CATAAlliance has released a video on the value of Customer Referrals, as part of the industry’s national Campaign to encourage governments at all levels to create Technology Test Beds, as a vehicle and incubator to conceive, develop and sustain new solutions for government productivity and to help create reference accounts for Canadian technology companies pursing international markets.
According to Mitel CEO, Don Smith, who was interviewed, “In sales situations, the big challenge is breaking the barriers of indifference and resistance that separate you from decision-makers at the beginning of the closing cycle. A customer referral catapults you over those barriers, enabling your firm to sell more quickly and more effectively.”
He added, “The industry’s Innovation Nation goal is to create 10 domestic companies in the ICT sector with annual revenues exceeding $5B/ by the year 2020. Similarly we should see governments providing Public Sector reference accounts to 10 thousand SMEs in the same time frame. We must work today to create the mindset and necessary conditions to achieve this bold objective.”
CATAAlliance has issues a “call to action” to members of the Canadian IT community to help drive this agenda forward:
Step One: Take a few minutes to view the Reference Account Video and then forward the url to your network of contacts in government, industry and local media. Please include a second url with the release entitled, “Industry Issues the Call for Public Sector Technology Test Beds”, as it provides background and context to the Campaign.
Step Two: Contact your federal and provincial Members of Parliament, including City Government Counselors today and provide him/her with the same briefing materials.
Step Three: Individuals who wish to receive the MP3 file of a cross Canada Conference Call briefing and Q&A on Test Beds and Government Procurement should email [email protected] with Reference Accounts in the Header.
CATA CEO, John Reid, concluded, “Canadian businesses, institutions and governments need to redefine themselves, how they act, and how they work together. To compete and prosper, we need to fully enter the creative economy and be an Innovation Nation. Adopting Canadian Technology Test Beds at all levels of Government can be part of a new working model to move us from 13th to first place in innovation and competitive performance.”
