2007 Gala Banquet Review

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Entrepreneurs and Partnerships Share the Glory At Historic 2007 CIPA Awards Gala

Ed Lawlor, founder and President of DeltaWare Systems of Charlottetown, the first regional inductee to the CIPA Hall of Fame, gives a rousing call to "believe Canadian!"

Innovation in Canada is a two-sided coin, and its value was richly displayed at the 2007 CIPA Awards Gala.

The 15th annual Gala at the Westin Harbour Castle Convention Centre in Toronto on November 14 was a showcase for the transformation of Canada's economy through innovation built on information and communications technologies.

On one side of the innovation coin is entrepreneurship. It was personified at the Gala by Ed Lawlor, founder and President of DeltaWare Systems, an IT company based in Charlottetown. He was honoured as the first regional inductee to the CIPA Hall of Fame and gave a rousing speech in praise of the spirit of entrepreneurship that has helped to put Prince Edward Island as well as Canada on the technology map.

Then there were the two gung-ho entrepreneurs from Edmonton, Brent Moore and Russell Love, who could barely contain their delight on stage when their company, Canhaul.com, won the Gold Award of Excellence in the for-profit sector of the Innovation category for creating an online service to help shippers find empty trucks in their area, which otherwise would have to return empty to home base.

The other side of Canadian innovation, as revealed at the Gala, is collaboration. Visionary leaders can enhance Canada's entire society by uniting the efforts of departments, organizations or jurisdictions in projects that apply information and communications technologies to transform business processes.

A sparkling example is Cancer Care Ontario, winner of the Diamond Award of Excellence in the not-for-profit sector for its Wait Time Information System. This system, developed on behalf of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care with the collaboration of many physicians and healthcare institutions, has made possible for the first time the efficient measurement and tracking of wait times for surgeries.

Healthcare in Spotlight

Cancer Care Ontario was not alone among healthcare organizations that took home CIPA awards. In fact there were six, from coast to coast and from both the private and public sectors, who received gold and silver Awards of Excellence. They accounted for one-quarter of the 24 awards presented, the first time that healthcare has been prominently represented in the multi-sector CIPA awards.

This marked the emergence into the Canadian mainstream of integrated healthcare systems made possible by ICT innovations. CIPA further recognized the importance of this revolution by inducting into its Hall of Fame the president and CEO of Canada Health Infoway, Richard Alvarez. He has been a champion of technology in healthcare for 20 years and now is directing the effort of the federally funded not-for-profit organization to develop an interoperable, pan-Canadian health record solution.

There were several other ways in which the 2007 CIPA Awards Gala reflected a moment of history. The event showed that:

All regions are competing more than ever to be known as centres of business excellence and innovation, and all are producing results. As Larry Simon, chair of the CIPA National Judging Panel and practice leader of QR Systems of Toronto noted: "We received a record 170 entries from across the country, from which 83 finalist organizations were selected. Every province from Newfoundland to BC is represented with finalists here this evening."

British Columbia had a good year, producing 10 finalist organizations of which four were selected as winners by the 15-member judging panel. Olga Ilich, BC's Minister of Labour and Citizens' Services, seized the opportunity to express pride in the achievements of her province's finalists and to state that the BC government recognizes the urgency of improving productivity.

Ilich described how technology-based initiatives will save hundreds of millions of dollars for BC taxpayers in the coming decade and underscored the important role of collaboration:

"When you harness the combined creativity of the private and public sectors, service levels can be enhanced. Government can focus its resources more strategically. And when you reduce costs, increase revenue or maximize cost avoidance, it's the taxpayer who benefits."

CIO of the Year

• ICT solutions are now strategically integrated with business decisions in organizations of all kinds. This was illustrated by many CIPA finalists and by the selection of Hugh Kelly, Senior Vice President Information Technology and Chief Information Officer of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, as the CIPA/CIO Canada CIO of the Year.

In presenting the award to Kelly honouring his 35-year career and his success in helping to elevate the LCBO's efficiency and profitability, John Pickett, Vice President and Editorial Director of IT World Canada, publisher of CIO Canada magazine, noted, "Successful CIOs focus on information technology, but engage their line of business clients through a common language, and from a position of influence based on business credibility as much as expertise in information technology."

The integration of information and communications technologies with business strategies is critical because every business sector is now facing unprecedented global competition, Hicham Adra, Senior Vice President and General Manager, National Capital Region and Western Canada for CGI, Managing Sponsor of CIPA, reminded the black-tie audience of 800 executives.

"We appreciate the ingenious and often practical ways that each finalist organization has integrated technology improvements with business best practices to increase their competitiveness," Adra said.

"Technology-driven innovation is now transforming not only the productivity of organizations, but the very way they are designed to become successful. Two significant examples were the winners of Exceptional Innovation awards. Both the private-sector winner, Origin Organic Farms Inc. of Vancouver, and the public-sector winner, Flintbox, a Web portal and networking service owned by the University of British Columbia, have applied ICT strategies as the foundation for their unique products and services.

It was the Diamond Award winner in the private sector, however - Toyota Canada Inc. - that presented the most outstanding example of transformation through technology. By implementing its CustomerOne solution, Toyota Canada has created a new kind of retail company that is integrated by sharing knowledge of its customers' needs and experiences among all stakeholders, including every Toyota dealer in Canada.

Toyota Canada's system, which is being considered as a worldwide model by Toyota Manufacturing, is the embodiment of what Renee Lalonde, Regional Vice-President of CA Canada, a Gold Sponsor of CIPA, called the "customer-centric revolution."

"Tonight's nominees are transforming their organizations into ones that don't just focus on the customer, but include the customer," Lalonde observed.

Building Anticipation

There were five entry categories in the 2007 competition: Efficiency and Operational Improvements, Customer Centricity, Collaboration, Organizational Transformation and Innovation. In each category, for-profit and not-for-profit organizations competed separately.

This was the first Gala at which the Diamond Awards, as well as the Exceptional Innovation Awards, were presented separately in each sector and distinct from any other category. That meant that all finalists remained eligible throughout the evening for the major awards. Master of ceremonies Paul Brent kept everyone in suspense until the final four awards were announced by Doug McCuaig, CGI's Senior Vice-President & General Manager for Greater Toronto Area & Atlantic Canada, and Norm Kirkpatrick, President & CEO of CIPA.

All in all, the 2007 CIPA Awards Gala gave its audience from across Canada a productivity pageant and many inspirational stories to share from region to region.

Paul Tsaparis, President of Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co., a gold CIPA sponsor, drew a direct relationship between Canada's prosperity and the achievements of the award winners and finalists at the Gala.

"Not too many people would deny that increased productivity has an impact on the competitiveness of our companies and consequently, the health of our economy," Tsaparis said.

"And successful economies, like successful organizations, are driven by talented and ambitious individuals. So it is in no small way that your efforts and the efforts of others like you fuel our nation's economic strength and provide us with such a bright outlook for the future."

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Norm Kirkpatrick President and CEO Canadian Information Productivity Awards