OUTSTANDING BUSINESS ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS RECIPIENTS ANNOUNCED


SAINT JOHN, New Brunswick - November 30, 2006 - The Saint John Board of Trade has announced the recipients of its 2006 Outstanding Business Achievement Awards. At its 22nd awards dinner, Evolving Solutions was honoured with the award for Emerging Enterprise, and Mariner Partners accepted the Entrepreneurial Achievement Award. In the Business Excellence category, the award went to CenterBeam Inc.

The Board of Trade also presented silver and bronze awards in each of the award categories. In the Emerging Enterprise category, the silver award was presented to Workplace Health Outcomes Inc. and bronze went to Workin’ Folk Art. In the Entrepreneurial Achievement award category, silver was awarded to Commercial Tent Rentals & Sales and bronze went Handworks Gallery. The silver award in the Business Excellence category was given to T4G Limited, with bronze awarded to University of NB Bookstore (Saint John).

In the Emerging Enterprise category, Evolving Solutions took top honours. A partnership of solid professionals, Evolving Solutions is rapidly gaining a reputation for being on the cutting edge of software product development in the province of New Brunswick. Founded in 2001, the company specializes in high-end custom software development, web design, e-marketing, databases, web applications and intranets. The company’s custom development services have built complex business applications from concept to reality for several high-profile clients and gained Evolving Solutions a reputation as a top-level service provider within the province of New Brunswick and beyond. In addition to providing custom technology solutions for local businesses and organizations, Evolving Solutions has also released its own suite of web-based products: OfficeGateway, eNVOY and YourTeam. These products were developed entirely in Saint John and funded entirely through revenues from the company’s professional services.

OfficeGateway, the firm’s flagship product, is an online collaboration suite for small and mid-sized business, leveraging the internet to allow business teams to work both remotely (accessing the office from anywhere) and together (sharing schedules, documents and information). Evolving Solutions currently sells OfficeGateway direct in Atlantic Canada and has recently set up international re-seller partnerships in Greece and the United Kingdom. eNVOY is Atlantic Canada’s most robust e-marketing software, allowing local companies to communicate with their customers in a more efficient, interactive and high-impact format. YourTeam is online hockey social network that Evolving Solutions is providing free to minor hockey teams across Canada. The corporate culture at Evolving Solutions is rooted deeply in encouraging innovative ideas backed up by strong leadership. With four full time and one part time staff, Evolving Solutions is constantly seeking new challenges and adapting to the fast-changing web technology market. The company has been attracting international interest in its products and is confident of its ability to emerge as a major success in the New Brunswick technology sector.

Mariner Partners Inc. (MPI) was founded by Gerry Pond, Bob Justason and Curtis Howe in 2003 to perform management consulting in the information and Communications Technology sector. The founders recognized that a gap existed in independent consulting in the telecommunications field. The firm has since grown at a rapid pace and now has in excess of 53 full time employees and associates working in Saint John, Fredericton, Moncton, Halifax and Calgary, the majority of whom work out of the Saint John office.

MPI has three distinct lines of business: Management Consulting, Professional services and Software Development. MPI has carved out a niche expertise in the IPTV field and its software development team has created an innovative software product for operational assistance in deploying IPTV (Internet Television Service by Telephone Companies). This product was recently launched at a prestigious industry trade show in Dallas, Texas where Curtis Howe was a featured speaker. Mariner Partners has filed several patents for this new product and believes it to be one of the more innovative approaches to operational management in the field. The product, Xvu, was conceived and developed in the Saint John office, and the expertise developed by the Saint John employees is expected to be a key resource in the future development and testing of new niche products.

Competing in an international marketplace, MPI has had to be creative in its approach to marketing, using distribution channels, agents and partners to create sales in the U.S. market, and targeting specific high-profile trade shows and conferences to develop relationships with North American telephone companies.

In addition to managing the firm’s rapid growth, members of the MPI leadership team were instrumental in the founding of PropelSJ, the volunteer agency that has rekindled the ICT sector in Saint John. As well, the leadership team has played a significant role in bringing the business community perspective to the MBA program at UNBSJ.

CenterBeam Inc. is an Information Technology outsourcing firm that provides enterprise level computer infrastructure services to mid-sized organizations. Founded in 1999 in California, the company currently has 180 employees, of which 120 are located in its North American Solution Center in Saint John from where it serves its North American-based customers with IT needs in eighteen countries on four continents. The Saint John operation includes the Express Access customer care organization where engineering staff continuously monitor, manage and secure customers’ IT infrastructure, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with one philosophy, Customer First.

CenterBeam has invested over $60 million in sophisticated IT infrastructure and management tools and has hired teams of experts from across the industry to configure, deploy, maintain and utilize them. CenterBeam’s comprehensive service portfolio includes desktop and server management, hosted messaging, network and system administration and end-user support, allowing customers to obtain enterprise-level IT service and support at a fraction of the cost to do so in-house. CenterBeam is among the first IT service companies incorporating the generations of lessons learned from manufacturing and applying them to everything they do.

Since its inception, CenterBeam has been driven by a singular mission: make technology simple for business owners to manage and use. To address this growing need, CenterBeam set out to offer organizations the benefit of economies of scale, including highly automated processes, investment in best-of-class technology, and access to highly trained experts. It pioneered the application of quality management techniques to IT with a goal of delivering unprecedented levels of customer satisfaction. When market research in 2003 indicated that customers prefer disaggregated services and short contract periods, CenterBeam changed its sales model to sell service units individually and provide month to month contracts. As a result the company has experienced phenomenal growth and received a 95% customer satisfaction rating for three years running.

This year’s recipients of the “Young Entrepreneur” award are Marc Robichaud and Leah Anderson. This award recognizes young business leaders (30 years and under) just beginning to make their mark.

The Board of Trade presented this evening for the fourth year “The Big Heart” Award. The recipient of this award is The Saint John YMCA-YWCA.

Also this evening, Board of Trade Chair, Bob Manning presented The Atlantica Centre for Energy with the Chair’s Award. This marks the thirteenth year in which a deserving individual or organization has been selected by the Board’s Chairperson for their achievements within, and contributions to, the community.