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.
4:30 p.m.
NDP
Mathieu Ravignat NDP Pontiac, QC
Mr. Gillham, perhaps you were lucky to know it existed.
Could you suggest to the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises any effective ways of promoting its programs?
4:30 p.m.
Director of Operations, 2G Robotics Inc.
I mean, I only have this single data point myself, and it worked out very well, going through these Communitech-type organizations that have entrepreneurs in residence and support locally grown innovation. It has been a great organization for me, generally, for a wide range of knowledge acquisition.
4:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, GrowthWorks Atlantic, Canada's Venture Capital and Private Equity Association
It's like a new company with a new product that it's trying to get into the marketplace. My understanding is that this is a fairly new initiative. It takes time to get the word out. You've got to put some resources behind that, in terms of marketing the program.
Again, not to be critical, because I'm not sure what efforts have been made to date in promoting this particular program, but it doesn't happen overnight. You have to work at it and you've got to put the resources behind it and find effective avenues to get that message out to the client group.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Scott Armstrong Conservative Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS
Thank you very much for being here. I've listened with interest.
Mr. Gillham, first of all, congratulations. I'm very excited for your company. It's great to see another company from Waterloo do so well, despite the great representation by your member of Parliament.
In your experience in applying to this program, you referred to having persistent patience. Do you think a lot of companies with less staff or less patience would simply give up with the process? Was it that complicated to try to access this program?
4:35 p.m.
Director of Operations, 2G Robotics Inc.
I don't think so. It was more a lack of knowledge of where we sat in the process, as the process was taking place. We would get one level of approval and wonder if that was the final approval. And then we'd get to another stage and wonder if that was actually the final approval. I remember when we did get the final go-ahead to ship the equipment, I wasn't even clear if that's what we were able to do at that point. So I had to send back a clarification e-mail asking if that meant we could send the equipment and send an invoice.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Scott Armstrong Conservative Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS
Basically, because of the nature of the program, everyone's going to have that same experience, because there's going to be a first time for everyone in this particular program. So is some sort of explanation of the exact process, the steps that have to take place and where you actually have to get to, with constant feedback, a recommendation we should make as a committee?
4:35 p.m.
Director of Operations, 2G Robotics Inc.
I would certainly agree. And that's where, for me, having that single point of contact where they could sort of lay out those steps for me as I was going through it would have been nice.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Scott Armstrong Conservative Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS
Without the support of this program, without being able to tell future clients that you had this first sale and a government client who actually could testify to purchasing your product, would it have been far more difficult to get your company established?
4:35 p.m.
Director of Operations, 2G Robotics Inc.
Yes. I mean, it would certainly have been more difficult. A major customer we're working with right now on a more significant contract specifically referenced that DRDC sale as a benefit in working with us.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Scott Armstrong Conservative Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS
That was a huge breakthrough, really, in positioning your company for more sales.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Scott Armstrong Conservative Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS
Mr. Hayes, to expand on that, if someone came to your operation with an idea like theirs for an underwater scanner, a laser scanner, would it be a much stronger application if they had a government contract already ordered in support of some sort of department in the federal government or a provincial government?
4:35 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, GrowthWorks Atlantic, Canada's Venture Capital and Private Equity Association
I have a couple of comments. First of all, you're always looking for that first customer or reference customer. So yes, for sure it would strengthen the business case they would present to us.
In addition, if the type of technology or product is focused on government agencies, whether they be security agencies or coast guards or DND, it's really important to be able to sell to your own home agencies, like the ones I just listed. If your target market is the navies around the world or the coast guards around the world, such as the Chilean navy, for example, the first question they would ask, because these are small communities, and they all talk to each other, is whether you had work with the Canadian navy.
Absolutely, it's very advantageous to have that kind of support from government agencies here at home.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Scott Armstrong Conservative Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS
Mr. Yeh, you talked a lot about how sometimes we have competition between a small business trying to procure government contracts and bundled contracts, which really preclude them from bidding. When you see the success of a small business basically based on the fact that it has had this one first reference client, do you think that's an argument for us to support more businesses, more start-ups, by having less bundling of government contracts?
4:35 p.m.
President, Canadian Information Technology Providers Association
Definitely the bundling of contracts is excluding the SMEs. Bundled contracts are called large contracts over $10 million. Anything less than $10 million is considered a regular process contract. That's currently how PWGSC defines these large contracts.
SMEs often don't have the capital to do a bundled contract. When you have a smaller-sized contract, the SME can actively participate and can actively compete. It helps the SMEs to establish ground, show what they know, and show what they can do as a solution.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Scott Armstrong Conservative Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS
Mr. Hayes, I'll ask you the same question. Does the bundling of government contracts preclude a lot of businesses you may invest in from actually getting their investment or getting that first reference customer?
4:40 p.m.
NDP
4:40 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, GrowthWorks Atlantic, Canada's Venture Capital and Private Equity Association
It certainly makes it more challenging from the perspective of an early-stage company.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
4:40 p.m.
NDP
The Chair NDP Pat Martin
Thank you very much, Scott.
From the NDP, we'll have Denis Blanchette. Are you ready to take five minutes?
4:40 p.m.
NDP
Denis Blanchette NDP Louis-Hébert, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Yeh, there's a lot of talk about the success of the SMEs that are government suppliers in the IT sector. Can the SMEs' formula for success in the IT sector be exported to other sectors of procurement activity?
I'll be more specific. IT involves a number of components: consulting, hardware sales and software sales. Do some sectors perform better than others? Can that model be exported to other procurement sectors?