With nearly five years of interactive experience under its belt, Generation Net is expanding quickly as the Internet becomes an increasing priority for Canadian businesses.
Launched in 1995 as a Montreal-based Internet service provider, the company has grown to encompass a broad range of Internet-based services, from hosting to strategic planning to e-commerce development. This past July, it merged with Rollercoaster Studios of Toronto in a move to create one of Canada’s largest Internet and new media consulting and development firms (both Generation Net and Rollercoaster were acquired by Toronto-based Internet incubation company EcomPark, which is publicly traded, earlier this summer). The two companies bring with them a combined portfolio of development work for such companies as Aldo Shoes, Holt Renfrew, Alliance-Atlantis, Royal LePage, Astral Communications, The Bentley Group and Fuji/Xerox.
The merged company stepped up its services with the addition of three new divisions this fall: Strategic Services, Eyeball Glue (content development) and Interactive Marketing Services. The new divisions round out Generation Net’s other service groups: Custom Development, the creative and technical team that produces online and new media initiatives; G1 Interactive, opened last January as a fast, economical developer of modular-built sites that have a customized look and feel; and Bandwidth Services, offering hosting, domain management, firewalls and other services to keep clients’ online initiatives running reliably and securely. Account managers bring together each of these groups on behalf of clients.
Given that the Internet remains a relatively new industry, many interactive companies still centre on the look of online initiatives, says Cheri McCloskey, account manager at Generation Net. But Generation Net puts fundamentals first: ‘Unless we’re really dealing with a killer app, our focus starts with business strategy,’ says David Komlos, VP of Strategic Services.
Companies generally understand the need for an Internet strategy, but aren’t certain how to approach e-business, says Komlos. That’s when Strategic Services plays a role, learning about the company’s business, analyzing its needs and recommending how to proceed.
Developing a strategy can often mean rethinking which is the best interactive solution. Canadian film and video producer Devine Entertainment came to Generation Net seeking to create CD-ROMs based on its video lines. Recognizing that kids are underserved on the Internet, Generation Net proposed a kid-targeted Web site focusing on 100 inventors spanning the period of 1500 to 1950. The entertainment-based, educational site was named ‘Cool Site of the Week’ by Yahoo! Canada in early October.
In a business-to-business initiative, an extranet has provided a way for the Whitney Museum of American Art to work cost-effectively with curators from around the world to plan exhibitions, using threaded discussion and online gathering of images and documentation. Generation Net is also working with the museum’s educational department to kick off an online resource centre for North American teachers.
Giving clients a competitive edge not only involves looking at what opportunities are available, but at how clients can position themselves vis-à-vis their competition. That’s particularly important in Canada since the U.S. is generally considered to be a year to a year and a half ahead in the pace that companies are embracing e-business.
‘The challenge is a company’s business strategy is not static,’ says Komlos, and the Internet affects different industries at different paces. Retailing and employee recruiting are two industries that are changing rapidly as a result of online technology.
Most of Generation Net’s business involves clients that have moved beyond informational, brochure-type sites or basic database-driven sites that allow them to track and analyze customer data. These clients are looking to mirror their offline efforts online and identify and explore new business models presented by the Internet. A smaller share of Generation Net’s clients are launching their first sites, while some, such as History Television, are taking their initial sites to the next level by incorporating personalization elements.
New and existing sites alike struggle to retain eyeballs. The solution? Eyeball Glue. The new division is headed by Andy Nulman, former CEO of Montreal’s Just For Laughs International Comedy Festival, whose sense of humor comes through in his title as President and Chief Executive Retina. Eyeball Glue consists of writers and artists whose mandate is to conceive custom content that will keep clients’ online initiatives fresh. The secret to creating stickiness is 5% technology and 95% psychology. ‘I come at it from a very low-tech viewpoint,’ says Nulman. ‘The computer is not the point; the point is human relationships, human interaction. What’s important is to find ways for people at the other end of the screen to relate to what you’ve got to say and to you as a company, to keep coming back and to develop a community.’ Since freshness is an ongoing exercise, Eyeball Glue is looking to work with clients for at least a year. This works well with Generation Net’s overall approach to client relationships: to really take the long view and look out for clients’ longer-term needs and opportunities.
With this in-house growth, Komlos expects Generation Net’s revenues to double in the next year. To date, the Toronto office’s business is split 50/50 between Canadian and U.S. clients, while the Montreal office serves 90% Canadian clients and 10% international and U.S. The company is keen on strategic alliances, and has partnered with 2B Interactive for online marketing and placement and is in discussions with technical providers such as software developers. EcomPark is also eyeing acquisitions of other technical, software engineering, Internet marketing and Web development companies in Canada and the U.S.
As to the future of the Internet, Komlos predicts that fewer companies will launch as online-only ventures along the lines of Amazon.com, but sees many untapped avenues in business-to-consumer ‘clicks and mortar’ outlets with online and physical retail presences and believes ‘business-to-business opportunities are definitely extensive.’
www.generation.net
MONTREAL
2020 rue University, Suite 1620
Montreal, Quebec H3A 2A5
ph: 514.845.5555
fax: 514.845.5004
TORONTO
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ph: 416.504.3396
Fax: 416.504.3775
Also in this sponsored supplement:
– Overview p.I1
– CyberSight p.I3
– MacLaren McCann Interactive p.I4
– Rare Medium Canada p.I6
– Cossette Interactive p.I7
– WSi Interactive Corporation p.I8
