FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CIPA Announces Finalists for 2006 Awards

	For More Information: Contact: norm.kirkpatrick@cipa.com (905) 952 0778

Results of Premier Awards Program Reveal World-Leading Innovation

TORONTO, September 20, 2006 - A surge of innovation is transforming Canadian business and society as organizations achieve leadership in their sectors, seemingly overnight, by applying information technology in ways the world has not seen before.

The Canadian Information Productivity Awards (CIPA) has announced the strongest group of award finalists in its 14-year history, revealing advances in productivity and efficiency across Canada's economy.

Among the record 65 finalists are organizations that have applied information technology to:

• Achieve a leap forward in airport security;
• Respond to healthcare emergencies such as the SARS crisis;
• Transform the delivery of university courses and educational administration;
• Change the business model for supplying goods and services in the construction industry;
• Protect corporate information from disaster and make it easy to find and analyze;
• Create educational games to teach children and their parents about Internet safety;
• Make Canadian heritage items more visible to the world;
• Revolutionize processes in the dry-cleaning industry to ignite productivity;
• Improve efficiency in the financial services industry by eliminating millions of printed pages each month.

"Canada is a growing hub for innovation," said CIPA President & CEO Norm Kirkpatrick. "These entries reveal a textbook of information on how the adoption of IT technologies and strategies leads to much stronger, globally competitive organizations in both the private and public sectors."

Doug McCuaig, Senior Vice-President and General Manager, Greater Toronto Area and Atlantic Canada for CGI, Managing Sponsor of CIPA, urged Canadian senior executives to take note of the solutions to be revealed at the Gala Banquet and emulate the management strategies that created them.

"In this competitive global environment, Canadian organizations need to focus on building innovation and increasing productivity," McCuaig said. "Becoming a CIPA finalist is a demonstration of what can be done with vision and determination."

McCuaig noted that Canadian business must be aware of the dangers of losing ground in areas critical for international competitiveness. The Conference Board of Canada stated in its latest Performance and Potential report that Canadian economic performance fell to12th place among industrial countries in 2005 from third place just two years previously, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has pegged Canada's productivity growth at 18th among 24 countries.

"We must celebrate the achievements of those organizations that contradict these findings so that we can inspire others to emulate their performance. This will contribute to building a culture of innovation and competitiveness in Canada that will ensure our continued economic prosperity." McCuaig said.

CIPA, the premier information-technology and innovation awards program in Canada, will announce its selection of 2006 award winners from among the finalists at the CIPA Gala Banquet on November 1, the IT industry's most important information and social event.

In its 14th year, CIPA is unique in providing a national showcase for business excellence originating in all regions of the country. The number of award finalists has set a record this year partly because CIPA has expanded its alliance partnerships to include additional significant sector-specific organizations and regional associations.

Finalists were selected from more than 200 entries submitted from every region of Canada by organizations of all types and sizes. Winners will be selected for awards in four categories: efficiency and operational improvements; customer care; organizational transformation and exceptional innovation.

Winners and finalists, in addition to being celebrated at the CIPA Gala Banquet on November 1 at the Westin Harbour Castle Conference Centre in Toronto, will gain national and international recognition through www.cipa.com and other extensive media exposure. Benefits accrue not only to entrants, but also to technology vendors and suppliers of expertise that support their customers' winning projects.

Finalists for the awards are:

About the Canadian Information Productivity Awards

CIPA is Canada's oldest and largest awards program in the field of information technology and the premier showcase for Canadian IT and innovation.

It is supported by Managing Sponsor CGI Group Inc., and leading industry technology companies Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co. and CA Canada, as well as: IDC Canada, research partner; Rogers Communications Inc., IT World Canada and High Road Communications, media partners, and technology associations CATA, CHITTA, CIPS, CME, COACH, FiQ and ITAC.

The mission of CIPA is to recognize and celebrate excellence that fosters innovation and enhanced global competitiveness in Canada. This is achieved through recognizing organizations that have successfully developed and implemented innovative IT-based projects in the areas of customer care, operations and efficiency, organizational transformation and exceptional innovation that achieve significant productivity gains for their organizations.

For further information, contact:

Norm Kirkpatrick
President & CEO, Canadian Information Productivity Awards
905-695-6590, norm.kirkpatrick@cipa.com

Lawrence Moule
Director of Communications, CIPA
416-458-4410, lawrence.moule@cipa.com