But that was all about to change.
“(The company) wasn’t focusing on the software side of the business,” explains CEO Mr. Merkas, adding the two also wanted to venture into the IT and management consulting spheres. The concept of cloud computing, he explains, was just beginning to take off. Companies were slowly beginning to accept the practice as an acceptable way of doing business.
“And people were looking for more economical solutions to their business,” he says. “So when I came on board, my mandate was to sell software to companies looking to leverage cloud computing on the software-as-a-service platform.
“So my focus was to derive a marketing plan and focus on the sales level, to get that off the ground.”
Since then, the two have focused their business efforts solely on organizations in the Ottawa area – somewhat of a gamble, they say, considering the conservative nature of the city. But, “We thought there was enough industry here that we could do it,” explains Mr. Doucet, a CA with an IT designation and the firm’s president.
After signing up a clutch of around 10 local clients, however, the company felt it needed to expand. It’s managed to do so without the help of government clients, at least so far. “We do not have one government entity in this market,” Mr. Merkas says. Just a year after its founding, in 2006, it opened a Toronto office and established a presence in parts of the U.S. “We went after partner relationships,” explains Mr. Merkas, “which exposed us to their customer base.”
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The company’s main value proposition, he says, lies in its assessment of a company’s entire IT and business management infrastructure. “We actually work with the clients to make the right choice up front, instead of selling them new software every year,” he says.
The self-funded company says it just signed a North American distribution deal with local firm Level Platforms, and is considering making some acquisitions in the not-too-distant future – something Mr. Merkas says will require an infusion of capital dollars. But he adds the company isn’t looking to act on this until at least 2011 or 2012.
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Year founded: 2005
Head count: 15
Product/service: Software reseller and developer
Revenue growth: 957%
