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Growth: Gap in number of IT firms in New Brunswick compared to rest of Canada seen as an opportunity John Pollack
But the recently named co-chairmen of the two-month old New Brunswick IT Council, say this gap represents an opportunity. "The overall objective is growing the size of the pie, the pie being the IT industry in New Brunswick," MacIntosh says. "ICT is nine per cent of the (provincial) GDP right now, I think there's an opportunity to grow that significantly." MacIntosh, chief executive of information services provider SwiftRadius, started the company in 2004, after leaving his senior consultant position at Deloitte in 2001. He said the council isn't yet ready to set a percentage of GDP increase goal, but recognizes the group has a long trek ahead before some planned initiatives will help expand the provincial sector. The council's first task will be to come up with a concise pitch for New Brunswick's IT sector. "We need to define what those value propositions are that will allow us to position to external constituents," says Cavanagh. "In other words why do business with New Brunswick IT companies?" Cavanagh, chief executive of IT services and consulting firm Ambir, was previously executive vice-president of marketing and business development at iMagicTV, Canadian president of 24/7 Customer and founded Daruma Consulting. "If you go back to the call centre days there was clarity around the value proposition that New Brunswick had. You could go to trade shows anywhere in North America or around the globe and people got, 'Why New Brunswick?' " he says. "We need the, 'Why New Brunswick," in the IT context." The group is planning a workshop for sometime in January to answer that question. "We've got to get people appreciating and understanding the scope and impact of IT," Cavanagh says. The electrical engineer by training says the IT sector suffers from a similar problem to that of his field of study. "You can't see electricity, so a lot of people can't understand what is electrical engineering," he says. The council believes overcoming the communications and marketing hurdles will help shape programs it plans to create to address five key issues its members believe will lead to a prosperous New Brunswick IT sector. Throughout 2010 the group wants to develop detailed plans to encourage more entrepreneurship, spark more innovation through more research and development projects, make New Brunswick business - in both IT and other industries - more competitive on the global stage, address current and future labour shortages through immigration and convincing more young people to pursue careers in IT, and increase IT exports. "We all agree that the answer isn't to compete in this market, the growth comes from exports," MacIntosh says. Until now the provincial industry has been fragmented, organizing mostly in regionally focused groups or informally. MacIntosh and Cavanagh see the new council as an opportunity to have IT firms around the province collaborate on export opportunities. "It provides the motivation to say hey Scott here's an interesting opportunity, and we've got part of the puzzle, I know you've got part of the puzzle and maybe that company in Moncton has got that third piece," Cavanagh says providing a hypothetical situation for bagging large contracts. © Telegraph-Journal 2009
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Ian Cavanagh and Scott MacIntosh are optimistic New Brunswick can be an information technology leader, despite the province's current position compared to the rest of the country.