Adopting technology critical to competitiveness, say IBM tech gurus: Sudbury's Centre for Smart Mining encourages partnerships between small business and technology giants.

• Author: Gillis, Len

IBM, one of the world's leading digital technology firms, told a group of mining supply and service companies in Sudbury on Aug. 20 that small companies should take advantage of advanced technology to become more competitive.

Members of IBM's National Innovation Team were at Cambrian College to present the first of, what is expected to be, several intimate consultations between the mining industry and large multinational digital service companies.

Steve Gravel, manager of the Cambrian's Centre for Smart Mining, said the IBM Incubator Initiative is part of a joint initiative with the Government of Ontario and the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE). He said this gives entrepreneurs and local companies a chance to showcase their ideas and put hard questions on the table with major industry innovators.

"What we were hoping to do by inviting large technology platforms, sometimes international companies like IBM, is to really get some intimate time with SMEs (subject matter experts) the mining supply and service cluster wouldn't otherwise have by picking up the phone and trying to talk to these large entities," said Gravel.

He said he is hoping it will become a regular feature at Cambrian's smart mining centre.

"So what we're trying to do over the course of the next five years is to bring in new technology platform providers each quarter to try to book these one-on-one meetings to get that intimacy and to see if business relationships can resolve from that," he explained.

IBM representative Dave Robitaille of the National Innovation Team praised the OCE plan to go out into smaller communities of Ontario to find local innovators.

"In the coming weeks we will be in places like Hamilton, Niagara, London, North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and Peterborough. These are places where true innovation is born and the true wealth of Canada comes from," said Robitaille.

He said the idea is to find innovators, match them up with the newest technologies, accelerate new ideas and processes, and bring them all to the marketplace.

IBM representative Andrew Safranko outlined how IBM can partner with startup businesses, tap in to resources across Canada and explore global markets that might have an interest in Ontario-based products and services.

"The idea around it is really providing our technology and skill sets as well as the network we can bring to the table, through the partnership we have either with the province or through IBM itself," said Safranko.

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