Village Gamer

FreshBooks announced earlier today at the mesh conference that the company has recruited experienced internet Executive Stuart MacDonald to a newly-created “C” level role, responsible for Marketing, Sales, Support and Revenue. FreshBooks.com, the leader in online invoicing, has experienced impressive, ongoing growth, doubling its number of users each year, which is now at more than 2.5 million.

Stuart MacDonald joins the FreshBooks team as a proven entrepreneur and marketer with several start-ups under his belt, including founding Expedia.ca, Canada’s most successful online business. Stuart went on to be the CMO of Expedia.com in Seattle, and has worked with numerous other organizations as a consultant, advisor, investor and mentor. Stuart is a co-founder of the mesh Conference now in its 6^th year, together with FreshBooks.com CEO Mike McDerment and other partners.

“Stuart has already built one category from the ground-up, which makes him a perfect choice to build the online invoicing category,” said Mike McDerment, CEO of FreshBooks.com. “It’s never easy to find the top talent required to build a world class online company in Canada, so naturally we’re thrilled to bring Stuart on board, bringing with him the energy and expertise we need to seize the opportunities in front of us.”

Mike McDerment co-founded FreshBooks eight years ago in Toronto. Despite seeing many other Canadians move south to start or join up-and-coming companies, Mike committed himself to building a world-class company where he grew up, and to supporting Toronto’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

“Continuing to build FreshBooks.com into a global online business powerhouse right here in Canada is a top priority for me too” says Stuart. “What Mike and the FreshBooks.com team have accomplished so far is a huge step in that direction. On top of that, the FreshBooks team loves what they do and loves their customers. It’s a pretty special thing to be a part of.”

“I’ve worked with Stuart for over five years now on the mesh Conference, and I’ve always known him to do the right thing,” Mike continued. “He has the FreshBooks.com values in spades, and no one loves customers like Stuart.”

FreshBooks.com also recently hired Gary Mirsky, former Director of Sales at Intuit Canada, and has currently has over 20 different positions open in Toronto, including another “C” level role as Chief Technical Officer.

Via the Canadian Media Production Association:

The CMPA has successfully negotiated, on behalf of its members and the entire Canadian independent production sector, a Terms of Trade (PDF) agreement that comes into effect June 1st 2011. This is a historic deal that will redefine the relationship between producers and broadcasters.

The agreement has been signed between the CMPA and Astral, Bell Media (CTV), Corus, Rogers and Shaw Media. Negotiations with the CBC will begin later this year. Canadian Producers and Broadcasters will be required to adhere to Terms of Trade on a go-forward basis – it will apply to all independently produced projects developed and commissioned by the private broadcast groups. Please note that while Corus (PDF) signed a separate Terms of Trade agreement, it contains no substantive differences from the agreement signed with the other broadcasters.

The deal applies to the entire life cycle of a show – from first pitch, through to development, production and broadcast on all platforms. Key areas covered by the deal include:

The agreement will come into the force as of June 1, 2011 with the exception of certain parts related to the financing of programs, which will come into force as of August 1, 2011. Please see section 13 for specifics relating to the timing of implementation of the various elements of the agreement.

The CMPA will shortly be providing a guide regarding key provisions of the agreement to assist producers in understanding its interpretation and application.  The Association will also be organizing a series of workshops across the country, through the summer – to be informed about dates and venues please contact Emma Grace.

CarrotLines, an iPhone application developed by Vancouver’s PortaLife Solutions, Inc. that helps Canadians make healthier choices is partnering with local food brands in the natural, health and organic segments after attending Grocery Showcase West and Canadian Health Food Association Expos, where the app received overwhelming interest. In conjunction with its one year anniversary, CarrotLines invited select local health and specialty brands – including Bremner Foods, Maggie’s Gluten Free, and Hansells Foods Canada – to join its platform.

Joining CarrotLines allows for the brands’ products to be scanned by the CarrotLines App – giving customers the ultimate tool to get informed about their products, and while more than half of consumers check food labels before buying a food product for the first time, reading food labels can be downright deceptive. CarrotLines isn’t about judging brands and products. Its goal is to help shoppers make educated decisions on food products that suit their lifestyle. Shoppers have been scanning products using the CarrotLines App for nearly one year, and the platform contains information on over 20,000 Canadian Food Products and 2000 brands. Carrotlines is available in the iTunes App Store for $2.99 USD.

Toronto-based Asigra Inc., a cloud backup and recovery software provider since 1986, has joined with Intel to offer hybrid cloud backup as part of the Intel® AppUp™ Small Business Service. The new solution delivers the advantages of offsite backup with the security and performance of an onsite server for both local and remote recovery. Asigra Cloud Backup™ is one of a select group of applications pre-loaded for shipment with the new Intel solution.

A strong endorsement for cloud computing, the Intel AppUp Small Business Service is a subscription-based service for providing a locally-hosted server on a pay-as-you-go basis. The new hybrid cloud solution allows small businesses to rent the application server and software they need at very affordable rates. The Intel AppUp Small Business Service features a mix of local and cloud software with an Intel® Xeon-based server that comes pre-loaded with tools for remote management, firewall, VoIP/PBX and backup. Expanding this pre-loaded toolset is as simple as selecting from an ever-expanding list of applications, using Intel’s cloud-based service.

“We developed the Intel AppUp Small Business Service to create a foundation on which industry leaders like Asigra can add their own innovations,” said Bridget Karlin, General Manager, Intel Hybrid Cloud. “The goal is to give small business customers a better user experience. This solution offers an attractive new way to take business to the next level of IT, without buying their own server or hiring their own IT staff.” Read the rest of this entry »

Hosting Controller a developer of Hosting Automation Solutions headquartered in Richmond, announced that it has removed the cap of 1000 licenses till 31st May 2011 on a special discount promotion that offers up to a 90% percent discount on control panel software licenses after seeing an enormous surge in demand for HC8 software during the initial two weeks of promotion.

In this promotion web hosts can buy a Hosting Controller Automation Control Panel license for $99 only instead of $500 and may also purchase Click & Install Apps just for $19 instead of $199, Automated Backup & Recovery just for $19 instead of $199 and VPS Hosting Provisioning just for $19/Server (5 VPS) instead of $690.

“We have been overwhelmed by the response from our customers for HC8 during first two weeks of promotion and it is very encouraging. It would seem that people have been waiting for a lucrative promotion during this bad economic time,” said Babar Zaman, Vice President of Business Development at Hosting Controller Inc. “We are passionate about our products and our customers; therefore we are not surprised at the popularity of this promotion.”

According to the company it received requests from many new customers for additional time to evaluate the software before making the purchase therefore Hosting Controller decided to remove the initial cap of 1000 licenses till 31st May 2011. HC listened and took the necessary step to ensure that customers get sufficient time without worrying about any limit. This promotion is aimed for Web hosts to build or expand on Windows and Linux servers in a cluster environment.

Many businesses have not tapped the full potential of a growing number of mobile business applications rapidly becoming available. According to Enterprise Mobility, a study conducted by the Canadian Financial Research Foundation (CFERF) and sponsored by SAP, many workers continue to mainly use their mobile devices for email and web browsing. Why? Concerns about risk management, data security, cost, logistics and technology limitation are stalling the adoption by businesses of a wide range of applications which can greatly enhance productivity, improve responsiveness to customers and reduce employee downtime.

The study shows that a lack of knowledge and awareness of the potential benefits of mobile business apps have hindered the development and use of customized applications. Some companies prefer to use cloud computing and/or web-based interfaces for employees instead, believing that this offers increased security and the flexibility to be compatible with any mobile device and across platforms.

“More and more, companies are allowing employees to access company data through mobile business applications housed on smartphones and tablets. While this brings benefits such as improvements in productivity and flexibility, these advances are accompanied by security risks that executives should be aware of,” said Michael Conway, Chief Executive and National President, FEI Canada.

CFERF, the research arm of FEI Canada, conducted the survey of financial executives across Canada and gathered insights from executive research forums held in both Toronto and Calgary. Mobile devices in the study referred to smartphones, such as the Blackberry and iPhone, and tablet devices. Laptop computers and net books were not included. Read the rest of this entry »

Pizza Pizza has made its mark on mobile shopping with the launch of its first-ever iPhone app. This month, the Canadian-based pizza chain was honoured with a Webby Award, a prestigious international web-based award that recognizes excellence on the internet. The company’s one-of-a-kind smartphone ordering application was named the best shopping tool for a handheld device, just over a month after its launch.

The win comes in the category of mobile shopping for handheld devices. Other nominees considered for the award included big-box American retailers Target and Walgreens. Pizza Pizza and Plastic Mobile, the mobile marketing agency that developed its app, are the lone Canadian companies to receive a Webby award in this category this year.

“We’ve really made a push to enter the online world through our web ordering system and now our mobile app,” said Pat Finelli, Chief Marketing Officer for Pizza Pizza. “This is a big win for us. It proves that we’ve delivered when it comes to reliability and convenience, which are characteristics of ours that customers have really come to expect and value.”

The easy-to-use, interactive app was launched earlier this year, the first of its kind from a national Canadian-based pizza chain. The Pizza Pizza app is available at no charge for all iPhone^(R), iPod touch^(R) and iPad^(TM) models that run iOS 3.0 or later.

Rand McNally now offers its line of award-winning truck GPS devices for sale throughout Canada. The IntelliRoute® TND™ line is distributed in Canada exclusively by SYNNEX Canada Limited and will first be available at Traction, Heavy Duty Parts stores, Lordco – Auto Parts and at Amazon.ca.

“Professional drivers in Canada will now be able to access our products at home, rather than coming stateside to make purchases. The IntelliRoute® TND™ has been designed for the North American market with full translation into French and Spanish. In addition, we have features that uniquely address driver needs in Canada, such as the ability to warn of border crossings ahead,” explained Dave Muscatel, CEO of Rand McNally.

The IntelliRoute® TND™ line was built from the ground up for professional drivers. Beginning with award-winning truck-specific navigation from Rand McNally, the units feature a speaker and mounting device designed for truck use, an extra-long power cable, and a suite of specialized Trucker Business Tools to assist drivers in managing the business aspects of trucking. Many of the features in the IntelliRoute® TND™ 510 and 710 units were developed as a direct result of tens of thousands of comments from “Tell Rand,” a unique on-device feature that provides continuous feedback to Rand McNally from the driver community.

Xplornet Communications Inc. (formerly Barrett Xplore Inc.), is pleased to announce that it has successfully completed a $230 million private financing.  One of the largest Canadian telecom financing announcements this year, the funds will be used to support and aggressively expand Xplornet’s broadband network across Canada to the 2.4 million households that do not have access to real, affordable broadband.  A start-up just 6 years ago, Xplornet is now one of Canada’s largest telecommunications companies.

“This is an investment in rural Canada that will be nothing less than transformative,” said Xplornet’s Chief Executive Officer John Maduri. “This will allow us to complete a job we started 6 years ago -bringing affordable broadband to every Canadian who wants it, no matter where they live.  That is a monumental accomplishment in the telecom industry.  Not only is this a ringing endorsement of our business model, it will permit an historic leap forward toward the full digital engagement of rural Canadians.”

This funding comes on the heels of Xplornet’s recent announcement that it had successfully started activating its new national 4G network.  The company, which by the end of 2012 will have a total of approximately 1,000 towers, is deploying a 4G WiMAX network and two next-generation 4G satellites.  This network will allow Xplornet to reach 100% of Canadians with fast, affordable broadband by the end of 2012.  “Wireless is the future of digital telecommunications,” said Maduri, “and only Xplornet has invested this significantly in a hybrid satellite and fixed wireless network for Canada.  The fact that we can reach anyone on the second largest country on Earth – despite all the geographic and topographic difficulties – at an affordable price to customers – proves that wireless is the answer to Canada’s rural broadband challenge.”

The ability of Xplornet to secure a financing of this size reflects the willingness of investors to bank on a market that is both large and which has significant pent-up demand.  Gerry O’Reilly, Chief Financial Officer for Xplornet added, “This funding, which includes a very attractive refinancing of some existing debt, will enable Xplornet’s continued aggressive growth in rural Canada, and position us for continued success as one of Canada’s leading telecommunications companies.”

Interactive media is the fastest-growing segment of the media and entertainment industry, according to a recent report from Ernst & Young, Spotlight on profitable growth (PDF). Its rise to the top of the heap is fuelled by a renewed push to provide consumers with access to information and entertainment content through a variety of Internet-based formats.

“It’s all about content, and while that’s nothing new in the industry, this time, it’s becoming clear that the majority of future revenue both from advertisers and consumers will come from services rather than products. So everyone ? from venerable newspapers to social media networks to conglomerates ? is scrambling to find new and innovative ways to marry content with distribution channels,” says Neal Clarance, leader of Ernst & Young’s Media and Entertainment practice.

Interactive media continues to benefit from consumers’ ongoing shift away from traditional media and towards online platforms. A good example is companies that provide streaming video services, which are changing the way people watch television. These companies in particular are pushing hard to find a wealth of content to entice users. Newspapers are trying new subscription models to push readers to their online content. Internet retailers also want in on the content action.

“To be sure, there is increased competition for established media conglomerates, but in spite of a difficult operating environment, media and entertainment companies continue to show resiliency,” says Clarance. “With advertising and consumer spending on the rebound, and digital initiatives gaining speed, improved growth and profitability lie ahead for the industry.”

Spotlight on profitable growth is a five-year study on the growth and profitability of the media and entertainment industry, based on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of margin percentage and dollars. The new report ranks the top 10 media and entertainment industry sectors on both their profitability and profitability growth rate, and provides a performance comparison of the overall media and entertainment business to other stock market indices.

The ranking of overall average profitability during a five-year period according to margin percentage:

1)     Cable operators, 37.6%
2)     Interactive media, 34.6%
3)     Cable networks, 31.4%
4)     Satellite television, 27%
5)     Publishing, 20%
6)     Conglomerates, 18.8%
7)     Television broadcasts, 17.6%
8)     Film and television productions, 10.6%
9)     Electronic games, 10.6%
10)   Music, 10.6%