Business Review Canada - July 2017

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July 2017

CREATING

THE WORLD’S

BIGGEST UNDERGROUND SIGNALLING SYSTEM

TALKING THE BRITISH COLUMBIA

BIZ WITH:

LOTTERY CORPORATION

How improvements in corporate procurement became a catalyst to divisional business transformation

4REFUEL Making refuelling mobile

FOREWORD HELLO, AND WELCOME to July’s edition of Business Review Canada.

We kick the month off with an in-depth piece by Jess Shanahan on the legalization of cannabis: the size of the industry, who will benefit, how it will be sold, and the business implications.

Additionally, Wedaeli Chibelushi explores the last 150 years of technological innovation in Canada, celebrating everything from the lightbulb to ZNEN (Zero Emission, No Noise) car batteries.

This month’s list is a Christa Donovan’s examination of the Canadian gaming industry, picking our ten favorites.

On top of all this we have exclusive and informationpacked exclusive profiles on SigmaPoint, Pure Canadian Gaming, Thales Canada, and British Columbia Lottery Corporation among others.

Enjoy the magazine, and join the conversation on Twitter: @BizReviewCANADA

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CONTENTS

E H E A LT H

P06

TECHNOLOGY

P10

15 years of Canadian tech

TOP10

P20

Top 10

gaming developers in Canada

P32

P44

T E C H N O L O G I E S

I N C

C O M PA N Y PROFILES SUPPLY CHAIN 32 Sigmapoint Technologies 44 Thales Canada 52 The British Columbia Lottery Corporation

ENERGY 64 4Refuel

RETAIL 76 Pure Canadian Gaming

HEALTHCARE 88 Allscripts

P64 P52 P76

Patients Come to Fore in e-Health 2017 The e-Health 2017 conference held in Toronto recently was definitely not your parents’ digital health conference - assuming of course they had been savvy enough to become involved in the field during its infancy.

All of the fundamentals of digital health and electronic health were on display at the conference. Indeed, this meeting profiled some of the more dramatic enhancements to digital care, which are drawing headlines these days such as 3D printing and artificial intelligence (AI).

But what really stood out at this iteration of e-Health was the surfacing of something that has always been present but understated – the central role the patient or health consumer and the importance of engaging patients to provide the best possible digital health experience.

This theme of consumer digital health started with an afternoon pre-conference symposium and then continued through many of the conference presentations and parallel social media discussions on Twitter.

Some comments were critical as conference organizers were urged to do more to involve patients in the organization and delivery of sessions at the meeting. Shelagh Maloney, Vice President, Consumer Health, Communications and Evaluation Services for Canada Health Infoway noted “we have had a good positive (experience) with patient involved in the conference” but she added this still fell short of what should be done.

Infoway – one of the three conference sponsors along with the COACH, Canada’s Health Informatics Association and the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI) – had sponsored patient representatives to attend the meeting, and conference organizers said they are working on how to broaden overall patient involvement next year.

Patient advocates such as Alies Maybee, Heather Thiessen and Angie Hamson (invited 6

July 2017

e-Poster Sessions

and sponsored by CIHI) were also participants in the pre-conference session. Their involvement and comments from other patient advocates online who were not present underlined the critical importance of considering patient needs in developing digital tools to enhance care.

“Greater consumer/patient engagement across the board is foundational to the work we need to do ... in digital health,” said Mark Casselman, the CEO of COACH. “Digital health is a key component to putting patients first,” said Ontario Health Minister Dr. Eric Hoskins, in a videotaped address to the conference.

This advocacy was accompanied by a resurgence in presentations about various patient health record (PHR) systems and portals in various jurisdictions across Canada that are being used to allow patients to directly access their own medical records, laboratory results and tools such as ones that will allow them to electronically schedule appointments.

“The more information that is shared, the better it is,” said Dr. Anil Maheshwari, a Cambridge, Ont. family physician and long-time user of a patient portal in his practice.

Maheshwari expressed frustration that patient portals were still not part of the mainstream in health care delivery.

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Welcome Reception While patient portal use had been mandated under recent US legislation, the development of such approaches in Canada has been more fragmented although presentations showed certain provinces such as Nova Scotia and centres such as the University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto are now well advanced in plans to roll-out such portals to their entire patient populations.

The rationale behind the pre-conference symposium provided reasons behind these initiatives and the whole shift in focus seen at the conference: Canadians are digitally literate and expect to be involved in their own healthcare decisions; the use of consumer digital solutions has doubled in the past two years; and studies confirm engaged patients have better health outcomes.

Lygeia Ricciardi, who established and directed the Office of Consumer eHealth at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) in the US federal government, was the plenary speaker for the symposium. “This is really about culture change� said Ricciardi on the need to embed patient engagement in digital health. She noted that in 2015, 95 per cent of US patients had (but did not necessarily use) electronic access to their own health records versus per cent in Canada.

The importance of patient engagement surfaced during many of the plenary sessions at e-Health perhaps being epitomized by Lucien Engelen who presented remotely during the international panel. Engelen is director of the Radboud REshape Innovation Center in the Netherlands and founder of the Patients Included movement that advocates for patient involvement in all aspects of care as well as medical conferences and publishing.

In addition to noting the strong commitment to digital health in the Netherlands (all patients will have the ability to have a video visit with a nurse or doctor within the next

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Jun 4 - Sunday Symposium

5 years), Engelen also underlined the philosophy of giving patients full control over their health data and how it is shared.

Other international participants in the panel discussion – Richard Corbridge from eHealth Ireland, David Hay from Orion Health, New Zealand, and Fatima Paruk, Allscripts Analytics, US – also referenced patient participation and consumer health in their presentations.

Closing plenary speaker Dr. Joseph Kvedar, the Vice President, Connected Health in Boston and a prominent commentator on digital health issues dealt with patient engagement in his presentation.

“Anything that promotes patient engagement leads to better outcomes. You can take that one to the bank,” Kvedar said.

He also argued that with current advances in analytics and AI, the physician role will shift back to working with patients at a more human level. e-Health 2017 had started with an inspirational plenary by Anne Merklinger and Paul Robinson discussing the Own the Podium program and what a focused commitment to quality could achieve, whether its bringing Olympic medals home to Canada or producing excellence in health IT. What Kvedar and others did throughout the meeting was demonstrate that this focus on quality and excellence must have strong patient engagement and patient involvement to be successful.

All keynote and plenary sessions are available through the e-Health 2017 Virtual Library: http://www.e-healthconference. com/program/virtual-library/

Jun 5 - Monday Afternoon Plenary

Jun 5 - Monday Afternoon Plenary 2

Jun 5 - Opening Ceremonies Keynote Address

TECHNOLOGY

15 years of Canadian tech

We celebrate Canada’s 150th by remembering the country’s greatest technological inventions

Writ ten by: WE DAE LI CHIBE LUS HI

TECHNOLOGY 2017 MARKS THE 150th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation, or as many are calling it, Canada’s 150th birthday. Since the British North America Act of 1867 joined the colonies of Canada, a unified country has racked up a whole host of achievements.

Take technology, for instance. From snowmobiles to pacemakers, Canadian inventors have produced several world firsts. Business Review Canada presents a timeline of Canadian tech inventions.

1873 1873

GREAT INVENTIONS AREN’T often entirely original. For example, Thomas Edison is widely credited for the invention of the lightbulb.

Not many know that he purchased a patent for the basis of his product from Canadians Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans. In 1873, Toronto neighbor’s Woodward and Evans began working on the idea of an electric lightbulb. They developed a prototype incandescent bulb with a carbon-rod filament. On 24 July 1874, they were granted a Canadian patent, and shortly after, attempted to take the product to market. Unfortunately, they were unable to raise sufficient funds.

In 1879, Edison bought the patent from Woodward and Evans, refined the process and commercialised it.

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150 YEARS OF CANADIAN TECH

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1906 CANADIAN INVENTOR REGINALD Fessenden sent the first two-way voice transmission by radio on 24 December, 1906. Prior to this, people communicated by radio via morse code, with radio operators decoding the communication into messages. Fessenden transformed radio communication when he broadcast human voices from Brant Rock (near Boston) to several ships off the Atlantic coast.

Fessenden gave a summary of the program, played a recording of Handel’s “Largo” and took to the violin for a live performance of “Oh Holy Night”. Fessenden invented radio as we know it, but never received due recognition. After lengthy lawsuits, he lost control of his patents, fought with partners and ending up migrating to Bermuda, where he eventually died.

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TECHNOLOGY

1950 DUBBED AS THE “father of biomedical engineering in Canada”, Winnipeg-born John Hopps invented the pacemaker. Hopps was initially researching the effects of radio frequency heating on hypothermia, when he found that if the heart stopped beating when its temperature dropped, it could be restarted artificially. From this research,

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Hopps developed the first cardiac defibrillation machine, which was used to start a dog’s heart in 1949. The following year, Hopps invented the first pacemaker device. It was too large to be used internally, and it wasn’t until 1958 that American engineer Wilson Greatbach invented the first implantable cardiac pacemaker.

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150 YEARS OF CANADIAN TECH

1958

IN 1922, 15-YEAR old Joseph Armand Bombardier built a propeller driven snow buggy. However, his father made him remove the propeller so it wouldn’t harm him or his siblings.

Bombardier didn’t let this hiccup stop him. Throughout the years, he worked tirelessly on his prototype, gradually developing the snow buggy. In 1958,

Bombardier revealed a vehicle fit to conquer Canada’s unique “wet” snow.

The ‘Ski-Doo’ featured a caterpillar track, and was very successful.

Bombardier’s product sold both as a utility vehicle and a toy for fun adventures in the snow. It became a huge aerospace and transportation company, with subsidiaries like Challenger and Global.

1958 15

TECHNOLOGY

1981 THE CANADARM IS arguably Canada’s most famous international achievement. The remote-controlled mechanical arm, also known as the Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (SRMS), has a 30-year long career with NASA’s Space Shuttle Program.

During this time, the robotic arm deployed, captured and repaired

satellites, positioned astronauts, maintained equipment and moved cargo. The Canadarm flew aboard 91 shuttle missions overall. Nasa stopped using the Canadarm in July 2011, but not before it established Canada’s reputation as a leading technological innovator.

1981 16

July 2017

150 YEARS OF CANADIAN TECH

1991 CANADIAN COMPANY OPENTEXT is an enterprise information management (EIM) software solutions company that leads its sector globally. The firm was born out of a University of Waterloo study that sought to copy all 60 million words of the Oxford Dictionary to an electronic database. The search technology which was developed for this project was eventually recognised

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as being useful for other electronic applications. In 1991 (when the Internet was emerging) the outcome of the project was commercialised by a private spin-off, Open Text Corporation. Open Text grew as the Internet did – organisations sought to index and search their growing stores of electronic information. As of 2016, OpenText employs over 10,000 people worldwide.

TECHNOLOGY

BlackBerry Software: Securing the Enterprise of Things

1999 18 YEARS AGO, the first BlackBerry phone was released by BlackBerry Limited (then known as Research in Motion). The BlackBerry 850 was introduced as a two-way pager in Munich, Germany. Supporting email and limited HTML browsing, the 850 featured a monochrome screen.

Blackberry phones developed

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rapidly over the ensuing years; larger screens, two-way radios, reduced-key keyboards, trackballs, GPS support, Wi-Fi and cameras were all eventually integrated into BlackBerry phones. In 2016, Blackberry announced it would cease designing its own phones.

The company no longer has much influence in the phone sector, however it will always be hailed as a pioneer.

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150 YEARS OF CANADIAN TECH

2006 ZENN (Zero Emmission, No Noise) is the product of Toronto firm ZENN Motor Company. The battery electric vehicle created quite a buzz in 2006, hitting the electric car market at a time when environmentalism was becoming more of a mainstream interest. The car was popular in the

US and Canada, and in the Michelin Challenge Bibendum 2006, ZENN received the highest overall rank in the Urban Car category. Zenn didn’t survive the financial crisis – it stopped producing cars in 2009. However, the company still develops car batteries.

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TOP 10

Top 10

gaming developers in Canada

Some of the most innovative game development companies in the world are located in Canada.

Here are our favourites...

W r i t t e n b y : C H R I S TA D O N O VA N

TOP 10

10 HINTERLAND GAMES OUR NUMBER ONE – Hinterland Games. This studio has both the ability to create games and the ability to raise funding for these games. It showcased this during its campaign for The Long Dark, a survival game based in the wilderness of Canada.

Not only did it raise its own funds via Kickstarter, but it also received public support from the Canada Media

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Fund. Hinterland employs a cadre of 22 people across North America. The remote structure was necessary for the bootstrap budget, but actually helped to create a new paradigm in the gaming industry with the success of its initial efforts. With the country and a large fan base behind them, this is definitely the Canadian studio you should keep the closest eye on.

GAMING DEVELOPERS IN CANADA

09 KLEI ENTERTAINMENT ONE OF THE smaller gaming studios coming out of Vancouver, Klei is quickly scaling the ranks with successes like old-school beat ‘em up Shank and survival game Don’t Starve.

The positive reception of both games will likely give the studio the resources and confidence it needs to expand its borders. Klei has 35 employees and has been in business since 2005.

The company is credited with 11 developed games on the market.

Oxygen Not Included - Early Access Trailer (Advert Cut)

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TOP 10

08 RADICAL ENTERTAINMENT IF YOU WANT to talk about the beginnings of gaming in Canada, you can’t ignore the contributions of Radical Entertainment. The studio is the oldest in Vancouver, and worked on games for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Anything but dated, Radical Entertainment was able to maintain its reputation into the current era of consoles and PC

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gaming until the Prototype series.

Although parent company Activision currently has the studio on hiatus because of a few commercial failures, it is still an active studio that works on projects with other subsidiaries.

Radical Entertainment has 43 games under its belt, with Prototype 2 being the last released in 2012.

GAMING DEVELOPERS IN CANADA

07 THE COALITION AS A SUBSIDIARY of Microsoft Studios, The Coalition currently holds the keys to the incredibly popular Gears of War franchise. The studio was initially known as Black Tusk Studios, and was originally created to develop an answer to the Halo franchise. It has also developed games under the names Zipline Studios and Microsoft Games Studio Vancouver. Its franchises continue to be some of the most highly anticipated releases in gaming, and the company continues to grow under the watchful eye of Microsoft. The Coalition has only released four games to date, including those released under its previous names. However, the development of Gears of War 4 has a new generation of gamers eagerly anticipating its next release.

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TOP 10

06 BIOWARE 1995 MARKED THE year of the birth of the Canadian RPG. Bioware, which currently employs 800 people, is responsible for titles including Jade Empire, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur’s Gate and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The promise of the company was seen early on, and the company was partnered by Electronic Arts (EA) only two years after its initial founding. It is one of the few developers that has been able to keep its integrity while wheeling and dealing on the top tiers of gaming. Bioware’s revenue is estimated at approximately $24.5 million and stands as one of EA’s top brands year after year.

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GAMING DEVELOPERS IN CANADA

05 BEENOX IN THE EARLY 2000s, Beenox was creating a name for itself through the Tony Hawk series, creating successful ports to Mac and PC. Its reputation grew as it ported Black Ops III to PS3 and Xbox 360, and was entrusted to make the partner game to Bee Movie. It currently employs 330 employees and is a subsidiary of Activision. Beenox is currently credited with 12 bona fide releases to date and 24 ports, with many of those ports under the Spider Man brand.

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TOP 10

04 BIG BLUE BUBBLE THIS SMALL INDEPENDENT studio is responsible for the mobile hit My Singing Monsters. Big Blue Bubble has been around since 2004, and it has quickly grown to become one of the biggest mobile developers in Canada. Big Blue Bubble also produced 24: The Mobile Game, a very well-received spinoff of the popular show. The company currently employs around 100 people.

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It consistently ranks on the PROFIT 500 list, an annual list compiling reports on the fastest growing companies in Canada. 2016 saw Big Blue Bubble ranked 131st on this list, with 561 percent revenue growth over the past five years. Its games currently draw over one million new players per month, with My Singing Monsters serving as a top title.

GAMING DEVELOPERS IN CANADA

03 UBISOFT YOU CAN’T MENTION Canadian gaming without mentioning the granddaddy of the scene - Ubisoft. For Honor, South Park, Assassin’s Creed, Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth, Might and Magic, and Prince of Persia are just a few of the incredible franchises this company is responsible for, not to mention its huge library of one-off and movie spinoff successes. Ubisoft currently employs over 10,000 people, enjoyed revenues of $628 million in 2016 and may be the largest employer in the gaming industry outright.

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TOP 10

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II Voice Actors

02 RELIC ENTERTAINMENT SINCE 1997, RELIC has focused on creating a well-respected line of real-time strategy (RTS) games including Homeworld, Warhammer, and Company of Heroes. It employs over 100 people, and is currently a subsidiary of Sega. It was formerly owned by American developer THQ, but was sold to Sega as a part of THQ’s bankruptcy agreement. The company was sold for a total of $26.6 million at an auction in 2012.

Overall, Relic has released 20 total entries to the market as of 2017, with most of those entries under the three aforementioned titles.

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GAMING DEVELOPERS IN CANADA

01 HOTHEAD GAMES VANCOUVER IS A prominent location for Canadian games, and one of the hottest companies to come out of the city is Hothead Games. In 2009, the firm appeared on the radar with a near perfect port of Braid to Mac and PS3. Its most famous game to date is On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness, and its current hits that include Boom Boom Soccer and BIG WIN NHL. The company currently employs around 120 employees. The company is currently credited with 20 releases, with many of those releases under the Big Win sports brand.

Kill Shot Virus - World Wide Launch Announcement!

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RESHORING: SigmaPoint is the paradigm shift

Written by Nell Walker Produced by Sharicka Braley

T E C H N O L O G I E S

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SIGMAPOINT TECHNOLOGIES

SigmaPoint is bringing business back to Canada by way of a sturdy operations-supply chain relationship and a dedication to lean manufacturing. Leah Slaughter and Stephane Dubreuil explain the company’s story

“I

t’s unusual to find supply chain and operations willing to stand beside each other during a transformation,” states Leah Slaughter, Vice President of Supply Chain at SigmaPoint Technologies. The two business processes are generally segregated and segmented, but Slaughter and Stephane Dubreuil, Vice President of Operations and Lean Enterprise Solutions, have worked

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closely to streamline and combine them to maximum effectiveness.

“It was imperative for us to get rid of traditional philosophies and methodologies and design something new between supply chain and operations, in order for SigmaPoint to become a lean enterprise leader. The tension and arguments that happen otherwise cost more money and are wasteful, so we’re putting an end to that.”

S U P P LY C H A I N

SigmaPoint: the paradigm shift

As an electronic manufacturing services provider which delivers end-to-end assembly services, SigmaPoint has not only broken, but shattered the mould of traditional manufacturing and supply chain industries. Dubreuil joined SigmaPoint 11 years ago, with Slaughter introduced in 2014.

The former’s immediate task was transforming the company into something lean, as part of a then-very small team, and the changes were seen swiftly.

“I spent the first eight months

doing small things to improve the company here and there, and changing the foundation of some areas,” he says. After a large project fell into the business’s lap, the team experimented with lean manufacturing, and it became apparent that there was huge potential benefit for the company to work on its lean thinking on a large scale. “From then, it became a priority for SigmaPoint. I started as an engineer and evolved into an executive, which shows how much the company has changed and how much they needed that change.”

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From left to right – Kim Dube, Supplier Business Relations Manager – Norm St-Jean, Senior Supply Chain Manager – Barbara Guertin, Strategic Sourcing Manager – Leah Slaughter (Middle), VP of Supply Chain – Penny Tessier, Supply Chain Project Manager – Ashley Thorpe-Hill, Supply Continuity Manager – Mike Furoy, Materials Manager – Suzanne Sonnenberg (missing) Demand Manager

According to Dubreuil, there are three levels of lean manufacturing: “Entry level is where you do some bits here and there and improve some processes. Second level is where you start to see a stream that is connected to the lean flow of the feed. At the highest level, you see a tight flow in production, combining a lot of productivity and maturity. We’re working on that third level, where we are connecting manufacturing with supply chain more and more

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with one common goal, rather than two siloes working side-byside but not communicating.”

SCOPS

Lean thinking and the combination of supply chain and operations – which the company calls SCOPS – is what has allowed SigmaPoint to disrupt its industry to the extent that it’s bringing business back onshore. The default position of so many manufacturers is “to attract customers at the design

From left to right – Melanie Kitts, Lean Transformation Agent – Eric Poupart, Value Stream Manager VS3 – Stephane Dubreuil, VP of Operation – Robert Joffre, Lean Transformation Manager – Jason Deronde, Lean Manufacturing Specialist – Nathalie Drennan, Value Stream Manager VS4 – Frederick Guerin, Value Stream Manager VS1 & VS2

stage, then move production to a low-cost country,” Dubreuil says. “That’s where we’re different. We do everything from designing to prototyping, low to high volume, under one roof.”

“Every customer has a large amount of waste that gets built into their process,” adds Slaughter.

“Offshoring means paying a lower labor rate, but that amounts to paying less to handle only that waste. At SigmaPoint, we eliminate waste and bring costs down; in

an industry where it seems like everybody is pre-programmed to go to China, we can do it all right here in Cornwall, Canada, with exceptional quality and with very agile and flexible strategies.

“North America is a technological hub and if companies can stay in North America, with the rapid prototyping we’re capable of just a short plane ride away, why wouldn’t a customer reshore

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SIGMAPOINT TECHNOLOGIES

to us? We provide an end-to-end forecast and find the customer a pure solution using a new way of thinking. We find the right price point, manage our own level-loaded demand stabilization to achieve 100 percent on time delivery at customer request with less inventory, balance supply, provide flexibility and agility, optimize people, machines, and tools, and provide high volume at low cost in your back yard.

SigmaPoint makes the effort to create tailor-made processes for each customer, removing that

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waste and securing trust. In an interview with Boss Magazine, VP of Engineering Steve Blouin described the company refusing an enormous order because it would have produced massive waste, which it eliminated by altering the contract to include only what the customer needed – even though it meant SigmaPoint losing out on money.

Certainly not standard practice for a manufacturing company, since so many of them have a minimum order requirement, but something that proves its credentials as a business

S U P P LY C H A I N

Leah Slaughter VP of Supply Chain Leah has close to 20 years of extensive experience in supply chain, redesigning end-to-end supply chains, evaluating where supply chain resources are best deployed to maximize company revenue and improve customer delivery performance by using an assessment of strategic risk for the company through strategic sourcing, demand intake, supply chain management, procurement, materials management, manufacturing, logistics and customer service. Leah’s experience with component distribution, various multinational EMS providers, and OEM’s as well as consulting for supply chain process and applications has allowed her to share her knowledge and manage teams of up to 150 people. Graduating with honours and on the Dean’s List, Leah received Diploma’s in Materials Management & Distribution and Marketing & Business Administration from Sir Sandford Fleming College.

“We’re making sure we’re part of the EDUCATION AND KNOWLEDGE base here in Canada and North America, and that allows us to disrupt the rest of the world”

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SIGMAPOINT TECHNOLOGIES

that has made the effort to create a holistic approach for customers.

This level of care, attention, and the ability to reshore also stands as a testament to SigmaPoint’s efforts towards SCOPS collaboration.

“Unfortunately, when operations and supply chain come together, one usually gets repressed by the other.

That’s not the way it is here,” says Slaughter. “Stephane and I are equal partners in this and our teams go at problems together, and it’s incredible to have a partner in crime with whom I can go back to the lab and create the ingenuity and vision that will form our future evolution. We’re one group looking outwards in both directions, and it’s a cradle-to-grave process.

We’re challenging and disrupting the rules traditionalists lived and live by.”

Scientific thinkers

Slaughter and Dubreuil are keen to express that none of SigmaPoint’s incredible transformation would have been possible without a strong and like-minded team.

“Everyone talks about the bottomup structure, but before you can

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even dream about that you need to have a good top-bottom structure,” Dubreuil explains. “You need to engage, strategize, and use that strategy to inspire the workforce.

We refer to the team as an army of scientific thinkers; we give them a direction, and the goal is that they evolve the business so quickly that our competition can’t follow.”

While the executives create the vision and act as a think tank, they don’t actually run the company: “It’s our managers that do that,” says Slaughter. “They take all the tasks, the challenges, the experiments, and make it work.

Other companies’ executives might say “this is what we’re doing, just make it happen” – but not us.”

Alongside the thinkers stand lean coaches, who have been used for the past two years to measure the team’s ability to bridge the gap between the current and future states of the company.

“The coach monitors the gap by asking questions,” says Dubreuil.

“It’s a way to understand what the team’s objective is, what they

S U P P LY C H A I N

expect from taking that step, what obstacles they foresee, and what they have learned. The coach is an expert in the use of tools for continuous improvement.

“As a result, our management has raised the level of what we expect from them, which is not only to push the product out

every day, but to ensure we know how to troubleshoot the gap.”

As part of the expansion required in a company which is evolving at such an astounding rate, SigmaPoint is about to open a new site within Catalyst 137, which Slaughter calls “a 475,000 foot think tank of new inventors; an incubator for brilliant

Stephane Dubreuil VP of Operations Stephane Dubreuil is VP of Operation at SigmaPoint Technologies Inc. in Cornwall, Ontario Canada. Prior to joining SigmaPoint, Stephane held positions at Nortel and General Motors in NPI design and industrial engineering. Stephane has been the driving force behind SigmaPoint’s shift to Lean Enterprise and guided the group to becoming World Class Lean Six Sigma on July 2nd 2010. With Stephane’s leadership the company continues to improve and learn how to enable and unlock the lean culture in every employee. He has a Bachelor degree in Automated Production Engineering from the University of Quebec, a ASQ certification of Six Sigma Black Belt (ASQ CSSBB) and is also an auditor for the AME Manufacturing Excellence Award program.

“We do everything from designing to prototyping, low to high volume, under one roof”

TODAY’S OPERATIONS AND SUPPLY CHAINS are functioning in a traditional manner, producing demand that is inaccurate and unpredictable. Unpredictability causes waste, and waste causes cost.

But what if you get rid of that waste and manage what’s important?

Would your cost not go down? And would this not allow more business to stay onshore? YES!

And here is how:

We are an army of scientific thinkers, with the philosophy of doing as a form of learning. Through people development, the organization enables a culture of new scientists that will create rapid change at all levels of the organization. Removing waste and inefficiencies allows costs to decrease naturally, providing a similar cost structure of an offshore geography.

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young minds”. It will continue SigmaPoint’s transformation into an industry leader in lean enterprise, further improving its rapid prototyping capabilities and offering supply chain, manufacturing and lean enterprise workshops, led by Dubreuil and Slaughter.

Slaughter adds: “We’re making sure we’re part of the education and knowledge base here in Canada and North America, and that allows us to disrupt the rest of the world.”

For the supply chain, Slaughter looks for those who can problemsolve, that are highly passionate to succeed, and are ready to eschew traditional processes in favor of all things lean.

“A conservative mind is not really what I look for in the DNA of this modern lean supply chain,” she explains. “People in this supply chain need to be, to some degree, adrenaline enthusiasts. We don’t conduct supply chain in a traditional way, so we need to be able to think quickly while multitasking, creating an exceptional experience for our customers, and ensuring

we’re covering everything. We’re changing and evolving every day; DNA changes in management cascade downwards. We also have to maintain strong relationships with operations: without that, we don’t and can’t become what we’re on our journey to become, which is an amalgamated presence between manufacturing and supply chain.”

Slaughter concludes: “If it wasn’t for the strength and brilliance of our people, we’d never be what we are today. The atmosphere here is one where we welcome ideas and you speak your mind, and this is thanks in part to our leader Dan Bergeron, who is our motivation and our teacher. I think it’s important to know we’re a really big family here.

That gets us through each day.”

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Creating the world’s biggest underground signalling system Aviation systems, electronic warfare for armed forces, and security against cyber-attacks are a few of the operations Thales handles. In the Transport Supply Chain, Thales is in the middle of building the biggest metro signalling system the world has ever seen

Written by Leila Hawkins Produced by Sharicka Braley

S U P P LY C H A I N

T

he history of the Thales Group goes as far back as 1893, when the Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston formed to operate patents for the emerging markets of power generation and transmission. An acquisition and a merger later, after the 1970s oil crises, the company started getting contracts in the Middle East and expanded its portfolio to include telecommunications and other forms of technology.

Later renamed Thales, it switched to defence electronics, still a big part of the business today along with aerospace, security and transport. The 9/11 attack made Thales strengthen its focus on areas like technology-centric warfare, and it has since acquired full control of several defence and aerospace subsidiaries. Thales in the UK is now Britain’s second-largest defence contractor, selected for various sizable Ministry of Defence programs.

In 2007, it acquired security, space and transport activities from longstanding partner Alcatel-Lucent, increasing its employees and revenue. More recently Thales acquired a big data management company, adding the Internet of Things and digitization to its ever-growing roster.

Transportation The urban rail transport Centre of Competence of Thales is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It has built automated signalling for metro systems

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THALES CANADA INC.

Mike White

Vice President of Procurement and Supply Chain of its Urban Rail Signalling Business Line, in Toronto

“Last year we had quite a few substantial projects finished on time, which in this industry isn’t always the case” – Vice President of Procurement and Supply Chain of its Urban Rail Signalling Business Line, in Toronto

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all over the globe, including in Dubai, Santiago and Hong Kong; it has also produced the two longest driverless train lines in the world, in Vancouver and Dubai. Supply of materials and services to support this construction work is overseen by Mike White, the Vice President of Procurement and Supply Chain of its Urban Rail Signalling Business Line, in Toronto.

“Last year we had quite a few substantial projects finished on time, which in this industry isn’t always the case,” he explains. “Approximately 50 percent of the project value is through procurement and supply chain.

We play a very significant part in its success. Normally we meet between the engineer and the installation guys, if design is late this doesn’t mean the installation can be late, so we have to do the magic in the middle to make sure everything is delivered on time.”

In London, Thales upgraded the underground’s Northern and Jubilee Lines to include automated signalling systems, on the back of which it won the Four Lines Modernization contract. This will advance four of the capital’s most important lines: the

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Thales Next Gen Transit Positioning System

Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines. The London Underground carries 1.34 billion passengers per year, and between them these lines account for 40 percent of the network’s traffic.

This is the largest project of the sort that’s ever been created worldwide. It’s a vast, complex task, as construction workers only have two to three hours each night to install the equipment.

Finding the right suppliers This makes it essential to have good relationships with partners in installation and other processes.

A good example of one of the close relations Thales has is with a USA-owned China based electronics manufacturer, which has been supplying most of its electromechanical equipment to Thales on urban rail projects for a number of years, delivering on time and with competitive costs.

“They’re fantastic for us,” White says. “The work they do is highly complex and subject to a lot of changes from designers, but they

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always manage to do it and it hardly ever impacts on the delivery to the customers. If we had another supplier we wouldn’t have got that.”

Thanks to partners like this there is often no need to pit suppliers against each other; however Thales has a network called “Family Buyers” who are managers in different categories.

Whenever a request for a quote or proposal is launched the relevant manager will ensure the right suppliers are consulted. These are bundled together and a view standardized to suit the company’s needs.

“Prior to any orders being placed we have a robust gate process at different stages which the relevant manager is included in,” he says. “This enables us to assess supplier offers, mandate any negotiations and invoke lessons learned to ensure that we gain the most cost competitive offer while meeting the design requirements and securing the delivery lead time in line with the project needs.”

It’s also very important to talk to the suppliers as early as possible.

“This can be as early as our product development stage where we

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work with our suppliers to look at manufacturability of the product components, the global availability of piece parts and general design to cost activities,” he says.

“In addition to this, for large spend items, we would engage with our supply chain to effectively price and build our proposal to bid for the project. This would include working with suppliers of materials and equipment as well as service providers such as installation services.

This would entail conducting design for manufacturing, installation

©Thales_Urban Rail Data Analytics

and cost activities to make their inputs and our overall bid price competitive for our end customers.”

Equally important is ensuring sources are sustainable, as each project has a 20-30 year life cycle. All the suppliers must sign a corporate social responsibility charter, stating they are committed to ethical sourcing, no pollution and no child labour.

Thales is part of the United Nations Global Compact, a voluntary initiative to encourage companies around the world to adopt socially responsible policies. “At the end of the day, this is Thales’ reputation,” White says.

Challenges and strategies The biggest challenge is competition, not just in procurement but for Thales as a whole. White explains that the Chinese market is its biggest rival, as it’s no longer focused internally but is widening its footprint to the rest of the world. China’s low cost labor means Thales has to drive its prices down.

However Thales has strategy to handle this. “Within the Thales group, we have a program called Ambition 10 – that’s a ten-year

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program to make sure everything we do is lean and agile. We reduce our internal costs and improve our competitiveness. That then translates down to the business entity levels to specific action plans, so each function will have an ambition boost transformation plan each year which is then acted upon and driven down into our annual objectives. Everyone gets an annual objective based on the business plans within the company.”

In procurement specifically, this improves the competency and capability of staff, and how the warehousing is managed more effectively. Some of this is achieved internally and some by using 3PL, in other words, outsourcing to

third party logistics services.

“We make sure we’re using contemporary tools and processes as well, instead of just sitting back on our laurels and accepting what we’ve got is good,” White says. He explains there is a large focus on improvement, and while it used to be the case that each part of the business would have had its own plan, with the new Ambition 10 program they all work seamlessly together. “If I’ve got a savings or competitiveness target to achieve this year that’s also now linked to engineering, because the only way we can really do it now is with value engineering or design to cost. We’re now starting to link the plans together which was not done before.”

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How improvements in corporate procurement became a catalyst to divisional business transformation The British Columbia Lottery Corporation undertook a whole host of proficiency improvements, starting back in 2005. However, even Keith Bolen, Director of Corporate Procurement, could not have foreseen the impact the improvements would have across the Finance division Written by Stuart Hodge Produced by Sharicka Braley

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he British Columbia Lottery Corporation must be doing something right. The company was named Gaming Intelligence’s on-line Lottery Operator of the Year last year and has recently receives an HR “People First” award.

It seems that both internal and external customers of the provincial government corporation are very happy and BCLC must be pleased with revenue of over 52

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$3 billion (CAN) last year.

So, what has been at the root of BCLC’s continued success?

Well, Keith Bolen believes he has the answer. Keith looks after procurement for the company, and says firstly his department and secondly the company as a whole have undergone a significant transformation.

The initial sweep of changes began in procurement

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specifically, back in 2005. Bolen describes the procurement focus at that time as being “purely transactional”, essentially placing orders and taking orders. There was no vendor performance or contract management, the systems were antiquated, and there were only a handful or strategic sourcing events each year.

But that had to change for the business to move forward, as Bolen explains.

He says: “There was a real need to centralise procurement and then, looking at how the company as a whole was really entrepreneurial and innovative, we needed to apply that approach to how we procure as well.

“We really changed up our strategic sourcing methodologies and we adopted a new public procurement standard, allowing for better decision making through indepth engagements with vendors.

“That obviously involved addressing some of the demands of our internals customers, which in turn, allowed us to make better business decisions with sourcing.”

Leading up to that initial transformation phase, starting in 2005, BCLC had adopted a new Enterprise Resource Planning system, which allowed transactions to be processed more efficiently. The Corporation then employed purchasing cards for the first time as part of a move to modernise all operations. That resulted

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in 50 percent of all transactions “Then, during phase two, there being removed from the ERP was a divisional-wide transformation system, reducing the administrative effort where another company burden of these high-volume, was deployed to help with the low-value transactions. transformation of the finance The increased efficiencies division. Given that, procurement yielded by collaborating with reports into finance it is a much PricewaterhouseCoopers and broader effort for transformation. using its expertise to bring the “Part of what drove that transformation decision was looking to fruition had an at the success that undoubtedly positive procurement had effect on corporate experienced during our procurement for phase one, where we BCLC, and that’s why basically applied the the company chose same methodology of Number of Employees at The British to carry through bringing in an outside Columbia Lottery similar changes company to look at our Corporation across the Finance & business processes Corporate Services and organizational division as a whole. structure and make Bolen says: “Phase one of the recommendations to help guide transformation was specific to us in applying improvements. procurement. We had engaged a “We were being held up as company to create our very first the poster child of success, to roadmap of business process say ‘if we apply this approach improvements and we followed that to our business then we’ll see through with significant benefits results, look at procurement to our department, and improved and look what they’ve done’. services to the whole organisation.

“We were actually a catalyst in

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Keith Bolen

Director, Corporate Procurement Keith Bolen is a public procurement specialist who has held the position as Director of Corporate Procurement with BCLC since 2009. Prior to that he worked in purchasing with the company, after joining from Fraser Health Authority where he worked initially as a buyer. Keith is proud of what he’s achieved with the company, but says nothing would’ve been possible without the staff. He said: “I have to give a nod to the workforce management efforts because we’ve managed to get the right people in the right positions. That’s a big part of what we were trying to achieve. “The staff do a lot of the heavy lifting; they implement all of the new methodologies and new software and managed to make everything work, so acknowledgement that our success and transformation is very well deserved.

Without the staff, we would not be successful. Even with the best methodologies and the best systems to automate business process, you cannot make it work without the right people behind you.”

WE REALLY CHANGED UP OUR STRATEGIC SOURCING METHODOLOGIES and we adopted a new public procurement standard, allowing for BETTER DECISION MAKING AND DEEPER ENGAGEMENT WITH VENDORS

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helping to drive transformation through our finance division.�

Efforts were initially focused on centralising contract management by physically taking custody of all the organisation’s contracts in a central location, then using software to create a library of contacts and key information. It was a significant change from the previous system, which saw management of contracts spread across the entire organisation, with dozens or more of different managers involved.

The centralised-focus allowed us to engage in drafting of contracts, renewing contracts and negotiating contracts. With that, we were able to provide a significantly greater level of service than ever before, and I think that is a key point The company recognized the benefits of this approach, and further invested in what it saw as the necessary resources in terms of software and staff, as well as policy and procedure, to solidify the changes.

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Amanda Hobson Chief Financial Officer and Vice-President, Finance and Corporate Services

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Bolen says: “We contracted with a Software as a Service (SaaS) company named iValua who brought in a suite of procurement-centric business modules. The first one of these that we deployed was the contract management tool.”

“Prior to phase two, managers were expected to be “contract specialists” in addition to their primary roles. Consequently, the contracting effort managed at the business unit level did not meet the rigorous standards of a public entity.

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We brought focused expertise in contract management, and filled a gap where there was limited access to specialized resources.”

“The other significant undertaking as a result of being able to manage information in a central manner, was the triggering of an initiative we call strategic contract renegotiation.

We took the information that we gained through the centralised reporting database and identified the top-spend vendors and contracts which were long-term.”

It took the organisation around 12 months to renegotiate all of its strategic contracts and BCLC eventually managed to save about $15 million by improving the contract management procedure.

Phase two of the company restructure involved a massive overhaul of vendor performance management, and once more, PwC and iValua were brought in to assist with the process.

Bolen says: “We had engaged PwC to perform a procurement diagnostic to benchmark the current level of maturity of all of our procurement functions against best

practices in other like-agencies.

“One of the gaps that we identified was vendor performance management, so PwC brought their methodology to our organisation to build an effective framework that would serve us well in our need to identify and effectively manage those vendors and related contracts that would result in best value to the organization. They’ve brought the expertise, trained our staff and to a degree, some of our business units how to do that according to best practices.”

“At the same time, we partnered again with iValua to

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utilise the software that would support the vendor performance management transactions.

This has been undertaken just in the last 12 months and has been one of the best-received programs we’ve ever rolled out.”

“I mean that in the sense that engagement by the business units, staff and managers has been exceptional in terms of embracing

the methodology that PwC brought to the table. The tool supporting the methodology has also been widely accepted and is providing us with the reporting that we need to really be successful.”

But although BCLC’s new, more streamlined means of operating saw the company take away a net profit, after prizes, of $2.4 billion last year, Bolen is adamant it is

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not going to rest on its laurels.

He says that the company is now looking at sustaining a “continuous improvement cycle” in terms of business practices and he wants to see the its success continue.

Bolen adds: “Around 2010 there was a divergence between centralising all of the business functions and from then, moving forward there

has been a continued focus on deploying new methodologies and bringing software business systems automation to the table to gain efficiencies.

“Phase two is still actively going, I don’t think it ever ends.

I think that’s how we position it because we’re in this cycle of continuous improvement and quest for innovation. To add to what’s happening now, there is a significant focus on re-defining business process and developing new approaches to sourcing and contracting with small start-up type companies that would not typically engage in a governmenttype procurement process.”

“Across the business there is a focus on the six sigma methodology and we’re constantly looking at all business processes for efficiencies. “That’s how we stay at the top of our game.”

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Making refuelling mobile 4Refuel provides on-site refuelling for ships, construction plants, and railways among many other industries. But what makes it unique is that it was one of the very first refuelling companies to adopt mobile technology for its drivers.

Written by Leila Hawkins Produced by David Kulowitch

4REFUEL

4Refuel

provides onsite refuelling for ships, construction plants, and railways among many other industries. But what makes it unique is that it was one of the very first refuelling companies to adopt mobile technology for its drivers.

Since it was founded in 1995, 4Refuel has transitioned seamlessly from having drivers deliver fuel using paper tickets to using electronic data. It was one of the first companies in its industry to start doing this.

As well as telling drivers the order in which they must deliver fuel, this mobile technology eliminates the need to search for client names as well as human error, such as potentially getting the wrong address. New on-board cellular technology gives real-time monitoring in terms of things like fuel levels and if a driver is running late, which means 4Refuel can be notified immediately to re-route trucks and make up the time difference.

While handheld devices have existed for a number of years, up until 2017 drivers had to take them out of their trucks to connect to the network. Advances in mobile technology have made it possible to get information directly from the vehicles.

The expectation is that very soon these devices will tell the drivers the best routes to take

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TECHNOLOGY

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4REFUEL

Larry Rodo President & CEO

Larry Rodo is the President and CEO of 4Refuel. Over the last 32 years Larry has served in many operating and sales positions throughout all modes of transportation, including executive leadership with large global organizations.

He has been a lead consultant on Wall Street for cash logistics and travelled the world working on complex supply chains addressing globalism, security, military, high value, currency, precious metals and pharmaceutical.

The biggest thing I’m seeing right now is data coming in, into the hands of the right people on their phones and tablets at the right time – Larry Rodo, President & CEO by analyzing traffic conditions.

James Cameron Lee, Chief Information Officer, explains how this has benefited the business massively.

“Back in the day people didn’t have any visibility as to where the fuel was going. With the implementation of technology on our trucks we’re able to show whether it be construction equipment or where the fuel is going.”

The company does around five million transactions per year, so if a business had to do this manually it wouldn’t be able to function effectively. “It’s just this ability to capture the data in the field via cellular network to our head office.

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Mike McGee Chief Financial Officer

Mike McGee is 4Refuel’s Chief Financial Officer. As CFO, Mike is responsible for the financial management of the company, and plays a leadership role in developing and executing the company’s growth strategy.

Most recently, Mike was CFO of Brookfield Global Relocation Services and Brookfield Residential Property Services, both portfolio companies of the Private Equity group of Brookfield Asset Management.

Previously, Mike spent ten years as CFO of Sonoco Plastics (previously Matrix Packaging). Mike started his career with Ernst & Young in the audit and corporate finance practices.

4REFUEL

It provides data in a timely fashion. I don’t think any business of any size, if you had to do all that manually, it would just be a barrier because of the sheer number of transactions.

“The biggest thing I’m seeing right now is data coming in, into the hands of the right people on their phones and tablets at the right time” he says, “and being powered by mobility, if you have the right data you can do something with it quicker.

Jared Prentiss Vice President – 4Refuel US

Jared joined 4Refuel in January, 2014 and currently holds the role of Vice President, 4Refuel US. Jared supported the launch of 4Refuel in the United States and oversees the strategic, commercial, and organizational structure. Prior to joining 4Refuel, Jared spent 13 years with Penske Truck Leasing in various roles overseeing field operations.

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“Companies that don’t adopt technology, whether being fuel delivery or any other companies, technology continues to drive business forward. If you’re not an adopter of technology I think you’ll have a tough time making it in the long haul.”

New initiatives Lee is currently working on a system to evaluate the work of the drivers.

“Historically there has been a view

that drivers, you tell them what to do and they go and do it and finish their day. There’s this idea in my head we’re planning to work on that people actually want to know how they did that day,” he explains.

“I’m looking at creating a scorecard system where, based on the days and on how much volume they pumped on the road, were they late for any stops, how productive they were on site

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Lynne Harkness Director, Human Resources

4Refuel believes that the employees are the backbone of the Organization.

Lynne leads a team of human resources and payroll professionals who strive to provide first-rate programs and support to all levels of the business, ensuring the most efficient tools are in place for the utmost achievement of success.

Lynne currently serves as Chair of the Peel Branch of the Canadian Payroll Association, a position she has held since 2011.

Lynne lives her life ensuring personal health and wellness are a non-negotiable priority and enjoys spending time skiing, camping, canoeing, and kayaking.

versus internal targets we set – they get this feedback mechanism daily.

“Then a supervisor who may have 10 drivers under them will get the scorecard and see the same info,” he says. “It would be more timely.

Whereas in the past, because we were batching it in shifts and running a bunch of slower processes, we weren’t really getting that real feedback, so we’d be telling drivers days later about the next day. It’s all about just being able to get more timely data and being able to have the wherewithal for the technology to automatically email it out to the right people at the right time. “ Lee says this will make things vastly more efficient. “Also understanding issues quicker so we can take corrective actions. If we didn’t have that visibility, new managers and supervisors trying to look for things can be difficult, whereas every morning getting a report about your drivers and how to decipher that report, you make them better managers by giving them the right info in a timely format.”

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“The key

is differentiating yourself from being a commodity” – James Lee, Chief Information Officer

James Lee Chief Information Officer

James joined 4Refuel in 2003 and currently holds the role of Chief Information Officer. James has held multiple roles in the organization during his tenure at 4Refuel including VP Operations, VP Strategic Initiatives and VP Systems Development & Integration. Prior to joining 4Refuel James spent eight years in the forestry sector across a variety of disciplines including planning, operations, engineering & silviculture.

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Hiring the best Ensuring drivers are fully trained in these systems is a top priority. “There are so many things you have to worry about,” Lee explains. “When you’re on a fuel truck and carrying dangerous substances, we want to really make sure the technology is easy to use, so it’s very important that computers are responsive and simplistic.”

Just as challenging is driver retention. In December 2016 stricter legislation was enforced for long haul drivers, and it became a requirement for electronic log books to be kept for safety.

TECHNOLOGY

Joe Valeriote Chief Commercial Officer

Joe joined 4Refuel in 1997 and is currently Chief Commercial Officer.

His primary responsibilities include overseeing sales, marketing and strategic development.

Having joined the organization shortly after its foundation in 1995, Joe is one of 4Refuel’s longest-tenured employees and was instrumental in growing the company from a family business to North America’s largest mobile onsite refueller.

Competition 4Refuel operates throughout Canada and in the last few years it’s expanded to Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin. Depending on market conditions there are plans to expand into further US states, but the company has taken the decision to focus operations on Texas for now.

It’s a highly competitive industry.

“The key is differentiating yourself from being a commodity” Lee says.

Competition is usually down to price, but 4Refuel sets itself apart from its rivals by having drivers go out to refuel company’s vehicles in the middle of the night and in all elements when they’re not active, enabling them to maximize their day.

“4Refuel does the jobs nobody else will.”

Positivity ensures a PURE experience for gamers at Canadian casino group PURE Canadian Gaming CEO George Goldhoff tells us how he’s overseen the transformation at the top of Alberta’s biggest casino provider Written by Stuart Hodge Produced by Aquarius Rougely

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W

hen PURE Canadian Gaming was founded in 2013, the new company aimed to build on the 40 years of success achieved under its previous guises of Alberta Bingo Supplies and Casino ABS, whilst catapulting the business into a new era of success.

Original founder Heinz Oldach, who sadly passed away in 2010, spent nearly four decades building up a huge number of loyal customers in the province of Alberta and the company remains the biggest and longest-serving casino company in that part of Canada.

The aim behind the 2013 rebranding and restructure was to safeguard Oldach’s legacy by employing a modern business strategy which kept both customers and workers happy, and ensures that the company can produce the best possible product.

PURE recruited George Goldhoff as CEO in late 2011 and he has overseen the change within the company, calling on experience gathered over 13 years with MGM Resorts International which

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included be a part of the opening team at Bellagio in 1998, rebuilding Beau Rivage after Hurricane Katrina and finally serving as the General Manager at Gold Strike, Tunica between 2007 and 2011.

Goldhoff has enjoyed spearheading the change. He says: “We knew that we want to rebrand the company to show that we’d turned the page and were moving forward - we worked on everything from marketing to IT to finance, HR, it was truly a complete transformation of the company.

“When I got here, there was nobody in HR or marketing, two people in IT who maintained the current legacy systems, but there was nobody strategic, so it was all about becoming more datadriven and to understand and get insights into our business through IT, better financial metrics, KPI’s as well as simultaneously improving the facilities, rebranding the company and marketing, creating campaigns and promotions - draws, giveaways, everything a modern casino company would do.

D ATA C E N T E R S

“And then the underpinning of all of this, is that I knew these great team members would want to be led into the 21st century and we needed to develop and train them because we felt they had been somewhat forgotten throughout the years.

“So whether it was through employee recognition or hiring the right people or intense immersion in customer experience development, I knew that is what could separate us and be a differentiator in our market, because we’re 15 minutes away from any one of our competitors so we have to earn it, every single day.

“There’s not one area we haven’t looked at and improved.”

Positivity

The company now employs over 1,000 people across their

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four sites located in Edmonton, Calgary, and Lethbridge.

Despite the fact the company has such a vast number of employees, there is one overriding credential that PURE demands in every single individual.

Goldhoff explains:

“We need people who are positive, so we have deployed an assessment called the general optimism test.

We need people who come into our company to see the world as ‘a glass half full’. We need them to be optimistic and not pessimistic so

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in terms of recruitment, absolutely all candidates coming into the company takes that assessment.

“The other assessment, and this is something we give to management, is called the

Management Change Inventory.

The MCI is to say that, if a manager understands that change is always happening, they embrace change, they know how to manage and communicate change then that’s

D ATA C E N T E R S

what we need in management, along with being positive and optimistic.

“We can teach you how to flip a hamburger or flip a card but really need those two attributes in all of our new recruits.”

PURE enjoyed a steady period of growth from 2012 through 2014 and then had its best ever year in 2015 before the oil price crashed, making it up an uphill struggle throughout the country.

Goldhoff says the economic downturn combined with the provincial government’s increasing taxes and the minimum wage for employees, presents a real challenge and has been factored into the group’s strategy.

He continues: “We’re trying to drive revenues even although the economy is working against us. We’re developing our staff in regards to brilliant guest experience. We’re doing a lot in terms of measuring performance, with mystery inspection shopping and we’re focused on social media ratings and that type of thing to ensure that we’re in the best possible position to capture market share from our competitors.

“We’re extraordinarily focused

George Goldhoff CEO George Goldhoff is President and CEO of PURE Canadian Gaming based in Edmonton, and brought a wide range of experience and expertise in the casino and hospitality industry when took up the post in November 2011.

After graduating from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, George has had a career which has seen him lead teams at some of the most iconic hospitality venues such as The Rainbow Room and The Plaza Hotel in New York.

He was recruited to assist in the opening of Steve Wynn’s, Bellagio, the first Five Diamond casino resort in Las Vegas. He continued to work with MGM Corporation at the Four Diamond Mississippi property, Beau Rivage Resort and Casino, and later became General Manager of Goldstrike Hotel and Casino in Tunica, Mississippi.

He also holds an MBA in Management from Columbia University in New York and describes himself as “extraordinarily proud and grateful” to lead the company and the people in it. purecanadiangaming.com

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on creating productivity and cost efficiency and trying to maintain our margins even although there are a variety of things which are difficult in the economy including the fact the minimum wage over three years will go from $10.20 to $15, a 47% increase, and we’re in the midst of that right now, we had corporate taxes go up, carbon taxes, tobacco taxes, property taxes, liquor taxes - the government

is really tax-happy, so a penny saved is a penny made in 2017 and 2018 because you can’t market yourself out of these tax increases.

“And the last thing we’re focusing on - I am a great believer that you change a company from the inside out, you don’t market and tell people what you’re going to be and then become it, you have to already become that first. We’re focused on best in class, team and environment.

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D ATA C E N T E R S

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We conduct employee surveys and focus group feedback sessions each year and we’re very focused on developing and recruiting the right people. We know that, if we get that part right, the product in terms of what we’re providing in customer service will be excellent and that will translate well financially.”

Food for thought

The positive financial results prior to the economic crash have allowed the company to reinvest in its facilities and the CEO’s experience has really come to the fore when it comes to the group’s new food offering, which has already been rolled out at two of the company’s four locations, with the third happening now and the fourth set to follow later this year.

Goldhoff worked with TV chef Sam DeMarco, with whom he opened the Bellagio back in 1998, for the relaunching of the company’s food offering at Casino Yellowhead, before working with DeMarco’s trusted “lieutenant” to continue rolling the menu out at the company’s other premises.

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Goldhoff adds: “We’re in markets that are very local. We’re not putting in Michelin three-star restaurants and we don’t have the space to put in a whole variety of concepts, so we knew the offering had to be everything to everybody and our market is straight down the middle so I brought Sam in and we created the most flavorful, innovative menu that the market has right now.

“It’s been a huge success and my belief is that we’re keeping people here longer and giving them an excuse to have another trip to our casino, even if it’s not to play a table game or a slot machine, they’re coming for the food, exclusively now in some cases.

“Sam is in Amsterdam now engaged in another project, so I

1,100 Number of employees at PURE Canadian Gaming

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asked him whom his best lieutenant was and he brought me Rob Ryan, who is as passionate about food and as high-quality a chef as Sam, and we’ve been using Rob to roll out this menu in our other three locations.

“We’ve rolled it out at Casino Lethbridge, we’re implementing it at Edmonton and then we’re taking it to Calgary over the summer, but in each location we’ve kept the specific regional favourites that we can’t take off the menu for our loyal customers, who would

start a revolution if we did!

Goldhoff finishes by explaining how this renovation has gone beyond simply developing new food offerings. For Pure’s strategy, food is a newly unleashed marketing weapon.

“We’re rolling it out and we’re also getting aggressive and renovating our other spaces and facilities as well. We’ve turned food into a marketing weapon because nobody is doing it as well and food is an incredibly important

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PURE CANADIAN GAMING

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part of the casino entertainment experience. People recognize that having a great food product is a business imperative if you want to attract people and keep them at your casino. In 1998, we essentially changed the way that developers, operators and casino owners thought about food when we opened Bellagio and I’ve taken that format, or philosophy and integrated it into our properties.

“When I talk about weaponizing food, I mean that people will come to our casinos first because they can get a great dining experience and I know once they’re here, they’re not going to leave and play somewhere else, they’re going to play here as well.”

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HELPING CANADA LEAD THE CHANGE TO SMARTER HEALTHCARE Written by Stuart Hodge Produced by Quiyonni Borja

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Jennifer MacGregor, Allscripts Managing Director for Canada, talks to us about the company’s Canadian heritage, what lies at the root of Allscripts’ success and what innovations the future holds

A

t the heart of Allscripts Healthcare Solutions’ core mission lies a commitment to revolutionizing the way that digital healthcare is delivered, not just in Canada but beyond our borders as well.

That may sound like a very grandiose dream; but, since it was founded in 1986, the company has been building an infrastructure to empower health professionals to provide ‘proactive’ rather than ‘reactive’ care through an open, connected community of health.

Allscripts’ Sunrise™, an enterprise-wide digital healthcare platform, is widely used throughout Canada, the United States and around the globe as a premier provider of electronic health records, population health management and operational solutions. The company’s network connects 2,500 hospitals and 45,000 medical practices.

Allscripts Managing Director for Canada, Jennifer MacGregor, spoke to Business Review Canada about how Allscripts uses that network to help healthcare providers deliver superior care to every single citizen.

And the key distinction therein, is that MacGregor w w w. a l l s c r i p t s . c o m

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talks of ‘citizens’ rather than ‘patients’.

She explains: “We are focused on establishing an open and integrated solution across the care continuum and being able to provide the level of insight required to our providers, our clinicians, our citizens – we call them citizens for a reason, because we do not want our people to be ill – and our program administrators, whether it be jurisdiction, governmental or hospital administrators.

“We want to provide them with the right information so that they can make the best decisions about the way that they are deploying care from a program perspective. We also want to provide them with the knowledge base to know how they’re generating value out of their investments and how they’re ensuring that they’re providing the best level of service to their patient and population catchment areas across the continuum.

“It means we need to have active and dynamic care plans that will enable transition through care, postacute and out into the community – and also establishing a network in the community so that we can provide

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the types of services and access to ensure people get proactive care, not getting ill to the point where they’re needing high-cost services.

“That way it’s well people, and not sick patients – that is very important. I would say one of the greatest assets we have is the passion that every Allscripts associate believes in the mission of ensuring that our providers and our clients are looking after well people and not sick patients. That is what permits us to do what we do every day.”

It’s all very well and good saying that – but how exactly does that work on a day-to-day basis?

MacGregor says: “Okay, let’s look at it in terms of someone who is being looked after in a jurisdiction with access to all of our solutions.

Say, perhaps, that the individual may have been identified as potentially having a chronic disease and may not be following appropriate guidelines to take good care of themselves.

“What often happens in this situation, is that patients degrade in that situation to such an extent that

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WE WANT TO PROVIDE OUR CLIENTS WITH

THE RIGHT INFORMATION” – Jennifer MacGregor, Managing Director - Canada

Managing Director - Canada

Before joining Allscripts 12 years ago, Jennifer studied for a genetics degree and some of her early roles saw her working in medical clinics, implementing billing and scheduling systems, whilst at university.

they have to come into the emergency room needing immediate help. But with our solution, not only are we able to identify that patient on the premise of potential lab results or diagnoses in our system, but we can see early on that there is an individual in our citizen portal who is engaging with our care providers.

“All of these providers have one view of this patient’s health record and their condition and through our interaction with that patient, we can also evaluate that they may not be

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Jennifer MacGregor

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During her first six years with Allscripts, she was very focused on implementation, working across several sites in California, Texas and other parts of the U.S. Her areas of expertise were benefits realization, clinician and physician adoption and computer provider order entry and workflow redesign.

She then joined the international business unit just over 4 years ago, dealing with Allscripts’ global business. That role was focused on the company’s professional services and ensuring that solutions were delivered and clients’ expectations and performance targets were being achieved.

Then finally, at the beginning of 2014, she was asked to become the company’s MD for Canada, expanding her purview so that she now has responsibility for not just implementation but also sales and operations across the country.

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exercising or achieving the goals that we have agreed upon in the care plan, which is also viewable on the citizen portal, and that they may even be missing follow-up appointments.

“With our solutions, we can proactively contact somebody in the care team to reach out to that patient and intervene, preventing a potential decline and them having to come into the emergency room or the hospital.

“It changes the paradigm, from waiting to deal with the concerns and issues of the patient in a reactive way, to proactively identifying individuals

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who need earlier intervention to ensure a better health outcome.”

In order to do that, there has to be a strong infrastructure in place and the backbone of Allscripts offering is the Sunrise platform. MacGregor describes this as the company’s “flagship solution” and also revealed that it was invented here in Canada.

She adds: “Sunrise was actually developed in British Columbia and the first market it was used in was Canada. It came out of a

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history of previous development programs that go all the way back into the 1970s in British Columbia.

“It’s through that evolution and innovation coming out of British Columbia that we’ve been able to grow and provide a solution base which services hundreds of clients across 15 countries.”

“WE’RE VERY PROUD OF THAT CANADIAN HERITAGE”

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One of the hospitals which uses the Sunrise platform is St Joseph’s Health Centre in Toronto, a teaching facility in the west of the city which treats more than 20,000 patients a year.

The hospital’s Deputy CIO Purvi Desai told us that Allscripts is one of their biggest IT vendors, and that the relationship remains strong due to the company’s flexibility and responsiveness.

She comments: “As we take on major initiatives in any clinical area,

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Allscripts is a key resource to help us understand the capabilities in the application and to provide us with options in terms of how we leverage functionality in the system.

“For my team, they help us with how to configure and manage the application for the end users. Then, once functionality is operational, they are our tier-two level of support.

My team would do preliminary troubleshooting and if it was something that wasn’t with the realm of our understanding we

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would escalate over to Allscripts so that they could assist us with our troubleshooting.

“Sometimes they need a bit more information in terms of how it’s impacting our end users but we articulate the priority of the need, so if it’s something front-facing, impacting clinicians and patients, they certainly understand the important of providing a resolution as quickly as possible.

“As we’re exploring opportunities or new projects within our clinical programs we reach out to Allscripts to find out what solutions will be available to us and to help us strategize if we have a business problem in front of us – how do we best tackle it for our end users? There’s a constant dialogue in

terms of planning, implementation and execution and then ongoing support and maintenance. Those are the key areas where we work together.”

But it’s not just Sunrise that is at the root of Allscripts’ success.

The company has four key areas of focus which allow them to offer such a comprehensive infrastructure for health providers and patients to benefit from.

The third “pillar”, as MacGregor likes to refer to them, is Allscripts’ CareInMotion™ population health platform where data is aggregated from across various systems, harmonized and then served up to a clinicians within their workflow.

She says that’s “a significant

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A L L S C R I P T S H E A LT H C A R E S O L U T I O N S SERVICES Full HCIS Implementation Clinical & Business Transformation

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IT CHANGES THE PARADIGM,

from waiting to deal with the concerns and issues of the patient in a reactive way, to proactively identifying individuals who need earlier intervention to ensure a better health outcome.

– Jennifer MacGregor, Managing Director - Canada

differentiator” for clinicians, because they’re not going to have to go anywhere else to find the information, it comes to them.

CareInMotion is where the ‘citizen portal’ that MacGregor mentioned earlier is used, and the backbone of it is a platform called dbMotion™, which is in use across the province of Manitoba and Fraser Health Authority (the second largest health region in Canada).

But the fourth area of focus is the one that sounds particularly exciting, the company’s precision medicine platform. MacGregor’s background is in genetics, so you

can understand why she speaks with genuine excitement about the company’s work in this field.

She says: “Allscripts’ wholly owned subsidiary 2bPrecise is about being able to incorporate genomic information into clinical practice, so building the last mile from medical research to clinical practice at the point of care. We’re just at the forefront and it’s not just going to be Allscripts, as you can imagine.

“As we’re looking down the path of using sequencing information to guide treatment decisions and ensuring an understanding what it

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“We reach out to Allscripts to find out what solutions will be available to us and to help us strategize if we have a business problem in front of us.”

– Purvi Desai

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Senior Vice President and General Manager of Allscripts Acute, Rich Berner, visiting St. Joe’s Hospital

means to practicing clinicians. For example, from a pharmacogenetics perspective if a different drug will be more effective for a patient because of a biovariant we can identify that and provide guidance to the provider.

We are at the precipice of being able to incorporate that information into clinical decisions whilst our clinicians are seeing patients, very exciting.�

The 2bPrecise platform became

generally available earlier this year and the company have partnered with the National Institute of Health. It will be exciting to see the further strides that the company makes with the platform in the years to come, and it also serves to explain why MacGregor is just as excited about her work now, if not a great deal more so, than when she first joined Allscripts some 12 years ago.

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