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

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GTEC conference looks at customer-dictated service delivery and how governments, businesses can get there together

The high-tech world has been abuzz for some time with the concept of “Web 2.0” and customer interaction with various aspects of tech, so it was only a matter of time before the government started looking at what that means for the public sector.

This is the theme for this year’s Government Technology Exhibition and Conference (GTEC), which starts Tuesday and runs until Oct. 17. The conference, now in its 15th year, allows hundreds of small and large tech companies to mingle with and market to the various levels of government and gain insight into how to work with the country’s largest enterprise.

GTEC executive director Kevin d’Entremont says the advent of user-generated sites such as YouTube and Facebook has changed the face of service delivery, and governments, just like any other enterprise, can’t afford to be left behind.

“Web 2.0 means that the consumer is now dictating when and where people want to receive services,” he says. “There are expectations in the marketplace, and governments have to follow suit with their services as well, and change their approach to be more suitable and agile. Service delivery has to be tailored or developed to serve the demands of social computing.”

Kim Devooght, vice-president (public sector) of IBM Canada which is an exhibitor and sponsor of the event, says GTEC is a great opportunity to Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
Oct. 11, 2007 (Oct.15 in the paper edition)

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Ottawa-based mining company Orezone Resources Inc. has bought out its partner Gold Fields Ltd.’s share in its flagship West African gold mine for $200 million in cash and shares.

The deal means that Orezone has now moved from being a company focused mainly on exploration to an intermediate producer with expected production of 292,000 ounces of gold annually by 2010, at cash operating costs of $356 US per ounce.

“This transaction is very accretive, simplifies our structure, sharpens our focus on the region and enhances our production and growth plans,” said Orezone CEO Ron Little in a statement.

Orezone’s latest feasibility study showed that Gold Fields’s share in the Essakane project adds 1.6 million ounces of gold to Orezone’s reserves, plus 2.4 million ounces in measured and indicated resources and 761,000 ounces in inferred resources.

Through the Burkina Faso project, Orezone now owns a 100-per-cent interest in 2.65 million ounces of contained reserves, 4.4 million ounces of measured and indicated resources and Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
Oct. 8, 2007

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Insiders, analysts say MOSAID’s stock undervalued because of market’s confusion

Have MOSAID Technologies Inc. and its new management broken their promise to deliver better results for shareholders, despite a painful restructuring process that included the ousting of several top executives and the layoffs of almost three-quarters of its staff?

It’s been more than a year since the epic public proxy battle between MOSAID and U.S.-based investment firm Loeb Partners Corp., a fight for control which has resulted in a narrowed focus on MOSAID’s biggest money-maker – its patent licensing business – and the divestiture of its two other divisions.

Loeb Partners, which had sharply criticized MOSAID’s management and argued that the company could do much better, brought in three new directors, a new CEO, board chairman and chief financial officer (see sidebar). Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
Oct. 1, 2007 (Oct. 3 on OttawaBusinessJournal.com)

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Analysts bullish as company comes out of stealth mode

Virtual machine life cycle management systems firm Embotics only had its coming-out party earlier this month, and its flagship V-Commander product is still in its beta testing stage.

However, the company definitely wasn’t idly biding its time while in stealth mode – in December it attracted an undisclosed amount of funding and it’s already seeing product revenues. It’s put its product out for testing across several companies in the pharmaceutical, telecommunications, Internet hosting, financial services and manufacturing sectors.

The company has a relatively simple proposition for a complicated technology that’s become increasingly important for large firms. What happens with virtualization is
that companies can now easily set up new virtual servers – each of which houses a copy of an application program – without complex hardware configurations.

The problem with the ease of creating those new servers, however, is how to manage them, which is what V-Commander does.

“With the products of companies like Microsoft and VMWare, all you have to do is click a button and create a new server, and that leads to what is called ‘virtual machine (VM) sprawl,'” says Embotics CEO Jay Litkey. “There’s exponential growth in the number of servers since you no longer have to buy a physical computer (to deploy a new server), and that’s a bad thing for enterprises when they can’t know who did what and what’s happening.” Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
Sept. 24, 2007

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Diversity key trait among companies at OCRI’s 2007 venture summit

There’s going to be all kinds of green at this year’s Ottawa Venture Technology Summit – from the presenting “green tech” companies hoping to score some major investment from venture capitalists, to the greenbacks that will (hopefully) pour into local industry.

The three-day summit, which begins Tuesday and is organized by the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation, will see 16 local high-tech firms at various stages of maturity make brief pitches to potential investors and attempt to form new alliances in the tech sector.

But clean tech isn’t the only industry which will be making its presence known at the summit, says Ottawa Capital Network manager Dave Scollon.

“There’s a wider diversity Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
Sept. 3, 2007 (Sept. 5 on OttawaBusinessJournal.com)

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Thermal Energy’s green power machines heating up interest in the industrial sector

It’s no secret that many companies are looking for that magical machine which will help them save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, especially in this age of rising energy costs and environmental concerns.

Nonetheless, most firms are reluctant to make big investments on new technology for fear that their spending will be for naught when the machines don’t perform to their expectations.

This is where local custom energy and emissions reductions solutions maker Thermal Energy International Inc. comes in: the company markets air pollution control technology and several innovative machines which recycle wasted energy and resources to give clients access to relatively clean power at a fraction of the cost of using other energy sources.

On top of that, the company recently launched an attractive alternative to buying its machines outright, a creative financing program which is piquing the interest of some major industrial players in its main markets of North America and China.

The company’s Alternate Utility Delivery (AUD) program allows clients Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
July 23, 2007 (July 25 on OttawaBusinessJournal.com)

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While the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI)’s second-quarter venture capital report released last week showed that local investment rebounded from a sluggish first quarter that saw a single disclosed financing deal, the investment community says there is still a funding gap.Ottawa’s startups may have to tighten their belts a little further or look outside of the venture capital community for funding, as venture capitalists (VCs) continue to look for safer investments with faster payouts.

“The VC community is having trouble raising money, and they are not at the pace they were years ago,” says Robert Ford of law firm Gowlings, who notes that the latest quarter’s performance is somewhat expected.

“VC funds, by their very nature, have a short life, and they have to get some return on their investment at the wind-up of their partnerships. But we’re not seeing a lot of big mergers and acquisitions and initial public offerings here, so new money is being invested in good safe returns such as oil and gas, China and India, instead of in ventures.”

There’s definitely less money in the marketplace, Mr. Ford says, and even good companies with interesting technology are getting funded on a smaller scale in Ottawa.

“It’s always a tough environment, especially for new ventures like ourselves, but it’s even more competitive right now with lots of great companies out there competing for a smaller and smaller amount of money,” says Kenton White, chief technology officer of new media company Distil Interactive, which bagged Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
June 25, 2007 (June 27 on OttawaBusinessJournal.com)

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Today’s consumer faces a dizzying array of telephone, television and Internet options – known as the “triple play” – with cable companies falling over each other to offer the cheapest bundles with the most features.

But telecommunications companies have been falling behind in the race to win customers ever since cable firms discovered a way to offer voice as well as their more traditional television and Internet services.

Although some telcos have ventured into the satellite market to try and take back some of the market from their cable competitors, analysts say the technology is often not as versatile and interactive as what is being offered by the cable companies.

Enter Internet protocol television (IPTV) and with it Espial Group Inc., an Ottawa company which makes software that offers telcos a way to provide cost-effective, interactive television through existing DSL lines.

“Remember the old days when we only had five television channels with maybe a few more if you had bunny ears? Well, we’re now in an environment with hundreds of channels (with cable and satellite television), and then you have our technology which enables a YouTube-like environment with millions of channels,” says Espial’s vice-president of marketing Brian Mahony. “The technology could also make it possible for you to chat on your instant messenger while watching Canadian Idol.” Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
June 25, 2007 (June 27 on OttawaBusinessJournal.com)

Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.

Ottawa’s software industry is like any other thing in its infancy: it just hasn’t learned to share with others yet.

At least, that’s what some industry insiders are suggesting.

Joe Bevk and Jeff Bennett, partners at software business consulting firm ServiceVantage Corporation, say local companies tend to be so focused on their specific applications that they may ignore any chances to work with other companies who might share similar client bases, even if they don’t do quite the same thing.

Take, for example, on-demand response management solutions maker Kinaxis Inc., manufacturing monitoring systems company Sciemetric Instruments Inc. and aviation maintenance software firm Mxi Technologies, Mr. Bennett says.

On the surface, the three companies may have nothing in common, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find that Kinaxis may want to sell to Ford – which works with Sciemetric – Sciemetric might want to deal with Mxi’s customer Boeing, while Mxi might be interested in selling to Honeywell, which works with Kinaxis.

“If the CEOs of these three companies were to meet and roll out the Rolodex, there’s no doubt Continue reading →