By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published on the Ottawa Business Journal website.
Apr. 16, 2007

Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.

TPG Technology Consulting is crying foul against Public Works over a $400-million contract awarded to a larger rival.

The local engineering services company alleged Monday that Public Works deliberately altered its technical evaluation of a competitive bid from Montreal-based CGI Group to favour that company.

“We know there were irregularities in the evaluation and process, and in line with the government’s new accountability act we would like to have some transparency and see the documents on the table,” says TPG’s president Don Powell.

“There’s a lot of money involved here, and we know about several conflicts of interest which have been documented in public information.”

The company is calling for an inquiry into the ethics and process Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published on the Ottawa Business Journal website.
Apr. 9, 2007

John Lindgren
(Photo supplied)

Mosaid Technologies Inc. president and chief executive George Cwynar is passing the torch along to senior vice-president of patent licensing John Lindgren after more than 12 years at the helm of the intellectual property licensing company.

Mr. Cwynar said in an interview that the move “makes sense” considering the company’s new focus on its patent licensing business, as Mr. Lindgren has previously worked in patent licensing for 20 years at Texas Instruments. He added that the position now better matches Mr. Lindgren’s skill set.

Mr. Lindgren has served as senior vice-president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Mosaid since November of last year.

“George added value for a business with different moving parts and helped to maximize the value for a diverse company,” said Mr. Lindgren about the switch, adding that the move was made easier since all the businesses that the company is focusing on are already reporting to him.

Mosaid also hinted in today’s announcement that it was considering a sale of its semiconductor intellectual property (IP) product business, which mostly designs and licenses semiconductor IP circuit blocks for fabless semiconductor companies.

Mr. Lindgren explained that the semiconductor IP business was still a “hard” form of intellectual property, and that the company would be concentrating on intellectual property rights and patent licences rather than the sort of technology licensing dealt with in its semiconductor IP segment. Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
March 5, 2007

Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.

Innovation is just “going and going” in the wireless handheld device market, and Jim Balsillie believes Research in Motion is poised to take the lead in growing the industry.

Mr. Balsillie, who will be the opening speaker for the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation’s Technology Showcase on March 7, says there are incredible opportunities in having information and data “on your belt,” with obvious implications for companies like RIM.

“The outlook is incredibly bullish, and it’s undoubtedly Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
Feb. 26, 2007

Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.

At a recent intellectual property trade show for the microelectronics industry, Mosaid’s Michael Kaskowitz told the joke about the guy who calls a repairman to fix a broken radiator. The repairman pushed one button, the rad started working, and he charged the customer $100.

“But all you did was push a button!” said the customer, to which the repairman replied, “Yes, but I knew which button to push.”

Mr. Kaskowitz said the third-party intellectual property (IP) market was similar, with vendors charging clients for expertise in making a product, rather than for a material product.

Third-party IP use is making waves in the tech sector, especially in Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
Feb. 5, 2007

Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.

Bankruptcy lawyer Stanley Kershman.
Photo by DARREN BROWN for the Ottawa Business Journal

While it may seem like these are dangerous times for consumers who shop with credit and debit cards, the retail industry’s players say they are working hard to protect consumer data.

Consumers had a few security breach scares recently, first in mid-December when Winners and HomeSense parent company TJX Cos. discovered that hackers had stolen customers’ credit and debit card information from its network. This was followed by Talvest Mutual Fund’s mid-January announcement that it had lost a backup file containing sensitive client information.

“It’s happening quite often, and it’s worrisome for the consumer,” says bankruptcy lawyer Stanley Kershman of Perley-Robertson, Hill & McDougall LLP. “The consumer has reason to worry because if their information goes out online, it could potentially be used by fraudsters.”

Mr. Kershman says companies must be accountable for these breaches, and that more resources
have to be put into safeguarding consumer information because it’s “really gold.”

“If (the consumer information) were gold, people would put it into a safe and lock it up … they should do the same for this information,” Mr. Kershman comments, adding that hackers realize that accessing that data is “like getting into Fort Knox.”

The retail industry is far from being ignorant of this fact, says Retail Council of Canada spokesperson Derek Nighbor, although Mr. Nighbor acknowledges that the recent incidents have served as a wake-up call for businesses to do more to protect customers. Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published on the Ottawa Business Journal website.
Jan. 26, 2007

Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.

In spite of a recent report criticizing the condition of its aging buildings, clients of the Communications Research Centre seem quite happy with the services they receive from the federal facility.

An audit obtained by Canadian Press earlier this month reported that the buildings at the CRC’s Shirley’s Bay facility were falling apart, as the centre was dipping into its maintenance budget to meet payroll demands after a hiring spree during the tech boom.

The report said the CRC was experiencing Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
Jan. 15, 2007

Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com (published Jan. 5 2007).

Microsoft has just launched its new Windows Vista operating system, and while some people may be groaning aloud at the thought of upgrading their operating systems yet again, many IT support firms are welcoming the change.

The software giant launched its new operating system in Canada on Nov. 30, five years after the release of its last operating system, Windows XP.

While the new version of Windows boasts prettier graphics, better security and more networking options for the mobile employee, how necessary is it Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
Jan. 3, 2007 (Jan. 8 in the newspaper edition)

Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.

OTI executive director Gary Davis.
Photo by DARREN BROWN for the Ottawa Business Journal

The Ottawa Talent Initiative will continue to operate its Action Centre in the new year, despite recent funding worries in the wake of a new agreement to transfer federally funded employment and training programs to the province.

The tech-focused employment services agency says it is optimistic that the province will continue to support its operations, although it agrees that it will probably be in a scaled-down capacity.

“We’ll have to make some changes to our programs, of course, but the province has given us every indication that it is going to support us,” says OTI executive director Gary Davis.

OTI’s funding arrangement with the federal government expired Dec. 31, coinciding with the new Canada-Ontario Labour Market Development Agreement which transferred $525 million in federal employment and training programs to the province on New Year’s Day. As such, the agency had had worries that it would not be able to apply for new funding with the province until after the agreement was completed, by which time it would have closed its doors.

However, Mr. Davis says he is confident that the province is interested in dealing with the problem of matching up tech workers with employers and ensuring that the skill sets needed are up-to-date.

“I’ve never been more optimistic,” he says. “The province is taking the strategic view in sitting down to deal with the specific concerns of the high-tech sector and the transfer of knowledge for the industry.”

Mr. Davis says the agency is looking forward to continuing what it’s been doing to help help laid-off high-tech workers get reintegrated into the industry, as well as to discussing a long-term strategy with industry representatives, the education sector, and the government to deal with tech employment issues.  Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
Dec. 18, 2006

Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.

Year 2006 was a solid one for the tech sector, marked by the purchase of several vibrant, growing local companies and strong employment levels, but also by the tightening of venture capitalists’ purse strings.

“On a scale of one to 10, it was maybe a seven,” says Robert Ford of tech law firm Gowlings.

Mr. Ford notes that there have been a lot of exciting deals in the market, including Continue reading →