"Our plan is to grow (and remain) an independent company. I personally think that Ottawa needs another Cognos, only better," says Mr. Sicard, chief operating officer of supply chain management software specialist Kinaxis.
Despite competing against global heavyweights such as Oracle and SAP, Mr. Sicard says Kinaxis can continue to grow as a stand-alone firm.
Many of the recent takeovers of Ottawa tech firms, such as Bridgewater Systems, were driven in part by a belief that mid-sized local businesses lacked the resources to grow into dominant market players and needed to join larger international companies to compete.
Not only is Kinaxis not seeking a buyer, but Mr. Sicard argues the company's success in recent years would likely make the 16-year-old firm too costly for prospective suitors.
OCRI's 2011 Company of the Year is debt-free, profitable and has seen revenues grow in each of the last five years, according to Mr. Sicard. Its head count is up to approximately 200 employees, the majority of whom are based in Kanata.
Kinaxis develops and markets a cloud-based supply chain management product called RapidResponse Control Tower. Legacy products first developed in the 1990s used mathematical equations to produce a management plan for supply chains; Kinaxis's product also allows large enterprise users to measure the impact of changes in a company's supply chain, as well as to determine who within the company ought to respond.
"What our solution does is it takes all the unexpected things that occur every day and it's measuring the impact of those changes. More importantly though, it determines who should react," Mr. Sicard says.
He attributes much of the recent growth to the decision five years ago to provide its solution using the software-as-a-service model.
"It's one of the best decisions we have ever made, by far," Mr. Sicard says.
The tech firm has a strong presence in Asia, with offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and, most recently, Shanghai. Kinaxis's first jump across the Pacific was into Japan so it could target that country's high concentration of tech firms, which is one of the company's larger markets. The company also sells to the aerospace, defence, industrial equipment and consumer electronics sectors.
Future investments will be geographically focused in Europe and Asia, and will include forays into the life sciences and the automotive industry.
"There are a lot of biopharma companies in Europe, there is automotive in Europe and a degree of high tech there as well," says Mr. Sicard.
Earlier this month, the company opened an office in the Netherlands, which will also serve as a jumping-off point into the Middle East and Africa.
Investors in Kinaxis include Intel Capital, GE Capital and HarbourVest Partners, according to the company.
Peter Andrews, Canadian regional director at The Corum Group, a mergers-and-acquisitions consultancy specializing in privately held software and IT companies, says Kinaxis also has some venture capital financing.
While not speaking about the Kanata firm specifically, Mr. Andrews notes any company that is backed by venture capital will generally be looking for an exit strategy to allow those investors to realize a return on their money.
While that may involve the sale of a company, it can also be an initial public offering, something that Kinaxis's Mr. Sicard muses could be in the firm's future.
"That's not out of the question. As any company grows ... that might be an outcome at some point," says Mr. Sicard.
