To some, the differences between Canada and the U.S. comes down to hockey vs. baseball, kilometers vs. miles and “about” vs. “aboot.” All kidding aside, when it comes to the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, the two countries share an underlying skills gap, but conduct business in very different ways. CompTIA’s IT Services and Support (ITSS) Community in Canada is a collaborative group that works to provide resources to smaller Canadian ICT firms. These firms often take on a breadth of roles to successfully transform their businesses into newer revenue generation services.
The number of large companies in the Canadian ICT sector is relatively small. According to the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC), Canada was home to approximately 100 tech companies with more than 500 employees in 2011. Comparatively, there were more than 27,900 companies with less than 10 employees, accounting for 83 percent of all the companies in the sector.
“There are 3,500-plus miles across Canada,” said Bryan L’Esperance, director of member communities, industry relations at CompTIA. “But, most businesses operate predominately within 100 miles of the U.S. border. Plus, you have cities and towns that are spread out in far less dense pockets all over northern Canada. Canadian solution providers typically collaborate with other organizations across the country to gain national coverage, meaning they’re a mile wide and an inch deep – touching everything, but some things only at a surface level.”
This broader focus is the ITSS Canada community’s main challenge. “How can we best serve the majority of Canadian ICT firms when the operational person is also the strategy person?” asked Chris Adamson, director of IT and professional services for Ricoh Canada and the ITSS Canada community chair. Right now, the answer is utilizing the community as a window to what’s going on in the industry. “We’re striving to come up with best practices and standards, education and networking opportunities and creation of a forum for peer-to-peer dialogue that allows these smaller organizations to decide what they can drill down on and how it can help grow their business,” L’Esperance said.
Transforming to New Business Models
In the past, the ITSS Canada community was really all about the break/fix side of the business. ICT firms relied heavily on warranty work to generate revenue. Today, that part of the business has faded away and evolved into managed services.
In the last two to three years, the ITSS Canada community has also shifted focus. “We used to concentrate primarily on dealing with issues between vendors and solution providers, such as cost savings, productivity and customer satisfaction,” Adamson said. “But now, we’ve rolled those components into educational offerings and networking opportunities that allow companies to expand into cloud computing, managed print services and other verticals. We’re focused on helping smaller organizations reskill and transform into new business models.”
Willing to Share
L’Esperance said that while the ITSS Canada community focus has shifted to align with newer business models, the core of the community remains the same. “Once a company sells a solution to a customer, ownership transfers to someone else within that organization,” he said. “The purpose of ITSS is to make sure the promises that the company made are actually being fulfilled and working to the benefit of the customer.”
L’Esperance also notes that while there will always be problems for ICT firms to fix, the way to fix these problems has, in some cases, changed drastically. “This is where the sense of community comes into play,” said Adamson. “There’s a core part of this community that has been working together for a dozen years now. We understand the pros and cons of operating a smaller business and having to wear multiple hats to get the job done and we’re constantly collaborating on resources that are transferable to our Canadian ICT industry at large,” he said.
Recruiting and Retaining
Another topic the ITSS Canada community is collaborating on is how to make the ICT industry more attractive; to help with recruitment and retention at member firms. The ICTC estimates that more than 106,000 new ICT-related positions will need to be filled in Canada by 2016. Yet there is a shortage of qualified applicants for these jobs. To make things a little more complicated, the Canadian ICT industry is looking for workers with many different skills rather than specific technical expertise.
In fact, a brief survey at an ITSS community meeting showed that when it comes to expanding business, areas of interest ranged from field support services (58 percent) to account management (13 percent), with managed print services, managed services, operations, solution development, cloud, mobility and security – among others – falling somewhere in between. Canadian businesses require knowledge about everything on the horizon, so it stands to reason that ICT firms are seeking candidates with broader skill-sets.
Adamson says the recruitment and retention piece is two-fold. “Our group is grappling with how to make the ICT industry more attractive and how we can help educate and communicate to management in regards to what’s coming down the pipe,” he said.
Moving Forward
The challenge of serving an ICT industry composed mostly of small businesses combined with the ever-changing ICT landscape and an impending labor shortage and skills gap means the ITSS Canada community has a lot on its plate. While the function of the community remains the same, the focus is shifting to align with newer business models and provide support in terms of education and networking opportunities. The group is moving forward on several initiatives to address many of the industry’s obstacles and encourages Canadian businesses to get involved. Click here for more information on what the ITSS Canada community is currently working on and email us at communities@comptia.org if you’d like to get involved.
