E-market moves: SourceCAN opens doors for Canadian trade.

World markets each have a long history separately, and gradually their fates have been intertwined by the globalization of the marketplace and the advent of the Internet, The globe is shrinking, and with it the distance between key world markets.

The Canadian government has played a key role in this shift in market mechanisms through its electronic marketplace, administered by Industry Canada. Gradually, it's establishing Canada as a singular centrepiece for efficiency in the art of the deal.

Called SourceCAN, the service was launched in June 2001 as a joint partnership between Industry Canada, the Canadian Commercial Corporation (the federal government's export contracting agency), and HyperNet Inc.

The marketplace helps Canadian businesses increase their ability to establish partnerships and to market and sell their goods and services internationally through a bid matching system. Thus far the service has received extensive support from industry, other government departments, Canada's provinces and the private sector.

Last year, SourceCAN matched almost 100,000 opportunities for Canadian companies, with each opportunity branded by the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC). The result was more than $90 million in new contracts awarded to Canadian companies registered with SourceCAN.

SourceCAN offers access to thousands of business opportunities that are posted daily through its domestic and international tender feeds. Opportunities are matched electronically and sent to the client by e-mail in a secure, on-line trading environment.

The international hub

CCC's role, meanwhile, is to create a crucial link between governments.

"We're the prime contact between foreign governments and Canada," says J. Hugh O'Donnell, executive vice president of CCC. "We develop a domestic contract with a Canadian exporter--it could be supplying equipment or (developing) sophisticated projects such as airports. The point is foreign governments have a sense of comfort being able to work with another government. We're involved as a prime contractor and we wrap the flag in the deal. If anything goes wrong during the life of the contract, we guarantee to fix it."

Since its inception in June 2001, more than $435 million in new business for Canadian small and medium enterprises has been attributed to SourceCan.

Last year, the site hosted 2.5 million visitors; that reflects the speed of e-commerce in Canada, which will grow from $5.3 billion in 1998 to an anticipated $80.4 billion in 2003, an incredible 1,500% growth rate. And the procurement market is big--according to CCC, there are an estimated US$5 trillion worth of contracts in procurement worldwide.

Industry Canada is also currently translating the SourceCAN Web site into several new languages, branching out from its base in French and English into Mandarin and Spanish, with the potential of reaching a possible 1.7 billion customers in 132 countries, and "we are going to extend that to the Japanese language and possibly Portuguese later this year," says Lucien Bradet, director general, services industries for Industry Canada.

Access Japan ... and beyond

Earlier this year, federal Industry Minister Allan Rock joined with Osamu Watanabe, chairman of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETO), in Tokyo to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to give Canadian and Japanese companies access to each other's markets.

"This partnership will assist Canadian small- and medium-sized enterprises in expanding beyond traditional markets," said Rock in a news release. "SourceCAN's access to Japanese contacts will allow Canadian companies to capture opportunities and build relationships that would be difficult to develop on their own."

The agreement gives both sides access to complementary databases maintained by SourceCAN and JETO.

The agreement with JETO "took about a year" to develop, says Lucien Bradet and followed a trip by Rock to Japan and extensive contact with Japanese trade officials. "We thought the opportunity was good and it turned out to be very. successful."

In addition to the Japanese External Trade Organization, SourceCAN is also partnered with the Hong Kong Trade and Development Council (HKTDC).

There are additional plans to develop agreements with other countries such as Mexico. "We want to have as much international contact as possible," says Bradet.

Innovation delivery

The service underscores the federal government's 2002 Innovation Strategy, launched by Industry Minister Allan Rock and Human Resources Minister Jane Stewart in February of that year.

"Canada must become more innovative if we are to continue to build on our economic and social foundation," Rock said at the Innovation Strategy launch. "If Canada is to be successful globally, innovation must he everybody's business."

SourceCan is focused on fulfilling each of the four Innovation Strategy priorities, including:

* Knowledge performance (increasing its members' knowledge of e-commerce);

* Skills (increasing the skills of SMEs in using the Internet for e-commerce);

* The innovation environment (modernizing business practices and bringing Canadian companies the tools to compete in the global economy through the latest technologies); and

* Strengthening communities (supporting innovation at the local level and strengthening the Canadian economy while empowering companies to expand their markets internationally).

Industry Canada also offers help getting started in SourceCAN through its training program, E-Commerce First Step. Administered through the federal Student Connection Program, it is a series of targeted and in-depth seminars on e-commerce.

SourceCAN is certainly unique among government initiatives.

"I don't know of any other governments that have been putting anything like this together," says Bradet. He adds that the philosophy of SourceCAN comes from a principle that governments must be focused on giving their home companies as much international profile as possible, while letting them know about international opportunities.

"In the 1970s and before, this was done by producing catalogues or learning by word of mouth," says Bradet. "In 2003, those fundamentals haven't changed ... The mission hasn't changed but the way we do it has changed."

Participating Canadian businesses have, thus far, been pleased with the concept. Pamela Allen-LeBlanc, vice-president, sales and marketing for New Brunswick-based Precision Metal Works, says, "prior to discovering SourceCAN, we were sceptical of online business. However, within the first week, we found two very good leads to quote on. Our products are very specialized, and I didn't expect to find opportunities for them on SourceCAN. I found two opportunities for our own company, and one opportunity for one of our clients."

And independent consultant Jyl Womack says, "SourceCAN is an essential resource for us. It keeps us updated on the actual workforce, trends and needs and other important in formation that provides us the opportunities to reflect and plan for future business projects."

International firms are also making use of SourceCAN's services.

"SourceCAN is a very good search engine that I use extensively for sourcing Canadian-made products," said Zulfiqar M. Bahrainwala, a partner in Mohsin Trading Co. LLC in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Recognition has come from other sources too: in 2002, SourceCAN won a silver medal at the GTEC Awards, in the Enabling E-Government category, and earlier this year won an innovation award (outstanding product achievement category) from the Canadian Advanced Technology Association (CATA) Alliance, a group of leading high-tech Canadian companies.

The service is really pointing the way to an electronic future for international business, says O'Donnell. "E-feeds are big and tenders are going electronic. SourceCAN is really an e-marketplace. We're able to capture a lot of feeds that are coming through, and we look at them, filter them, and brand them. The key is procurement, and in the future it will all be done electronically."

John Cooper ([e-mail]) is a Whitby, Ont.-based freelance writer.