Author: Elliot Chan

Vigneault to go

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Sports_Canucks-Vigneault

Formerly published in The Other Press. June 4 2013

By Elliot Chan, Staff Writer

The argument is not whether or not Alain Vigneault’s seven years with the Vancouver Canucks was a failure. After all, he is the winning-est coach in franchise history and the recipient of the 2007 Jack Adam Award. He coached two Presidents’ Trophy teams and got the Canucks all the way to game seven of the Stanley Cup finals. He has done everything possible, except win the cup and that is why it’s his time to go.

With Vigneault’s leadership, the Canucks have become a tough team to cheer for. An undisciplined team that whines over every call and flail like soccer players at every check. “We deserve it,” felt like the mentality of the Canucks these past few seasons, instead of most other teams’, which is, “we’ll earn it.” They expected everything to be handed to them and that made them consistently lose in the playoffs despite having such an elite team. The Canucks might be straight-A students in the classroom, but out on the playground they are incompetent.

He is always diplomatic and polite, but he never had any fire. In his press conference after game four of the 2013 Stanley Cup quarterfinals against San Jose, Vigneault looked absolutely defeated as he answered questions. Meanwhile, his players were in the locker room complaining about a bad penalty against Daniel Sedin in overtime. It was a pathetic image, far worse than getting swept in the first round.

The Canucks have never been a team with killer instincts. A long history of losing to bad teams and playing well against good teams made Vancouver an incoherent group. Leadership has always been a problem with the Canucks from the days of the soft-spoken Markus Naslund to “unable to do much because he’s a goalie,” Roberto Luongo, and then to the other soft-spoken Swede Henrik Sedin. The team needs a passionate leader that doesn’t only lead by example, but also by exclaiming it. Vigneault was not the type of man that gets his team fired up, he couldn’t rock the boat and he never won a championship.

Vigneault might have squandered the best years of the Vancouver Canucks, and any coach after will be working with the remains of a first-class team, but there are a few Head Coach-calibre candidates out in the market that may be suitable for our deteriorating Canucks squad. Former Rangers bench boss, John Tortorella has a quality that might just force the team to the next level. His fiery attitude is exactly what this undisciplined team needs, and he would do wonders when it comes to short-term goals, such as winning the Stanley Cup.

Another candidate would be Lindy Ruff, who for many years has been waiting to join a competitive hockey team. Renounced as one of Canada’s top coaches year after year, it would be interesting to see what he could bring to a team that has metaphorically been colouring within the lines for so many years.

Vigneault was not GM Mike Gillis’ organic choice. He was the hand-me-down of former GM Dave Nonis, and although they had a successful six-year partnership, Gillis will now search for a coach that can lead with an iron fist and not just a courteous smile.

Here are the Five Innovative Startups That Will Present at Democamp Vancouver 15

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On July 25, Vancouver will hostDemocamp 15, an event that offers five startups the opportunity to showcase their work to a crowd and gain feedbacks and ideas, as well as network with the rest of the local technology community.

The event clearly states that there will be no PowerPoint presentations or droning lectures. Rather there would be a five-minute demo presentation followed by five minutes of audience Q&A. Democamp was introduced as a show and tell platform, which highlights shipped products already in existence, contrary to pitching new products for accelerators.

It has been over a year since that last Democamp and event organizer Ian MacKinnon decided to try something different in order to solidify interest. By using a crowdfunding platform called “Picatic,” Democamp was able to raise the necessary funding as well as sell 50 tickets weeks in advance. And to reward those enthusiastic funders and attendees, the first 50 people to purchase tickets were offered a chance to go online and vote for the demoers they most wanted to see.

Those selected were Perch, Harp Platform, poweredbyDRA/Mall Rat, Øidle and Socualizer.

Perch is an app that turns iOS devices into an always-on video portal. The app is specifically designed to connect two spaces together, which will create a burden-free method of communication unlike other system. The experience of speaking with someone through the Perch portal is second only to having him or her in the room with you.

The developers of PhoneGap created Harp Platform to help web content publishers easily present and develop their works by being integrated with Dropbox.

PoweredbyDRA/Mall Rat was developed to make building, managing and deploying “tailored smart maps” to web and mobile devices easier. They define “tailored smart maps” as a stylized, vector-based map that includes indoor navigation. Their first product, Mall Rat was specifically designed for the mobile shopping mall experience.

Øidle is a quick and easy service that assists those seeking a perfect venue. It turns the time consuming job of finding vacant event space into a simple search, so that event organizers don’t have to settle.

Socualizer is a social media visualizer developed by Google Chrome. It allows event marketers to engage audiences through Twitter and Instagram, by tracking hashtags and mentions.

You can get a chance to see all five chosen startups present their product at Democamp 15 for a general admission price of $10.

Vancouver’s Mobile Community Discusses Future of Marketing at DigiBC’s MoMoVan

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There was once a time when we would roll out of bed and flick on the television and digest the morning news with a fresh cup of coffee.

Now many people admit that they start the day off by reaching for their mobile devices and routinely checking each of their apps and sites for current events, social and business correspondences and progression in their Clash of Clans economy. Mobile devices have changed every little thing we do, but it is still a relatively new technology and businesses are only starting to understand how to harness its full potential.

On Monday July 8, 2013, DigiBC presented MoMoVan, a digital marketing event that addressed businesses’ shift to become mobile first. Whether it is promoting a new product or supplying news, companies recognized that mobile is the media format of the future. But which platform should a company choose is still to be determined, mobile sites versus apps? That was a major question the panel at MoMoVan tried to tackle.

“It depends on what you are trying to accomplish,” said Johann Starke, president of FCV, an interactive and digital marketing agency. “Apps work great, but if you are building an app for a political party with a campaign where the content has to change, it depends on how it is structured. What if there is a problem? What if you need to update it? You are totally at their [App Store approval] mercy. I think the things that have time constraints, you are better off doing a mobile site and use apps for things that are product based.”

“Apps are a bit of a gamble,” Starke added. “You got to be careful that you time it right. I’ve heard horror stories about stuff taking 90 days from the time you send it in for approval and if they reject anything you’ll have to fix it. So it is tricky.”

Apps are a big commitment for companies, but for users they tend to be nothing more than a short-term fling, a impulse download followed by neglect and then deletion. There are only a handful of apps that have sustainable relevance and remain a permanent fixture on my iPhone.

Apps are a premium experience and it comes with a price. A quality app with a poorly planned purpose will result in lost of time and money. “The reality is,” said Sandy Fleischer, Managing Partner at Pound & Grain, “apps are going to break. It depends on the complexity, but ultimately apps are software, while websites can sometimes be brochure-ware. In general, the maintenance requirement for an internal app is going to be more so than on a website.”

Despite all that, new apps are being produced. Apple announced that in June that there are now over 900,000 apps in the App Store. That is a 28% increase from one year ago.

In terms of user data, people spend a lot more time on apps than browsing mobile site. But some believe the market is now saturated and it is about time we see a decline in app productions. We don’t need another weather forecast, currency converter or food review app. We have reached a point where only the best apps should survive.

After all, what is the point of spending money and time creating something that will only be lost in the desolate sea of icons?

FinanceIt Launches New iPad App Enabling Businesses to Offer Consumer Finance

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FinanceIt celebrated the fourth of July not with fireworks, but by launching their new iPad app, which will be available to the public in early August. For those who are tired of fussing over finance, the app is worth the wait even though access at first will be limited due to its first-come, first-served registration basis.

By using the iPad camera to scan a photo ID for an instant loan approval, FinanceIt’s mobile app will allow businesses to reduce the consumer funding process to less than five minutes and is completely paperless.

Businesses in retail, healthcare and home improvement will be the first to utilize the new app. Some other businesses that the app will be initially available for are furniture and electronic stores, dental practices, home renovation contractors and other retail businesses.

FinanceIt launched in 2011 and since then they have enabled over 2,300 retail, home improvement, health and vehicle businesses to process over $380 million in loans.

“We provide small and medium sized businesses with the tools they need to compete with big box retailers,” said FinanceIt COO, Casper Wong. “By taking advantage of marketing programs like ‘0% financing’ or ‘don’t pay for 12 months’ these businesses can gain a significant competitive advantage at no additional cost.”

FinanceIt’s mobile app is expected to cause some disruption in the retail credit card industry with 80% loan approval rates and no cost to merchants. The app provides instant point of sale financing for loans under $5,000 with a simple scan of a driver’s license.

FinanceIt is planning to release the second version of the app in Fall 2013; the new features will include the vehicle program and maximum loan amount of up to $60,000—features that are currently available on the web platform.

Canadian Startup Manaya Wants to Change the Way We Find a Place to Live

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The “aha!” moment came to Manaya’s founder, David Polisi, in 2010 when he was searching for a new place to live.

He stood outside houses with “for sale” signs, jotted down the information and waited for real estate agents and property managers to call him back. Polisi was frustrated with the process. Why should looking for a new home be a game of cat and mouse? That was the spark leading to the concept of Manaya Mobile Marketing, an easy and convenient way to get rental information through text messaging.

Since launching in 2012, Manaya has connected renters with property managers by making key renting details accessible. Anyone with a cellphone can text for information by simply punching in the numbers supplied on the vacancy or “for rent” signs. Potential renters will instantly receive all they need to know about the space including price, square feet and general description. Property managers may also choose to upload pictures and videos to assist in the renting process.

“It is tough to peel it back and see what the world was like before this,” said Polisi, “But one thing I can say is that we see 35% of our inquiries taking place while offices are closed and 55% of inquiries taking place over the weekends. We can show people who are texting in the after hours and say that those would have once been voice mails that somebody either should have or could have followed up with—but now they get the information instantly.”

Although house hunting through a neighbourhood you wish to live in has not changed, the way we can spontaneously access information through our mobile devices have. The 24/7 convenience has garnered property manager’s approval. The ability to track usage and analytics has been a key attribute in the service, especially for the busy realtors and property managers.

“We actually see quite a bit of sharing,” said Polisi. “They [potential renters] will send a text message, they’ll come onto our mobile platform and they’ll discover the property; the building, the pictures, the amenities. And what we start to see are people sharing the buildings with friends. So that is a good indicator to us that the consumer is enjoying it so much that they are sharing it with other people through email or Facebook or Twitter.”

Discovery is Manaya’s main focus. The first step to accomplishment is initiating the first step, and Manaya is hoping to make that leap of faith a little less of a daunting plunge and more of a treat for curiosity. The service draws people, assist with scheduling a booking and from there it will always come down to the client’s preference, whether they choose to live there or continue their hunt.

Manaya has also introduced a web to text feature that allows people who are searching for properties in front of their computer to send a text message to their mobile device, which has the coined term “virtual scratchpad.”

“Our goal is to increase the quality and convenience of getting information,” said Polisi. “So the quality is really pictures. And we see, as consumers 84% of the people said that photography was the most important aspect of searching for a place to live. We are supplying a service that brings in professional photographers and virtual tours, so people can really see themselves in the room.”

 

Canadians Savvy Shoppers, Believe They Should Never Pay Full Retail Prices: Study

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Here’s a stunning fact: people want to save money.

Duh! We don’t need to conduct a nationwide survey to know that. But what the inaugural Canadian edition of the Shoppers Trend Report shows is that Canadians are starting to become savvier with their money.

RetailMeNot.ca, a Canadian digital coupon site and Angus Reid Forum conducted the study. The monthly report highlights the public’s shopping habits, attitudes and behaviours on retail spending. Nearly half (49%) of Canadians believe that they should not pay retail price, and 47% seek out discounts and coupons online or on their mobile devices.

“Our survey reveals what we’ve known for a long time and highlights one of the reasons we expanded into the Canadian market,” said Josh Harding, vice president of global operations for RetailMeNot, Inc. “Consumers from Victoria to St. John’s are smart shoppers who are looking for great deals. We are giving our new consumers the experience they are looking for with easy-to-find digital coupons that provide great value with little effort.”

Alberta ranks highest among Canadian provinces with 56% of respondents saying they look online or on their mobile devices for deals. Ontario is second with 52%, British Columbia is third with 50% and Manitoba/Saskatchewan with 44%.

When it comes to non-grocery items, such as clothes and electronics, Canadians are spending quite a bit, with 49% budgeting over $100 a month to nonessentials. Men tend to spend more than women with 32% of them exceeding $200 a month, where as 24% for women. Age does not play a factor in how much a person spends, 30% of people from 18 to 54 spend more than $200 a month.

Half of Canadians are spending less money on smaller-priced items than they were five years ago. People are attempting to cut back anywhere they can without effecting their lifestyle. Consumers are cutting back on new furniture and travel, 56% of people 55 and over and 24% of 18 to 34 year-olds have admitted to saving on furnishing. While 32% of Canadians said they would cut back on their vacations.

The new digital coupon trend is quickly gaining traction and is helping people save. 55% said it is easy to search for or find digital coupons. It offers a lot of benefits including accessibility and convenience. 31% of people who use digital coupon are always able to find something available they can use.

But the study also gained a lot of quality information to improve the new couponing format. Almost half of Canadians want coupons or discounts that are frequent and relevant. Also 70% of Canadians prefer offers from well-known retailers rather than the less common brands.

At the moment Albertans are the ones embracing digital coupons the most with 61% using them regularly, while Atlantic Canadians are most eager to save with 55% saying that they should never have to pay retail.

Milestone Reached by Canada Post as Mobile App Hits One Million Downloads

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Over the Canada Day long weekend, Canada Post’s mobile app received its one-millionth download.

The app allows Canadians to access postal services such as parcel tracking, shipping rate look-ups and epost (a digital mailbox) through their smartphones. It is compatible for all major platforms including iOS, Blackberry and Android, with 85% of downloads coming from iPhones or iPad devices.

Canada Post’s mobile app had gained a lot of popularity. In 2011, the app was used seven million times, but in the first six months of 2013, Canadians have nearly doubled the usage.

It had consistently been a top five free business app in the country, with parcel tracking being the number one feature. Over 12 million Canada Post packages have been tracked using the app. In 2012 package-tracking usage has increased by almost three times since the app was introduced one year before.

“We know Canadians have changed how they communicate and how they use postal services,” says Kerry Munro, Group President, Digital Delivery Network at Canada Post. “Our job is to make it convenient for them and evolve to meet their changing needs.”

The one-millionth-download milestone is a big accomplishment for Canada Post and they proudly presented some stats showing their route towards that achievement. Toronto holds the majority of Canada Post’s mobile app users with 23.2%, Montreal is second with 17.9% and Vancouver is third with 8.7%.

When epost was introduced in December 2012, approximately 26,000 users have been accessing it every month. The service offers online mailing and bill presentment and payment through an electronic document delivery service.

Even though post is transitioning slowly into the virtual world, a post office is still a necessary place to visit once in awhile. A feature that has been assisting people and been gaining popularity is the post office locator. From 2011 to 2012, users have risen from 445,000 to 1.2 million.

People and businesses alike are quickly learning to utilize this new tool Canada Post has offered. Now with a new redesigned web environment, Canada Post is hoping to enhance the mailing experience in a digitized world. The new site is geared toward businesses with simplified navigation processes and an intelligent system that streamlines searches.

New Canadian Grocery Alerts App Brings Savings to the Palm of Your Hand

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One dollar here, a couple of dollars there, and what was supposed to be an inexpensive trip to the grocery store ends up costing a small fortune.

It is not uncommon to hear about bargains, but taking advantage of them is a chore we have to schedule for. Most of us don’t have time to scour through the stack of flyers or click through online retail catalogues. What ends up happening is that we just show up at the store whenever we can with our little list and wing it.

Last month, Canadian startup Grocery Alerts launched a new app, Coupon Find Canada. The app supplies a database that allows user to search for items with a discount or spontaneously look up deals for stores they are already at.

“We want to keep it simple,” said Steven Zussino, founder of GroceryAlerts.ca. “We want to show all the different categories we have coupons for on the website; beverages, snacks. And then be able to show store coupons, so if you are at Save-On-Foods or Rexall or Bulk Barn or Shoppers Drug Mart, you can just click on the coupon and show it at the counter.”

Although digitized couponing is evolving, it is still suffering from some growing pains. The public still relies heavily on the printed material, because the virtual format is still so darn hard to read.

“I don’t mind reading books or magazines on mobile devices,” said Zussino, “but flyers you need to zoom in a lot, because they are so visual.”

That is why simplicity is the key for Zussino, who stripped back all the glitz and glamour of marketing and just stuck with the essential, which is to save you some money.

Grocery Alerts has been live since 2009 and has accumulated over 22,000 email subscribers and 120,000 readers each month. Providing coupons for stores and manufactures nationwide, Grocery Alert, with its new accessible app Coupon Find Canada are hoping to expand to a wider audience.

“Our audience tends to be mothers with large families,” explains Zussino. “Usually single people and younger people don’t use a lot of coupons. But I think things are changing with all those daily deals websites. It is interesting when people say they don’t use coupons, I always find good examples of things you buy on a daily bases that you can just print off and it is pretty easy to redeem. Four or five bucks doesn’t sound like a lot, but it adds up.”

Coupon Find Canada is currently offered for iOS at the app store and in the coming weeks it will be available at Google Play store and will be compatible with Blackberry and Androids smartphones.

 

Canadians Surprisingly Satisfied with Their Phone and Internet Service, Study Suggests

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J.D. Power Recently released their 2013 Canadian Television Provider Customer Satisfaction Study and the 2013 Canadian Internet Service Provider Customer Satisfaction Study. According to the findings, customers who bundle their television, Internet and telephone services with the same telecom provider have the highest percent of satisfaction.

The study for television providers used six factors to measure customers’ overall satisfaction, those were cost of service, programming, communication, customer service and billing. The study for Internet providers used five, performance and reliability, cost of service, communication, billing and customer service.

The key insight from the study was that 83% of customers bundle their TV and Internet service, while 17% only subscribe to TV with their provider. 59% of customers with a TV and Internet also have telephone service from the same provider, which is referred to as the triple-play package.

Customers who selected the triple-play package pay an average of $165 per month. TV and Internet bundle cost an average of $156, while TV-only subscriptions cost $89.

“Bundling typically provides discounts and has the added convenience of one bill with one provider,” said Adrian Chung, account director at J.D. Power. “These elements are key drivers of higher satisfaction and provide the stickiness that leads to long-term loyalty.”

Triple-play customers tend to have the highest overall satisfaction with 690 on a 1,000-point scale, while TV and Internet bundlers have 678 and TV-only with 658. And 19% of triple-play customers stated that they “definitely will” recommend their providers to others.

Customers who subscribe to premium TV packages are more loyal to the provider. Only 16% indicated they “will likely” switch to another provider in the next year. They are also more “likely” to purchase additional services, while 22% of basic TV subscribers will likely switch in the next 12 months.

The study also shows that 42% of customers view content on their smarphones or tablets, but satisfaction among these customers average at 661, 22 points lower than those who only watch on their television.

“Satisfaction for mobile users suffers because they tend to experience more problems with picture and download speed,” said Chung. “They expect their mobile device to have the same speed and quality as their home TV, and in many cases their expectations are not met.”

When it comes to Internet, speed is the determining factor. The study shows that 15% of Internet users with fibre optic had their expectations exceeded, while only 8% of DSL and cable users have the same response.

Satisfaction is highest for customers with fibre optic Internet service. Customers who choose this service will experience fewer problems, but issues with their connection often lead to a significant decline in satisfaction.

“While customers with fibre optic connections are very pleased with the speed and reliability of their Internet connection, they also have very high expectations,” said Chung.

29% of DSL customers and 31% of cable customers have experienced outage with their Internet connection, where as only 25% of customers with fibre optic have experienced problems with their Internet. But if a problem does arise, fibre optic users’ satisfaction drops 114 points, 15 more than DSL and 13 more than cable.

In the eastern region, Vidéotron ranks highest in both television customer satisfaction with 747 and Internet customer satisfaction with 755. In the western region, SaskTel ranks highest in customer service with 730 points for television customer satisfaction and 705 for Internet customer satisfaction.

More than 10,500 telecommunication customers responded to the study conducted in October 2012 and April 2013.

Clearpath Robotics: Rugged-Mobile Robots For A Brave New World

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In 2006, Bill Gates wrote an article entitled A Robot in Every Home; it was a play on a piece written in the 80s called A Computer in Every Home. What was once science fiction and a crazy concept is now a modern day reality. Kitchener-based Clearpath Robotics recognized that like computers and Internet, robots are an industry growing with infinite potential.

The company originated in 2009 at the University of Waterloo, when the Mechatronics Engineering Program was still in its infancy. It was there that the team at Clearpath Robotics discovered their passion for developing field robots and unmanned systems.

“When we weren’t busy cramming for exams, we were building robots in our spare time,” said Matt Rendall, CEO of Clearpath Robotics and 2013 finalist for the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

From humble beginnings to winning the 2013 Silver Edison Award, Clearpath Robotics develops their innovative robots with the costumers and projects in mind. Understanding that field robotics, automated systems, driverless cars and other advance technology are complicated systems; the team’s goal is always to make things easier, whether it is to work with, to prototype or to develop.

“We build platforms,” said Rendall, “using the 80/20 analogy. It is our job to solve 80% of the problem and we work with our costumers and clients to solve the remaining 20%. All research is unique, that is the nature of research. So the first way we make things easier is that we offer a common starting point. Because that starting point is common, it has been through vigourous testing and it’s off the shelf, so it has a lower cost—it is just a better starting point than doing something from scratch.”

Over the years, Clearpath Robotics’ vision has matured. But simplicity, efficiency and safety are still the three main pedestals for building robots. The team takes that philosophy and applies it to automate the world’s dullest, deadliest and dirtiest jobs. “In outdoor environments there are a lot of opportunities to help make certain things easier, safer and faster,” said Rendall.

One prime example of Clearpath Robotics’ ingenuity is their 2013 Silver Edison Award Finalist, the Kingfisher. With the sleek look of a miniature speedboat, the Kingfisher’s featured applications include bathymetric data collection, shore erosion monitoring, sediment mapping, flow rate measurements, dam inspection, harbour safety and others. The remote water-monitoring robot allows surveyors to work safely on the shore in a task that once required manpower out in the water.

“Environment Canada measures a lot of different things about the country’s water supply,” said Rendall. “Often these are remote locations through fast moving and cold water with opposing hazards, so we built a robot to assist them. We are very pleased with it.”

But like all things technology and fashion, improvements are always being made. Clearpath Robotics’ active researching team is constantly seeking areas of advancement whether it is on the platforms that already exist like the Kingfisher or a prototype still in the early stages of conception.

Earlier this year, Clearpath followed up the Kingfisher by introducing the Grizzly, a robotic utility vehicle with big 26-inch tires that allows it to operate in mining, military and agricultural settings. From navigating tough terrain to spraying dangerous pesticide, the Grizzly does it all unmanned, which will only make life easier for us fragile humans.

Perhaps one day we’ll all have robot butlers like the Jetsons or maybe Skynet will rule over us. Nobody can really be certain what the future holds. But from the way things are looking, robots are going to be more relevant than ever and Clearpath Robotics is leading the charge and hoping to inspire people to take part in the upgrade.

“We are going to start seeing a lot of purpose built robots to solve specific problems,” said Rendall. “So there is going to be a massive industry behind this and we need more people and more entrepreneurs and more companies focusing on it. The barrier for entry is quite high, but there are a lot of opportunities.”