NEWS RELEASES
CANADIAN COMPANIES WIN BIG AT COMDEX, LAS VEGAS
November 29, 1996 No. 225
CANADIAN COMPANIES WIN BIG AT COMDEX, LAS VEGAS
International Trade Minister Art Eggleton today welcomed the success of Canadian
information technology (IT) companies that participated in the COMDEX/Fall trade
show in Las Vegas, Nevada, November 18-22.
"Canada's competitive edge in information technology is undeniable, and the
economic growth potential, particularly through exports and international
partnerships, is tremendous," said Mr. Eggleton. "Information technology is the
backbone of the new economy and will continue its established trend as a major
creator of new employment in Canada for years to come. Companies like those
participating in COMDEX have learned how vital such events are to their growth and
profitability."
More than 60 Canadian IT companies offering a variety of computer hardware and
software products -- many Internet-related -- as well as supplies and furnishings,
took part in this massive trade show featuring new products at 2 100 booths and
attracting over 200 000 visitors daily, including a high proportion of senior
decision makers.
The 16 companies in the Canada Pavilion negotiated reseller distributorships,
joint ventures and strategic alliances and signed several multi-million dollar
long- and short-term agreements. Among the successes, a first-time exhibitor,
Scholars.com from Fredericton, New Brunswick, a leader in IT training, landed
contracts that will double its revenues in the next year by an anticipated $2
million in sales, and enable them to hire 10 new employees.
Canada's information technology and telecommunications industry generated $54.6
billion in revenues in 1994, an increase of 10 per cent from 1993. The
contribution to Canadian GDP by information technology and telecommunications
industries was over $30 billion in 1994, up from the 1993 level of $27 billion.
This sector included more than 15 000 firms in 1994 and employed about 300 000
people.
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A list detailing the achievements of a number of the Canadian companies
participating at COMDEX is attached.
For more information media representatives may contact:
Nicole Bourget
Director of Communications
Office of the Minister for International Trade
(613) 996-6271
Media Relations Office
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
(613) 995-1874
This document is also available on the Department's Internet site:
http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca
Canadian Announcements at COMDEX, Las Vegas
November 18 - 22, 1996
CANADIAN STAND EXHIBITORS
Televitesse Systems Inc. (Kanata, Ontario) used the COMDEX opportunity to
introduce to the U.S. market their revolutionary intelligent television system --
accesTV, PC software giving the power to select and manage what you see on
television.
RES International Inc. (Ottawa, Ontario) introduced several of its products: RES
Bazar, a Web-based purchasing system for public sector organizations or other
buyers with multiple cost centres; and RES Cybermall Bazar, designed to provide
buyers with the ability to show in a virtual mall and receive payment for selected
items using secure technology to transfer credit card information and
authorization to the merchants.
Lasermedia Inc. (Toronto, Ontario) is leading the health and fitness industry into
the information age with "Active Trainer" and "Active Abs," a complete multimedia
CD-ROM system for strength training.
Mediatrix Peripherals Inc. (Sherbrooke, Quebec) unveiled the Audiotrix Phone, a
hardware-based computer telephony solution allowing high quality, full duplex
conversations over a computer network, including the Internet.
Ooriane International (Montreal, Quebec) -- Company President, Nica Reich,
announced that Canada's Department of National Defence has selected Ooriane's
Repository and Case Tool, to use to produce their own programs for management of
human resources, distribution of information and data warehousing.
Scholars.com (Fredericton, New Brunswick) -- a leader in IT training -- landed
contracts for a Windows NT Certification Guarantee program for the Microsoft On-Line Institute and established an agreement with Novell Corp. to provide on-line
training on their behalf. As a result of the Novell arrangements, the company
announced it would be hiring immediately six new instructors and that it
anticipates $2 million in revenues.
OTHER CANADIAN COMPANIES AT COMDEX
TechnoCafé -- COMDEX was the venue for the launch of a creative collective of
eleven Canadian companies in eight cities between Quebec City, Montreal and Ottawa
who formed what may be the world's first virtual company. As part of the
TechnoCafé, companies collaborate on marketing, R & D and business projects.
Eight of the companies were at the TechnoCafé exhibit at COMDEX. Michael Ker,
President and CEO of Enterprise Planning Development (Kanata, Ontario) explained:
"This is a true Canadian virtual corporation and we're breaking business barriers
between Quebec and Ontario."
Ker received strong interest for his business from 20 distributors from across the
world and expects another six to eight to sign distribution agreements within six
months. "They're coming to us. We don't have to go to them." Ker expects that
in one year this would generate between $1-2 million in revenue.
Other TechnoCafé partners include ShowbaseMedia Inc., (Aylmer, Quebec) who used
COMDEX to introduce ShowBase Classic, a Windows-based tool that creates Web-ready
databases from existing, popular database packages such as DBase, Access, Foxpro,
Paradox, ACT, Excel, Lotus and Inmagic.
The company generated considerable interest at COMDEX, receiving recognition as a
"hot product" from the trade show daily publication. "We've had discussions with
four major players in the market," said Michael Desautels, President of
ShowbaseMedia. Desautels signed two licensees that will carry a guaranteed
100 000 units of their products, which means $300 000 for the 14-employee company.
Each product licence offers the potential for upgrading to a more feature-rich
version, generating additional revenue.
Caravell, (Nepean, Ontario) also launched a new product at COMDEX -- Transceive,
the Internet Transmitter and Receiver, which pushes information across the
Internet to desktops of a targeted audience using an open channels model.
Transceive is ideal for use as a Web brochure, Internet information agent and
publisher's assistant, and doubles as a powerful personal productivity tool.
FlashSales, (Montreal, Quebec) introduced its e-Stationary, a high context e-mail
system with facilities in five languages. "Our customers are Internet-Intranet
users," said Richard Gather, President of FlashSales. "Right now there are 35
million people worldwide using e-mail, and expectations for 200 million by the
year 2000. If we capture 5 per cent of that market, that could mean $300 million
annual revenue for our company!"
ZyTrax Communications Inc., (Saint-Laurent, Quebec) launched Turbo 600+ to add
voice capability to its family of Personal ISDN routers that increase Internet
speed to up to 10 times faster than 28.8K modems. "COMDEX is an opportunity to
see if you have a competitive product and to measure yourself against the
competition, " says President, Eric Melka. "Some of the large U.S. telco
companies are interested in business partnerships or distributor relationships."
Netcorp, (Montreal, Quebec) was also part of the TechnoCafé group and was able to
bring its products to the attention of key distributors from around the world.
"We met high level decision makers here," said Eugene Gaines, Director of Sales,
"and as a small firm, being part of the TechnoCafé allowed us to project a large-company profile."
GlobalMedic (Montreal, Quebec) -- an Internet healthware company -- offers an online
health assistance product: anyone can enter the Web site and access a variety of
health services based on an expert system. The company has positioned itself in
both the information technology and healthcare sectors. Their product is marketed
to Healthcare Management Organizations and group insurance companies in the United
States.
Vanity Software (Toronto, Ontario) introduced new ergonomic software at its first-ever COMDEX. According to Tim Stanley, Vice President of Sales and Marketing,
Vanity Software received positive feedback on its two new entertainment products --
Dilbert Break and Trivial Pursuit Break -- designed to promote safety at the
computer. "We met with four major retailers at COMDEX in the first two days and
expect shelf placement in over 500 retail outlets in the U.S. by March 1997."
Stanley estimates at least $800 000 in revenue through the deals and hopes it
could go as high as $5 million.
Vanity also received two proposals for secure distribution of the products
throughout Germany and France, including one from the largest distributor of
ergonomic products in Europe. "The Europe deal will represent over $1 million in
revenue in the first 12 months," says Stanley. "We tripled our reseller network
from 30 to 100 through our presence at COMDEX." Vanity uses software animators in
the Toronto area, many of them graduates from Sheridan College.
Smart Technologies Inc. (Calgary, Alberta) introduced the SMART Board 720, the
largest touch-sensitive screen currently available in interactive electronic
whiteboards. The company generated about 500 sales leads each day during the
five-day event.
Corel Corporation (Ottawa, Ontario) announced plans to join such companies as
Oracle, Sun Microsystems and IBM in releasing a Network Computer (NC). The Corel
Video NC will also ship with Corel Office for Java, Corel's new suite of office
applications. Corel also launched VENTURA 7, a full-featured, high-end desktop
publishing package offering multimedia capabilities, a new customized user
interface and powerful document design tools.
Media Synergy (Toronto, Ontario) unveiled @aloha, a multimedia solution that
allows users to attach animation, voice, graphics and music to e-mail messages.
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