IT and Small Business

This week I wanted to focus on an issue that would be relevant to small business owners, but perhaps not quotable in Hansard.

The area I felt needed a revisit was the Information Technology sector. Having worked in the IT sector during the DOT COM period, it is clear that the industry has firmly moved from a speculators domain to an indispensible function of virtually every business.

People are embracing technology in ways that was frankly unfathomably a few years ago. Seniors in our community are tweeting on iPads, children in our province have access to more technology than some countries did a generation ago, businesses rely on real-time information to manage increasingly complex supply chains and entire societies are being transformed in the Middle East through Facebook communications.

This past Saturday, New Brunswick IT Entrepreneur Ian Cavanagh, published an article in Fredericton’s Daily Gleaner. In his article he considered governments role in growing the provinces IT sector, an impact that equated to $1.5 billion in 2010 or five per cent of New Brunswick’s GDP.

On PEI we also have a quiet but successful IT sector. One measurement of success in this industry is an observation of companies that have elevated their work to a level where they capture the attention of an acquirer; recent examples include Deltaware, Cogsdale and Bight Interactive. In each case the organization has maintained their presence on PEI and continued their employment growth post investment/ acquisition.

On PEI there are over 130 companies represented as being in the IT sector. The most recent data I could find on the sector was from 2008 and suggested that 3.2 per cent of provincial GDP was attributed to the IT sector.

Information Technology is, and should be, an important sector of our economy. It is a business imperative, meaning that few companies can operate today without accessing technology of some form. As Ian Cavanagh stated, the IT sector not only supports the local needs of both private and public sectors it is also a product that is easily exportable. On our isolated sandbar, we need goods that can easily be shipped to markets across the globe.

PEI is not blessed with an abundance of natural resources. However, we can build IT products and services that can be cost effectively exported. With industry success comes growth, growth drives demand, demand creates employment; employment gaps can be filled by either training people in the economy or bringing the required skills into the economy. The latter solution also addresses our profound demographic challenges.

As an emerging sector IT is attractive from a societal development perspective. It is predominantly inhabited with young, professional income earners. This is just the type of unencumbered citizens who spend a large part of their disposable income – thus generating economic activity.

The Information Technology market changes quickly. It is very difficult to anticipate the future needs while ramping up to address a speculative opportunity. But it is just this type of creative risk that is required to be successful in this industry, and the type of entrepreneur our province needs to embrace.

Perhaps more attention needs to be paid to our native IT sector. Are local businesses and government buying local where possible? Can we further boost our GDP by supporting export opportunities for our sector entrepreneurs?

IT can save businesses money through efficiency – it can also create wealth!