ICT on the Edges — A View from Northern Ontario

Submission

There are some excellent questions raised by the study — we have provided some responses for consideration and additional information that may be useful in developing the Digital Economy strategy.

Should Canada focus on increasing innovation in some key sectors or focus on providing the foundation for innovation across the economy? Both — in reality, Canada needs to establish the environment that companies can succeed in and drive niche opportunities that align with strengths and emerging growth industries. The environment that is needed includes reasonable tax regimes; improved support for business start–ups; a mix of capital that includes access to angel and venture capital and government support and a focus on developing a pool of highly qualified personnel through research programs and education support.

Which conditions best incent and promote adoption of ICT by Canadian business? The Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre and the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre completed an ICT study for Northern Ontario examining the ICT sector. Some recommendations that came from this study include:

1. Enhance the support systems available to SMEs to encourage adoption, stimulate growth and create a platform for ICT integration.

a) Implementation of a new program designed to help SMEs leverage ICT for growth. The objectives of the program would be to enhance the productivity, innovation, market access and growth of Northern Ontario SMEs through strategic investment in ICT projects. To do so it would target both SMEs and small not for profit organizations, thereby stimulating growth through increasing the capacity of Northern Ontario service providers to service the SME sector. Applicants would be expected to provide an ICT strategy in the context of their business or must complete an initial assessment phase to develop this strategy. Selection would be based upon a given project's potential for revenue growth, market diversification, job creation, and/or productivity enhancement. The program would be delivered on two levels:

i) Initial Assessment — $1,000 to $5,000 — maximum of 90% of eligible costs supported through the new program. The program would be designed to support SMEs with the integration of ICT principles into the planning process to enhance strategic decision making by linking ICT directly to business success. Management needs to be equipped with the tools to properly decide on the role for ICT to play in their organizations. Numerous options exist from ICT integration into every business process, product, or service to simply satisfying informational requirements. To do so management should understand the unique set of drivers that determine this decision and how ICT fits within their higher level organizational goals. These decisions can have far reaching implications for the overall value system of a business and should become part of the planning process. Linking ICT strategy to organizational goals will help businesses define the value of their ICT investments and will ensure that they are positioned to capture the competitive advantage they provide. To assess the business and prepare an ICT strategy that demonstrates potential for revenue growth, market diversification and/or productivity enhancement. This strategy must illustrate how this fits with the business' plans and strategy.

ii) Implementation Support — Up to $30,000 — maximum of 75% of eligible costs supported. For the implementation of ICT. This can include a variety of projects depending on the business' strategy – e–commerce, internet marketing, social media campaigns, CRM, business management software, etc.

b) Encourage the adoption of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in Residence programs to assist SMEs in adopting ICT. CTO in Residence programs would serve to bring entrepreneurs and experienced technology executives together to facilitate coaching and knowledge sharing on technology–related issues and opportunities. This could include: the use of new and emerging technologies and tools to enable new ways of sharing information and building relationships; IT strategy; and technology planning, including security, privacy and e–commerce. CTOs in Residence would also serve to achieve the higher level goal of connecting clients into a broader network of resources, including peer learning, education, and services offered through the existing network of regional innovation centres and other community based economic development organizations.

c) Develop a more streamlined application process for government programs to facilitate ease of use by SMEs and lower the barriers to access. There is often a lack of understanding of what funding programs are available through the government and some confusion over the application of their guidelines based on the publicly available information. Many businesses have expressed the need for a common web–based repository of information relating to these programs with live help functionality to provide real–time feedback and support from government staff. Moreover, the funding process can be overly cumbersome for SMEs with limited resources and should be streamlined to enhance program utilization and the timeliness of approvals.

2. Attracting knowledge workers to Northern Ontario should become a key component of the labour ICT strategy for the region. It has traditionally been difficult for employers located in Northern Ontario to attract and retain skilled labour. The lack of readily available knowledge workers has been an impediment to business growth and development in the region and, in some cases, has resulted in companies deciding to relocate to major urban centres. A comprehensive strategy needs to be developed to attract and retain skilled knowledge workers for Northern Ontario to remain competitive. This strategy would include the following components:

a) Cooperative recruitment support — There is a need to develop a cooperative recruitment initiative where companies seeking ICT talent join together to share costs and target specific labour markets such as the University of Waterloo, the Ottawa and Toronto regions for presentations, recruitment ads and other forms of outreach. By working together this initiative will not only reduce the cost to individual organizations but also create a much greater impact in selected markets. Recruitment could be easier with potential candidates seeing multiple opportunities in Northern Ontario.

b) Relocation Services — immigration portals should be further developed to enhance regional visibility to prospective workers and their families. These should provide a wealth of information about Northern communities and assist with acclimatizing those have recently relocated to benefits of life in the North. This could include information pertaining to cultural activities as well as language and bridge–training programs.

c) Fast–Tracking of Federal Immigration — communities in Northern Ontario should have the ability to petition the government to fast–track a limited number of skilled foreign workers through the federal immigration system where there is support from employers having difficulty filling vacant ICT positions. Opportunities Ontario and similar programs should be continued and specific numbers of nominations through such programs should be allocated to Northern Ontario.

3. Enhance educational opportunities with a focus on ICT skills development.

a) Ensuring the next generation of workers is knowledgeable of ICT begins in the education system. Programming at both the primary and secondary school levels should integrate ICT use into lesson planning and delivery. This should build on the success of pilot programs that use laptops and smart boards in classroom settings to enhance learning outcomes. Innovative new approaches to delivering education in the north can be a catalyst for sector growth and ICT utilization. Northern Ontario's educational institutions must take a leadership role in developing innovative and technically savvy graduates at all levels and in all disciplines to meet the needs of the growing knowledge economy.

b) Post–secondary educational institutions should be encouraged to develop unique programming in areas such as video game technology, animation, software development digital media and other niche sectors that have high growth potential. This would build the capacity of Northern Ontario to become a leader in these areas by having high caliber graduates that could help seed the development of local initiatives as well as setting the stage for emerging industries.

c) Complementary to this is continuing to offer strategic and focused training in Northern Ontario for ICT workers on new applications and technology. This has been successful in the past with .Net and other IT training offered by the Innovation Centres in both Sault Ste Marie and Thunder Bay.

d) Other educational opportunities that need to exist are ICT–based workshops and seminars. The research in this study acknowledges that businesses are lacking fundamental ICT knowledge and those needing help believe that workshops and seminars are the best form of delivery. These forms of education suit the time allocation needs of business owners, managers, and lower level employees. They don't have the time available to attend educational institution courses. They prefer the quick and concise delivery methods attributed to workshops and seminars.

4. Expand the scope of current GIS undertakings and strengthen the linkages between business intelligence and value realization for SMEs. The market sector for GIS and other forms of spatial analysis is expected to grow dramatically. New technologies and the development of Smart Grid systems are seen as primary drivers that will require substantial network reengineering. This will necessitate the development of robust GIS platforms capable of providing for the design, analysis, and ongoing management of new network configurations. Municipalities need to become aware of the benefits of GIS implementation and ensure that they are positioned to horizontally share information and leverage this to maximize their ability to use the resultant data to resolve evolving challenges.

a) Economic Gardening — the fundamental premise of economic gardening is that entrepreneurs drive economies. Healthy communities are seen as those that have developed an environment conducive to entrepreneurship. This environment is one in which critical business information is readily available. GIS platforms are ideally suited to this as they can be used to determine demographics, consumer expenditures, lifestyle data and other information that can be used strategically by businesses. GIS also provides a method to visualize and conduct analysis on current and future market trends. Offering free or very low cost business and market analysis through GIS platforms.

b) Community Information Utility — this term was coined by the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre Community Geomatics Centre (CGC) to describe their unique model of geospatial information sharing. This model is unique in Canada, in that it promotes and establishes the partnerships and technological means to efficiently share geospatial data, tools and knowledge amongst community organizations to create safer, healthier and more prosperous communities. It has been designed to be replicable in other communities so that they may learn from and share in the success that it has brought to Sault Ste. Marie. Models such as this can serve to function as effective tools for economic gardening by creating centralized hubs of information that can be leveraged to generate customizable reports to provide strategic recommendations for businesses.

5. Engage IT organizations with the larger business community to ensure alignment of core products and services with market demand. Competitive advantage is derived when local pipelines exist for the application of information and communications technologies to business processes. Market intelligence needs to inform the product market strategies of ICT companies that should be encouraged to cluster together to leverage inherent symbiotic advantages. This is best described as a form of opportunity management creating the capacity for innovation. The principle dimensions of this include:

a) Relationship Management — the engagement between ICT companies and the business community. A common observation is that companies do not know what products and services ICT companies provide and have difficulty identifying those that are best equipped to suit their needs.

b) Cluster Development — the process of seeding and unearthing opportunities for ICT companies to develop synergies that serve to enhance business value and to further enlist the interest of the business community.

c) Innovation Centres — a proactive strategy towards innovation should be taken through the adoption of new technologies and processes, as well as the reimagining of existing practices to give rise to new business opportunities is a key success factor. The resources of current centres should be enhanced to create a strong regional network leading to a pan Northern Ontario approach to the management of innovation.

d) Procurement Initiatives — Create a Northern Ontario ICT procurement initiative that creates a commitment from all levels of government and large businesses operating in Northern Ontario to facilitate Northern Ontario SMEs' participation in ICT development projects and products.

Growing the ICT Industry

Do our current investments in R&D effectively lead to innovation, and the creation of new businesses, products and services? Should we promote investments in small start–ups to expand our innovation capacity?

Yes, investment in start–ups is essential to building the economy and fostering the entrepreneurial climate needed in Canada to succeed.

What is needed to innovate and grow the size of the ICT industry including the number of large ICT firms headquartered in Canada?

Talent is always a critical factor, therefore, programs that engage youth in ICT at early stages in their education; research and research funding that draws cutting edge faculty which in turn helps to inspire students; supportive immigration strategies that attract the best and brightest from other countries all play a role in ensuring Canada becomes known as a play to undertake ICT activities.

Obviously, an attractive tax regime and incentives for R&D are beneficial to ensuring large companies base their operations in Canada. Other submissions have outlined positive steps to update programs — from our perspective, the IRAP program has some excellent incentives to support innovative companies but the programs run out of money very early in the government fiscal year leaving innovative companies on waiting lists that can last over six months… this certainly isn't moving at the speed of business required for companies competing on the innovation stage.

What efforts are needed to address the talent needs in the coming years?

Certainly the education system needs to develop skills and interest students in key areas that are required in the ICT industry (math, computer skills). This requires compelling programming as well as support for teachers to upgrade their skills in order to gain confidence in teaching students in more advanced ICT topics.

An interesting program that we are currently running is called Protolaunch. Funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation as a pilot, the program involves bi–monthly video game development workshops geared to highschool students. The workshops are led by an industry expert that visits from a major game development studio and take place over an entire weekend. The program culminates each year in a 5 week game competition where teams of students compete to develop a video game… and they get paid as a summer job to take part. To make it into the program they have to participate in as many of the workshops as possible and also collect pins for completing certain unique tasks/challenges.

Improving Canada's Digital Advantage

Should we set targets for our made–in–Canada digital strategy?

And if so, what should those targets be? Yes! Metrics could include increasing ICT start–up firms; SR&ED applicants from the ICT sector; IRAP projects; graduates from ICT programs;

What should the timelines be to reach these targets?

Three years; Five years and Ten years. The timelines to develop some of these key industry components and their effects often can extend beyond political mandates. True leadership is required to develop programs that can survive any potential changing tides and ensures that basic fundamentals are identified, prioritized and continually addressed. Programs will come and go and be tweaked over time, but clearly identifying the critical components that must be supported; how those will be supported and what the targets are will create a framework that can be used in the future.

Suggested URL: ICT Utilization Study Northern Ontario