An office in San Diego to join the L.A. office on the west coast?
Along with US contacts, I imagine good contacts were established with German companies who were exhibiting too; IFN have stated that they're looking for new partners in Germany.
IFN participation in Canada and Quebec trade missions to Europe have proven very fruitful to IFN in the past year. Either management is very good at deal-making or IFN's re-engineering software is first class - perhaps both.
QSPC SPONSORS DELEGATION OF QUEBEC COMPANIES IN CALIFORNIA
Eleven companies initiate partnership agreements
Montreal, April 20, 1998
On April 16, the Quebec Software Promotion Center
(QSPC) held its third international business forum in
San Diego, California. Software Alliances 98 hosted 37
exhibitors from the software industry in Canada, the
United States, Germany and Japan, and more than 150
participants attended the event.
Software Alliances 98 was organized in partnership
with Connect.IT, a not-for-profit Toronto organization
that promotes the growth of the information technology
industry, and the San Diego Software Industry Council.
San Diego is the sixth largest city in the U.S. and
one of the most active software centres in the
country, with more than 500 companies and an industry
growth rate of 45% over the last five years. It was a
location tailor-made for the QSPC to promote the
Qu‚bec software industry.
QSPC forums feature presentations by participating
companies, as well as a marketplace. Careful planning
helps promote partnerships between developers,
integrators, manufacturers (OEM), investors and
financial institutions in Quebec and the host cities.
"The event, held first in Boston in 1996, then in
Toronto in 1997, was designed to create marketing
opportunities for Quebec software developers in Canada
and the U.S. initially, and more recently in Europe,"
says Claude Pineault, CEO of the QSPC. "We do
everything we can to bring developers into contact
with potential partners, by ensuring the presence of
companies from the host city or country that have an
affinity with the companies we are promoting. That's
why so many success stories emerge from Software
Alliances."
Software Alliances 98 led to the initiation of
distribution, financing, cross-marketing or R&D
agreements for all eleven Quebec firms that attended
the forum: Agents Technologies Corp., Corporate
Software & Technologies, EDU-Performance Canada,
Govern Software Inc., Groupe Informission Inc., Idex
Inc., ShowBase Inc., Sponsorium International Inc.,
Toptech Groupe Conseil Inc., Trioniq Inc. and ZEBRA
Software Inc.
Groupe Informission, which is famous for its excellent
year 2000 conversion tools, was a huge hit at the
forum. A considerable number of San Diego-area systems
integrators were extremely interested in the company's
technology. Michel Desautels, President of ShowBase
Inc. of Aylmer, which specializes in Internet and
intranet software solutions, also found the event
highly profitable. "It's the best strategic alliance
event I've attended in a long time," he said. "It led
to three new partnership for us." Michelle Gagn‚, the
person in charge of business development for Govern
Software inc., was similarly pleased. "At Software
Alliances 98, I was able to accomplish what it
normally takes weeks of work to arrange," she noted.
The two previous editions of the forum also attracted
a high-calibre clientele from Canada and the United
States, with equally remarkable results: most
participants were able to initiate agreements with
their counterparts across the border.
This year, the Quebec delegation enjoyed financial
support from the Quebec Department of Industry, Trade,
Science and Technology, while the Canadian Consulate
in Los Angeles contributed to the success of the event
by putting its network of contacts to good use. The
German delegation, made up of about 15 companies, was
accompanied by the Bavarian Minister for Economic
Development.
The QSPC was established in 1990 and is now the
largest association of software developers in Canada,
representing more than 400 companies in every sector
of the information technology industry. The Center
works closely with software developer associations in
Latin America, the United States and Europe.
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For information:
Jean-Marc Simard, j.m.simard@shc.ca
Jos‚e-Michelle Simard, josee-michelle.simard@shc.ca
Simard Hamel Communications, (514) 287-9811
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