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New market research conducted on behalf of PayPal Canada by Leger Marketing shows that 56 per cent of Canadians are comfortable with never having to handle cash to make a purchase and many would prefer the use of a digital wallet to give money to others or pay for items when shopping. PayPal accounts have always provided digital wallet functionality. PayPal is Canada’s most trusted digital wallet and provides its more than four million Canadian customers the ability to pay and get paid using their bank account, credit cards or PayPal balance from their computer, smartphone or virtually any Internet-connected device.

Given the choice, 34 per cent of survey respondents would rather carry a mobile phone to make a payment than a pocket full of change. The survey also indicates that 36 per cent of Canadians would make mobile payments for a wide variety of purchases, on average, saying they would use their mobile device to buy something as expensive as an iPod ($272.30) or as inexpensive as a latte ($5.50). As consumers continue to transition to smartphones and get more comfortable shopping and paying with their mobile phone, PayPal, which reported $750 million in mobile payment volume in 2010 anticipates the company’s mobile payment volume should increase by the end of 2011 to $3 billion globally. In Canada, a PayPal mobile transaction happens once almost every minute.

Canadians are also looking for an easier and faster way to give money to others. Almost 40 per cent of survey respondents say using a mobile phone to make a payment would be more convenient because they can make transactions whenever and wherever they want and 60 per cent of respondents would find it appealing to not have to find a bank machine every time they need to pay someone back. Read the rest of this entry »

A major report released today by Canada’s Science, Technology and Innovation Council (STIC) says that harnessing an excellent talent pool is the key to lifting Canada into the top tier of innovation leaders.

State of the Nation 2010: Imagination to Innovation – the second public report from STIC – charts progress from a baseline set in 2008 and compares Canadian performance to global science, technology and innovation leaders. The report also proposes a core list of 20 indicators for future monitoring. The list covers talent, science and technology and other innovation indicators.

The report shows that Canada’s strengths are a strong talent pool and a robust public research capacity. Its two main challenges are to increase private sector investment in innovation and to improve Canada’s capacity to transfer knowledge into the marketplace. State of the Nation 2010: Imagination to Innovation shows that Canada is settling in as a mid-level player despite having an excellent talent pool.

Canadian talent and Canada’s funding for R&D and higher education research continues to rank near the top; young Canadians excel in science, math and reading; Canada is attracting international talent, and innovative excellence can be found in virtually every region and economic sector.

Our challenges include reversing the trend of Canadian industry investing less in R&D than our key global competitors.  Despite some real Canadian success stories, low levels of collaboration among companies and between companies and researchers in universities, colleges and government laboratories continue to limit our business potential.

A less innovative economy results in fewer ideas transferred into the marketplace, lower productivity rates and less economic and social benefits for Canadians.

Canada has strong public research capacity

• Canada ranks # 1 in the G7 in terms of research and development performed by the higher education sector (HERD), as a percentage of GDP.
• Canada has a strong international reputation and is attracting new talent.

Canada’s talent pool is holding its own

• Our young people continue to outperform most countries in reading, math and science.
• Among economically advanced countries, Canada has had one of the highest growth rates in university graduates in science and engineering, especially at the doctoral level.
• Canadian universities rank well in lists of the world’s top institutions.

Canada must increase investment in innovation

• Gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD), as a percentage of GDP lags behind the G7 and other leading innovators. It declined from 2006-08.
• 8 out of 16 Canadian industry sectors had lower R&D intensity (BERD) than the OECD average.
• Over the 2000-07 period, machinery and equipment investment was less than 75% of US levels and ICT investment was less than half US levels.
• Although Canada is a global leader in indirect support for industry R&D (through tax credits), it ranks low in terms of direct support for business R&D.

Canada must strengthen knowledge transfer

• Business financing of R&D performed by universities has grown substantially but knowledge transfer indicators such as contract research, licence applications and spin-off companies could be better measured to benchmark future performance.
• In 2009, venture capital to support small companies was the lowest since 1996 ranking 7^th in OECD with lower rates of return than US.
• Canada must measure collaboration between private and public sector.
• Fostering research collaboration between the public and private sectors will help ensure that Canada’s world-class public research can be successfully translated into benefits for Canadians.

STIC members span business, academia and government.  Members said the following about the State of the Nation 2010 report:

“Canada’s biggest opportunity lies in our excellent talent pool. We score very highly in a number of education related indicators. The challenge is how companies and government can deploy and empower our people so we can win in the knowledge economy.” – Dr. Howard Alper, Chair of STIC. Read the rest of this entry »

A recent Vendor Landscape report evaluating dedicated Secure Socket Layer Virtual Private Network (SSL VPN) appliances published by the Ontario-based Info-Tech Research Group ranked WatchGuard, SonicWALL and Barracuda as Champions in the space. All three vendors were recognized for offering significant value for money.

“As workers become more and more mobile, SSL VPN is becoming a de facto requirement for every enterprise,” said James Quin, Lead Research Analyst for Info-Tech Research Group. “SSL VPN is critical for organizations that employ remote or mobile workers or aim to increase productivity by providing 24×7 corporate network access.”

According to Info-Tech Research Group, organizations looking to purchase a dedicated appliance based SSL VPN solution will get best value for money by selecting any of the three Champions in the report. WatchGuard received the “Best Overall Value Award” with SonicWALL trailing by just one point. Both earned high marks because of their rock bottom pricing along with broad feature sets. Barracuda Networks narrowly missed finishing in the top two spots on the Value Index. Their solution is also available at a great price, but offers less functionality for now. Mobile device support is not currently available with Barracuda Networks, but the vendor has plans for its availability in an upcoming release.

Array Networks and Juniper Networks are “Innovators” in the SSL VPN market according to the report. Their products both scored exceptionally well in the evaluation and as their presence in the market grows, both are poised to become Champions in the space.

The latest research from custom research company TNS Global, a division of WPP, shows that Canadians are among the most tech hungry and savvy in the world – especially when it comes to latest smartphones and tablets – with men driving this trend.

Commenting on the report findings, Ron Caughlin, Vice President, TNS Canada, said: “TNS’ Mobile Life 2011 survey rings loud and clear: Canadians are leaders when it comes to adapting latest technologies. As part of this, we’re seeing a real mind-shift: it’s no longer what my technology does – it’s what I can do with my technology. We’re past the days of using mobiles to merely text or even email – smartphones are providing us with the ability to seamlessly connect our friends, family and even finances.”

TNS’s Mobile Life 2011 survey is the largest ever global research project into today’s mobile consumer and includes insights from 34,000 respondents globally, including more than 1,000 Canadians. The survey reveals that an overwhelming 41% of Canadians have a smartphone – significantly higher than the global market average of 28% – with this trend being driven by 22 – 30 year old Canadian men.

Interestingly, the number of Canadians accessing social networking sites on mobile rose from 6% in 2010 to 24% this year. When asked how they use their social networks on their handsets, a majority (63%) of Canadians said they check friends’ status or update their own; 62% send messages to friends and 56% check their own inbox. Although only 8% currently use their social networking app on their mobile to check-in their location, 20% would like to be able to do this in the future.

As Canadians look to rely on their mobiles for more complex functions, the ‘brand’ is no longer as important. While 37% of respondents were loyal to their network brand in 2010, this dropped to 28% in 2011. In turn, consumers’ attention turned to what ‘content’ their phone provides – such as Facebook and YouTube programs – as interest in content grew from 24% in 2010 to 36% in 2011.

The Mobile Life 2011 study shows that Canadians have huge interest in the ‘mobile wallet’. While 10% of Canadians have already used a mobile wallet, 4 in 10 are interested in using their cell phone as a credit card or debit card in the future.

In addition, 17% of Canadians want to be able to pay for items in shops, restaurants and bars, meanwhile a further 14% want to pay for water, power or rates bills, and even 8% said they’d be willing to pay rent or mortgage payments with their mobile. Once again, 16-40 year old Canadian men are driving this trend.

TNS’ data also shows while Canadians paid an average $129 (CND) for their current mobile phone, they are prepared to fork-out $150 (CND) for their next handset. What’s more, men are even willing to pay $169 for their next mobile – $30 more than women. Read the rest of this entry »

The wireless rankings released today by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) are based on a limited sample of wireless providers and plans from each of the profiled countries. Although the OECD’s revised methodology better captures the variety of mobile usage patterns in different countries, the rankings should still not be considered representative of International wireless costs.

Therefore, if using the OECD rankings as part of an overall comparison of international wireless markets, the following limitations must be considered:

• The OECD rankings typically only consider a couple of wireless plans from two different carriers – Canada’s complete OECD wireless price ranking across six different calling profiles is based on fees from only four different wireless plans (two each from Bell and Rogers).
• The OECD compares post-paid, pre-paid and ‘friends and family’ plans to develop rankings within a single calling profile.
• The OECD rankings do not recognize that nearly half of the wireless subscribers in the OECD countries outside of North America pay for more than one mobile plan.
• The OECD rankings do not measure the affordability of wireless service by considering average incomes in each of the profiled countries.

Typical Canadian mobile calling patterns are also not reflected in the OECD calculations. In fact, the OECD calling profiles closest to the average Canadian cell phone usage profile are based on 187 less, or 194 more, minutes-of use per month than the average Canadian usage. Consequently, Canada ranks as having above-average wireless costs in four of the OECD’s six Calls Baskets.

International wireless cost comparisons that address the omissions of the OECD rankings reveal that Canada’s average per-minute wireless costs are in reality $0.02 below the international average, 11^th– lowest of all OECD countries. Also, as a percentage of average income, Canadian’s pay 10 per cent less for wireless voice service than the international average and 12 per cent less for wireless (voice and data) service overall.

Nordicity’s International Wireless Market Comparison (PDF) report analyzes other key wireless market conditions. In doing so, it reveals that Canada has the least densely subscribed network of any developed wireless market with only 12 subscribers for every square kilometre of coverage. This density compares with 37 subscribers per square kilometre in the United States and 312 subscribers per square kilometre in the United Kingdom.

Canada is now served by three national wireless providers and six regional providers, resulting in one of the most competitive market structures of any developed wireless market. In fact, Canada is one of only six OECD countries where the two leading providers serve fewer than 70 per cent of all subscribers and the top three providers serve less than 95 per cent of all subscribers.

Canadian small business owners say they are spending a lot of time sweating the small stuff when they could be focusing on the big picture of how to grow. According to the quarterly American Express Small Business Monitor, entrepreneurs recognize planning, hiring, and marketing as key business functions but admit to spending a big part of their day on tasks such as office administration, cleaning and repairs. It would appear a big part of Canada’s business backbone is caught between planning for success and maintaining the status quo.

More than half (59%) of respondents to the latest survey, conducted by Angus Reid Public Opinion, say their business would be in a much better position if they could spend more time doing what they’re good at. Specifically, small business owners say more than a quarter (26%) of every day is focused on activities they don’t consider core to their business. Almost half (48%) report that they can’t concentrate on growing their business because they are spending too much time running it, and many remain reluctant to hire outside help to share the workload.

“We know small business owners put their heart and soul into everything they do, so a reluctance to rely on others is only natural,” said Eric Nielsen, Vice President & General Manager, Small Business Services Canada, American Express Canada. “But looking for outside help for even a few tasks can allow owners to focus on the work they love and the reason for starting their own business in the first place.”

Exactly what non-core tasks are small business owners taking on themselves? Findings show owners are spending valuable time on such tasks as secretarial work (49%), technical support (48%), office/property repairs and cleaning (40%), and doing their own website construction (30%), rather than hiring outside help. Control is a key consideration for them: 56 per cent don’t want to give up control over any aspect of their business, even if it means doing everything themselves.

It’s not that small business owners don’t recognize the dilemma: 38 per cent of respondents say they waste a lot of time doing things that other people would be more qualified to do. Nevertheless, they are reluctant to outsource for a number of reasons, including a desire to maintain quality (38%), and the time it takes to hire and manage outsourced contractors (24%). The single greatest factor, though, is that outsourcing is seen by more than half (52%) as too expensive. Read the rest of this entry »

Canada’s relatively low number of people with advanced qualifications— such as PhDs—could be contributing to our failing grade on innovation, according to The Conference Board of Canada’s latest How Canada Performs analysis.

“The education and skills of the labour force are the underpinnings of innovation. Canada gets excellent results from its education system as a whole. However, Canada’s performance begins to slip as we climb the educational ladder. Indeed, Canada falls to the back of the pack when it comes to advanced knowledge and skills, such as graduates from PhD programs and science and engineering disciplines,” said Michael Bloom, Vice-President, Organizational Effectiveness and Learning. “Our analysis finds a link between a country’s innovation performance and the number of PhDs and science and engineering graduates.”

Canada ranked 14^th out of 17 peer countries in overall innovation performance in the Conference Board’s How Canada Performs Innovation report card (published in 2010). Moreover, Canada has obtained consistent “D” grades in innovation performance since the 1980s. Yet Canada is a consistent top performer overall in the Education and Skills report card, ranking second only to Finland in the most recent release. Canada’s ranking slips, however, as we move from high-school completion (second) to university completion (fifth) to PhD graduates (last of 17).

The Conference Board found a positive relationship between higher PhD graduation rates and a country’s patenting activity. Patents are a commonly used measure of innovation activity, tracking how knowledge is being transformed into invention. Countries that rank high on patents – such as Switzerland, Sweden and Germany – also have high PhD graduation rates. Canada ranked 14^th out of 17 countries on patents by population and last on PhD graduates. Read the rest of this entry »

Symantec Corp. has revealed the findings of its 2011 Virtualization and Evolution to the Cloud Survey which examined how organizations plan to move business-critical initiatives to virtual and hybrid cloud computing environments. The survey highlighted topics including server, client, and storage virtualization, storage-as-a-service, and hybrid/private cloud technologies; and the results uncover disparities between expectations and reality as enterprises deploy these solutions. CEOs and CFOs are concerned with moving business-critical applications into virtual or cloud environments due to challenges including reliability, security, availability and performance. The survey is based on more than 3,700 respondents from 35 countries worldwide, including 200 respondents from Canada.

“Cloud computing represents a major shift within IT – changing from a traditional IT delivery to a service-provider model.  Moving to the cloud is a complex evolution for many companies and it’s essential that IT and executives are aligned on initiatives,” said John Magee, vice president of virtualization and cloud solutions, Symantec.  “Virtualization is an enabler for private and hybrid clouds and our survey shows that planning a seamless move is critical to achieving all the simplicity, affordability and efficiency that these environments have to offer.”

Adoption of server virtualization is widespread, and more than 75 percent of organizations are discussing private and hybrid cloud deployments.  Of the technologies evaluated in the survey, server and storage virtualization are the most mature with 45 and 43 percent of enterprises implementing.   Private Storage-as-a-Service is the least mature with 36 percent adopting.

Early investments have revealed gaps between expectations and reality which indicate that organizations are still learning what these technologies are capable of and how to overcome the new challenges they bring with them. We asked respondents about initial goals in server, storage, and endpoint virtualization; private Storage-as-a-Service; and hybrid/private cloud.  We then asked those who have already implemented which goals they actually achieved.  The difference between the two answers revealed an expectation gap.

• Server virtualization projects were most successful, with only a 4 percent average gap between expected and realized goals.  The biggest gaps occurred in scalability, reducing capital expenditures and reducing operating expenditures.
• The average shortfall in storage virtualization was 33 percent, with disappointments coming in agility, scalability and reducing operating expenditures.
• Respondents reported an average gap between expected and realized goals of 26 percent with endpoint/desktop virtualization.  They cited disappointments in new endpoint deployment, application delivery and application compatibility.
• Seventy-seven percent of organizations are considering private Storage-as-a-Service, but these projects are challenging to implement and fall short of expectations by 37 percent.  For example, complexity reduction was a goal for 84 percent of respondents, but reached by only 44 percent.

These gaps are a hallmark of early stage markets where expectations are out of step with reality.  As the virtualization and cloud markets continue to mature, we expect to see those gaps close. Read the rest of this entry »

The emergence of digital markets can help Canada’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sell internationally by increasing access to foreign customers and improving the quality, speed, and cost-effectiveness of transactions.

Despite the potential benefits, Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are hesitant to sell online because they lack the knowledge of how to do so effectively, according to a Conference Board of Canada report, Building International Sales in a Digitized Economy: Best Practices for SMEs. The report identifies three main factors that contribute to success in international digital markets: a favourable online reputation, strong online technological capabilities, and an engaged online brand community.

“Most Canadian small and medium-sized businesses use the internet, but online selling is not yet widespread,” said Rebecca Reuber, co-author and Professor of Strategic Management at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. “Many small and medium-sized businesses do not know how to reach foreign customers online or how to adapt their business model to take advantage of digital markets.”

“Although greater internationalization provides growth opportunities, doing business in foreign markets can be difficult and costly for resource-constrained SMEs, and most of them operate solely in the domestic market,” said Eileen Fischer, co-author and Max and Anne Tanenbaum Chair of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise. “One particular hurdle for some firms is the investment that’s required in technology to sell effectively online. ”

A Statistics Canada survey reported in 2008 that only 36 per cent of Canadian private sector organizations believed doing business over the Internet would allow them to reach new customers. And a 2010 Statistics Canada study found that only seven per cent of small enterprises and 13 per cent of medium size enterprises were selling online in 2007, about the same percentage reported in 2001.

The Conference Board report shows that the competitive context for SMEs in international digital markets differs from that in traditional markets. Online buyers are more apt to imitate the purchasing behavior of other customers, technological capabilities increase in importance, and online buyers are interested in participating in online communities. As a result, three main factors that affect company success are:

• A favourable online reputation – elements include visibility, trustworthiness, and signals of high product or service quality.
• Strong online technological capabilities – the CEO and other top managers must champion technological development, rather than delegating responsibility.
• Engaged online brand communities – buyers increasingly want to become involved with firms, so companies should invest resources in monitoring a range of social media and interacting with customers.

The research also identifies three major challenges. First, SME owners need to be cautious about relying exclusively on online contact with customers. Second, entering foreign markets haphazardly – or as market pioneers – can lead to costly mistakes that could be avoided with a deliberate and coherent strategy. Third, SME owners need to think about how “Canadian” they want their image or brand to be, as there can be advantages in making borders as invisible as possible.

The report concludes on a series of eight policy-related implications, including:

• foster offline interactions between buyers and sellers;
• focus on foreign markets with high growth potential instead of simply responding to unsolicited online requests;
• ensure access to high capacity Internet and wireless networks;
• ensure banks and government agencies are able to assess intangible resources, such as a firm’s reputation and online community;
• provide more recent data about the international activities of Canadian SME in digital markets;

This report is publicly available at www.e-library.ca and was produced by the International Trade and Investment Centre for the Conference Board’s CanCompete program. CanCompete is a three-year program of research and dialogue is designed to help leading decision makers advance Canada on a path of national competitiveness. The International Trade and Investment Centre also published Canada’s Trade in a Digital World in April 2011.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has released statistical and financial information on Canadian television showing increased profits for all services for the broadcast year ending August 31, 2010.  The data includes information from conventional television stations and specialty, pay and pay-per-view television services, as well as video-on-demand services (pay and specialty services).

Conventional Television – Statistical and Financial Summaries 2006-2010
Pay Television, Pay-Per-View, Video-On-Demand and Specialty Services – Statistical and Financial Summaries 2006-2010

Revenues for private conventional television grew by 9% from $1.97 billion in 2009 to approximately $2.15 billion in 2010. Expenses during the same period increased by 1.7% from $2.01 billion in 2009 to $2.05 billion in 2010.  As a result, profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) improved significantly from a deficit of $116.6 million in 2009 to a profit of $11.5 million in 2010 for a PBIT margin of 0.5%.

Revenues for pay and specialty services grew by 11.1 % from $3.11 billion in 2009 to approximately $3.46 billion in 2010.  Expenses during the same period were 8.1% higher, going from $2.31 billion to $2.49 billion.  Therefore, PBIT for pay and specialty services improved from $728.6 million in 2009 to $877.3 million in 2010 for a PBIT margin of 25.4%.

The total revenues of $2.15 billion for private conventional television were generated from the following sources:

• $350 million in local advertising,
• $1.6 billion from national advertising,
• $65.9 million from the Local Programming Improvement Fund, and
• $117.9 million from other sources.

The total revenues of $3.5 billion for pay and specialty services were generated from the following sources:

• $1.58 billion from cable television subscribers
• $668 million from direct-to-home satellite subscribers
• $1.09 billion from national advertising
• $19.6 million from local advertising, and
• $99.9 million from other sources.

After stagnating in 2009, investment in Canadian programming increased by 12.6% for private conventional television and 8.8% for pay and specialty services.

Private conventional television spending on Canadian programming totalled $696.3 million, including $304.6 million on news programs, $50.9 million on documentaries and other information programs, $141 million on sports programming, $85.5 million on drama and $21.7 million on musical and variety shows.

Pay and specialty services spending on Canadian programming totalled $1.12 billion, including $179.6 million on news programs, $258.4 million on documentaries and other information programs, $353.2 million on sports programming, $143.6 million on drama, and $42.4 million on musical and variety shows.

In 2010, these sectors of the broadcasting industry employed 11,761 people and paid a total of $925.3 million in salaries. Private conventional television experienced a workforce decrease of 6.3% in 2010, while the pay and specialty services workforce remained relatively stable. Read the rest of this entry »