, 2008

Reference

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/rss/article/394737

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‘He’s one of the deepest researchers I’ve ever met,’ Toon Nagtegaal says of his The Next Phase partner Shawn Carver. ‘I’m just a straight forward venture capitalist.’

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Next Phase Partnership coaches small companies to be 'venture capital ready'

Last fall, Shawn Carver and Toon Nagtegaal set out on a five-year mission to change the face of entrepreneurship on Canada's East Coast.

Carver, 32, lives in his hometown of Riverview. Nagtegaal, 54, moved from the Netherlands to a rural community near Lunenburg, N.S., in 2003.

In November they formed The Next Phase partnership to coach small companies to make themselves "venture capital ready" to pitch a reasonable proposal to potential investors from Toronto, Boston, or wherever, to take their enterprises to the next phase of commercialization.

They formed the partnership after Carver and his team won the silver medal, along with a $25,000 equity investment and $9,000 worth of in-kind services, for their entry Mass Rule in the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation's Breakthru business plan competition.

Mass Rule helps businesses, politicians and others find out what people are saying about them in the Internet - an "Internet polling solution" or "opinion mining," Carver called it in an interview on Friday. He and two partners run this enterprise.

Carver sought Nagtegaal's advice on the Breakthru entry. "Well before that I had met Shawn," Nagtegaal said on Friday.

"We sat together after that occasion and I explained to him what I was doing," Nagtegaal said, referring to the Breakthru competition.

Operating under the business name Hill House, Nagtegaal provided consulting services to businesses seeking venture capital.

Carver's started another business, THINK Technology, around 2002 to help technology companies with marketing.

As Nagtegaal explained what he was up to, Carver interjected that they should get together. Hill House and THINK Technology formed their partnership.

"He brings deep experience and knowledge, research in the IT market. He's one of the deepest researchers I've ever met," Nagtegaal said of his younger partner.

"I'm just a straight forward venture capitalist," Nagtegaal said - but a venture capitalists with 30 years of experience analyzing and coaching companies.

"We see our skill sets as extremely complementary," Carver said.

They take clients through five points, or questions to which would-be investors want answers. They start with "pain in the market," an un-met need that an entrepreneur might fill. Next comes the "value proposition-" the entrepreneur's solution to the need. Then comes the significance of the pain. Then, "posturing," why a customer should accept this particular solution. Execution is the fifth stage - "Can you deliver?"

They negotiate how much time they spend with each company, but they feel they can deal with no more than six clients at a time.

Nagtegaal left the GrowthWorks Atlantic Venture Fund in June 2006 intending to establish a new venture capital fund.

"I'm still working on that; basically, everything is in place other than the money," he said.

He hopes to convince Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador to allow pension funds to place part of their capital with venture capital funds, the way New Brunswick does.

Carver graduated from Riverview High School in 1994, then completed the learning technology program at the New Brunswick Community College in Miramichi where he and a dozen other students created a computer based training program for emergency preparedness.

He enrolled in an English program at St. Mary's University, but left after three years to start a company, an Internet portal for university students. Another company eventually bought him out.

Nagtegaal describes the venture capital market in Atlantic Canada as "imature," forcing start-up companies to look outside the region if they need $5 million or more take their products to market.

AnyWare looking to U.S. for growth

jeroach — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:40:29 -0300

Author

David Shipley

Source

Telegraph-Journal, Published Monday August 18th, 2008

Reference

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/rss/article/388101

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Dan Keddy is the partner relationship manager with the AnyWare Group.

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Saint John's AnyWare Group has partnered with an American software company in a move that will allow it to expand into the U.S. health-care market.

AnyWare, which makes software that allows users to access corporate information and software securely onsite and at remote locations, is also a leader in developing e-health solutions.

The New Brunswick IT firm is joining forces with HealthCare Information Management, Inc. (HCIM), a California software maker that specializes in developing software to help hospitals and health-care providers handle billing and insurance claims.

"One of the big focuses for AnyWare this year was channel advancement," said Dan Keddy, partner relationship manager with the AnyWare Group.

Channels are distribution and sales networks that connect software developers with the end users of products.

AnyWare has focused on building up channels into the U.S. market for the last seven months, said Keddy.

HCIM is a great partner for AnyWare, he said.

"It's a company who is already in health care that has some core technology on its own, that has been running into issues with its clients," he said.

HCIM came to realize that AnyWare's technology could fix some of the issues their clients were having, Keddy added.

AnyWare's offerings also augment HCIM's, he said.

"For them it's an easy way to talk about a value-add to their current client base."

The partnership between HCIM and AnyWare brings benefits to both, said Keddy.

"What it allows us to do"¦is to be able to walk into an existing client base, either of ours or that of our new partner, kind of shoulder-to-shoulder and show the best of both companies and by doing so offer a full-scale solution."

Hospitals and health-care providers in the United States are increasingly turning to sophisticated information technology solutions to boost efficiency, noted Keddy.

"What's interesting about the U.S. is that a hospital can literally shut down if it isn't making money," he said.

That has led to growing interest in IT tools that allow them to reduce costs, increase efficiencies as well as a way to recruit doctors, Keddy said.

"If there are doctors who know that this hospital region always pays on time, gives them the leading technology they need to do their jobs most effectively to allow them to see the most patients, if I was a physician I'd probably lean toward an environment like that."

The partnership between AnyWare and HCIM will enable health-care organizations to achieve savings in both their day-to-day operations, through time-saving efficiencies and through faster, more efficient billing, he said.

AnyWare's software allows doctors, nurses and other health-care professionals, as well as front-line staff, access to medical records, diagnostic images and more, securely, anywhere and anytime they can access a computer with Internet access.

AnyWare's technology helps clients use their existing IT infrastructure more efficiently, said Keddy.

"On the HCIM side, HCIM comes in and they help to centralize and also consolidate the way in which insurance companies and other paying situations are able to bill through electronic health records."

Keddy said AnyWare would be interested in seeing if its partnership with HCIM could benefit the provincial Department of Health.

The province is considering moving to activity-based funding as part of its reforms to the health-care system in New Brunswick.

Activity-based funding moves hospitals away from a block budget each year from the government to one where it receives payments based on the services it provides to patients.

Proponents of a per-patient funding model argue that it gives health-care providers an added incentive to provide timely care to patients in order to maximize facility use and patient attraction.

"I think there is definitely potential for us to be able to impact that type of environment, should it come."

Brokering the energy hub

jeroach — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:35:00 -0300

Author

Ben Shingler

Source

Telegraph-Journal, Published Friday August 15th, 2008

Reference

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/rss/article/385462

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Linda MacDonald, industrial project liaison with the Atlantic Canada Oportunities Agency in Fredericton on Wednesday.

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Mandarin helps smaller firms negotiate their way through the mega-project maze

New Brunswick's future prosperity may not lie entirely in the hands of Linda MacDonald, but she certainly has an important role to play.

A development officer with the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, MacDonald serves as a liaison between the large companies launching southern New Brunswick's energy projects and the small- and medium-sized businesses hoping to land contracts with them.

MacDonald works to identify the minimum requirements, which are needed to bid on a contract. These range from quality controls, industry certifications, and documented safety programs. She then informs small-and medium-sized businesses what those requirements are and how to attain them.

"What we don't want to happen is they get to the 11th hour and they do happen upon a tender and they should have had a specific requirement already in place," MacDonald says from her office in Fredericton.

A chartered accountant by trade, the Miramichi native has worked at ACOA for 16 years before starting the posting May 1.

The task may sound technical and bureaucratic, but the process is crucial and the stakes are high.

Energy projects underway and in the works could mean up to $44 billion in spending, 33,000 jobs, and $14.2 billion in tax revenue over 10 years, according to Benefits Blueprint, an organization designed to maximize the economic growth stemming from the energy boom.

Developments include a new liquefied natural gas terminal and pipeline, the refurbishment of the Point Lepreau nuclear generating station, a new potash mine in Sussex, a possible second oil refinery and a potential second nuclear unit at Lepreau.

Among the 16 recommendations from a Benefits Blueprint report issued in April, two addressed the issue of leakage - the flow of money to out-of-province businesses: improve communication between small businesses and the companies organizing the projects, and increase the productivity and efficiency of businesses so they can compete for the contracts.

The first recommendation is, in part, MacDonald's responsibility.

MacDonald said the mandates of ACOA and other stakeholders, such as the Enterprise Network's 15 regional offices and Business New Brunswick, have overlapped on occasion, producing inefficient results and miscommunications.

As a consequence, some businesses did not get information they needed to bid on contracts.

"The way we were doing it historically is some organizations were giving key bits of information but not everybody was being informed of opportunities," says MacDonald.

"We were not always co-ordinated or communicating with small- and medium-sized businesses.

"In this case we said, 'Look if we really want to do things effectively, we've got more than enough resources so we've all come together to say, we will work together, we will make sure that our companies are informed consistently.'"

Business New Brunswick, says its programs - as part of the government's self-sufficiency plan - will also help local businesses land the sought-after contracts related to the energy boom.

Still, some development organizations based outside southern New Brunswick area have expressed concern their members won't get a fair slice of the energy boom pie.

Experts predict between 40 and 50 per cent of contract work on these projects could go to out-of-province businesses.

MacDonald cautions some leakage is inevitable, and development officials can only work to stem the tide.

"The word 'ensure,' we certainly have to take out our lingo because there's no guarantees in this," MacDonald says.

"Realistically, even if we can stem the flow (out of the province) by one or two per cent then we've made a significant impact."

Some companies, such as Hache Services Techniques, a shop drawing company based in Caraquet, have already benefited from the boom.

It landed a contract worth hundreds of thousands of dollars with Saint John-based Ocean Steel & Construction Ltd. to make computerized 3-D drawings for the pre-fabricated steel parts of the new potash mine. But for the moment, such examples remain are rare.

While the work is still in its early stages, early reports indicate officials are pleased with the arrangement.

"In my opinion it's very good because at the end of the day you need to streamline the process so there's not 50 people doing the same thing," says Donald Hammond, executive director for Enterprise Chaleur.

"Then the process is going to be a lot easier for everyone."

On Aug. 20, MacDonald will meet with members from the 15 regional offices of the Enterprise Network, officials from Business New Brunswick, and the deputy minister of energy to discuss ways to include small- and medium-sized businesses in the projects.

"We're ahead of the game to a certain extent," says MacDonald.

"This is a great launching pad for companies to become known around the world for the expertise and the productivity and the quality that these projects deliver."