Educom TS Inc., Ottawa, Ontario

www.educomts.com

In March 2000, EDUCOM TS Inc., an Ottawa-based software publisher, released its flagship product, Exchange Archive Solution (EAS). Today, the firm of 35 people does 99 percent of its business outside Canada through five exclusive distributors and an extensive network of resellers. EDUCOM has tripled its sales in each of the past three fiscal years. It was recently recognized as among the world's top three developers of e-mail archive management software.

Much of this skyrocketing success, says EDUCOM Managing Director Debbie Moffat, is due to federal government services such as trade missions and Trade Commissioners. "Within a few months of releasing EAS, we identified a number of emerging competitors and realized that we needed global exposure if we were going to compete with the big guys," says Moffat. "Sitting in Ottawa, we wondered how we could become international and mitigate risk." As a first step, the firm contacted the Canadian embassies and consulates in five major countries. "It was the best thing we could have done. We provided trade commissioners with a profile of the companies we wanted to work with, our objectives and product description. They then found just the right match with people who not only met our criteria but also bridge the cultural gap between Canada and their own regions."

During the 2002 Canada Trade Mission to South Africa, EDUCOM signed a contract with SOARsoft Africa to represent and distribute EDUCOM's e-mail management products throughout the continent. SOARsoft will provide direct sales and, through the development of a channel represented by resellers, provide all levels of engineering support and training. The value of the agreement is approximately $10 million over two years, all of which is Canadian content.

EDUCOM products help clients protect corporate intellectual property, enhance user access to information and reduce e-mail server overload. EAS-Wireless, another of its products, is designed to manage the overwhelming quantity of e-mail with which mobile users have to deal.

11/A2002