Sure.
Evidence of meeting #14 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was osme.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #14 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was osme.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:15 p.m.
Director of Operations, 2G Robotics Inc.
Other benefits will, I suspect, come up as the program continues on, because we delivered the system relatively recently to them. So the next step for the overall project is a testing component in which Defence Research and Development Canada is going to take the system and compare it to other technologies so they will then be able to say “Look how this new technology can benefit us from an operational standpoint”. And then ideally we can get scanners on every ship, all over the place and around the world, hopefully, for specific security-related applications.
Ultimately, the benefit to any company comes down to money. It will end up being money in the door one way or another. So from a short-term standpoint, we were able to get an initial sale and see some cashflow. Down the road, we'll be able to have that reference customer we can point to and continue to reap the benefits of that reference customer.
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Okay. And what were your challenges? What was missing? What would have helped you that didn't exist?
4:15 p.m.
Director of Operations, 2G Robotics Inc.
If there had been more mentorship. I suppose one of the main things missing, as far as I was concerned, was a single point of contact. We were passed from person to person throughout this process. I never understood exactly who I was supposed to be talking to and listening to. We ended up speaking to about five people throughout that process and never really understanding where they sat in the decision-making process.
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
So you're saying a single point of contact.
What were the other challenges?
4:15 p.m.
Director of Operations, 2G Robotics Inc.
Certainly one challenge was going through the application process. I wouldn't say it was a negative to the project, but it was a challenge we had to go through.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
4:20 p.m.
Director of Operations, 2G Robotics Inc.
Do you mean for how to change the project?
4:20 p.m.
Director of Operations, 2G Robotics Inc.
The biggest thing for me would be having that single point of contact, someone to go to who would know what to do.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Thank you.
Mr. Yeh, you said that for your organization, OSME has been helpful and creative, and you explained that buyandsell.gc.ca is the best attempt at using current technology and providing information. Has your organization used any of the other services? Has that information been tracked? What was helpful and what were the benefits and the disadvantages?
4:20 p.m.
President, Canadian Information Technology Providers Association
That we got because our members are quite experienced in selling to the federal government already. They're existing players. What we found when OSME was formed was that their focus is really on finding new customers or new SMEs and showing them new opportunities. Canada is a pretty large country, and to promote the Canadian government as being easy to do business with is not the easiest sell. So they're putting lots of resources into looking for these new customers.
That's what I show in my diagram, in the top right quadrant. It is not an easy quadrant. For any other business, that's not the first quadrant they go after. They go after existing customers or the existing base first. You secure the existing base, build a good foundation, then you expand. We found that when they formed five years ago, OSME did not really do that.
Our organization represents lots of small SMEs, so we're one of the first ones who contacted OSME and asked them what they were doing and how could we help, and things like that. We sent a message out to all our members and let them know about the service and we brought them in to talk to our organization. Most of the members are finding that because they're not new SMEs to the government, the service is really not accessible.
In terms of reducing barriers, they have a really limited ability on doing so. They do help in some cases. For example, they say, we'll help you to get faster payment; we'll help you to get interest payments. They advocate on that, which is good, but that is really not the most important thing. It's part of the course of doing business. There are documents, you've got your paperwork ready and they pay you. If they don't pay you for 45 days or 60 days, it does not matter.
4:20 p.m.
NDP
The Chair NDP Pat Martin
Thank you, Mr. Yeh. We're well over time.
Thank you, Kirsty.
Next is Peter Braid. Five minutes, Peter.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Peter Braid Conservative Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to all of our witnesses for being here this afternoon.
Mr. Gillham, it's great to have you here. Congratulations on the success of your company so far, another great start-up from Waterloo. There's something in the water in Waterloo, as they say.
In response to a question from Mr. Boulerice, you described in more detail some of the technology that you have. I think it was the underwater laser scanner. Is this the only robotic product that you've developed, or are there others you've developed or others in the pipeline?
4:20 p.m.
Director of Operations, 2G Robotics Inc.
It's the only product we've developed, and there are others in the pipeline.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Peter Braid Conservative Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Can you tell us anything about what's in the pipeline?
4:20 p.m.
Director of Operations, 2G Robotics Inc.
One of the limitations of the underwater laser scanner is the need to have it stationary, relative to whatever it is that you're scanning. To overcome that, and this sort of talks back to Mr. Hayes' discussion about the university's involvement, through another government program we were able to bring on a grad student through a sort of time-sharing with his research and his time at 2G Robotics, where we're developing the ability to create 3-D models of underwater environments simply from video. So you no longer need the laser in the picture and can just take video to create a 3-D model of the underwater structure.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Peter Braid Conservative Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Great. Do you think the CICP will help to foster the commercialization of the underwater laser scanner? Will it help to get it to market sooner, do you think?
4:25 p.m.
Director of Operations, 2G Robotics Inc.
It certainly has. Basically, from the point of making that first sale through CICP, we've been able to build on that and use DRDC as a reference customer in selling future systems.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
4:25 p.m.
Director of Operations, 2G Robotics Inc.
Yes. We have about six total that have been sold into the market.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Peter Braid Conservative Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Excellent.
Has the CICP helped you to hire more employees?