{"id":3642,"date":"2013-12-17T15:53:36","date_gmt":"2013-12-17T20:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/?p=3642"},"modified":"2017-11-19T20:05:30","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T01:05:30","slug":"re-thinking-calian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/?p=3642","title":{"rendered":"Re-thinking Calian"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is time for Calian to re-think it\u2019s brand, according to a senior executive.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The company struggles to be seen as more than a staffing company, said Kevin Ford, president of Calian\u2019s business and technology services.<\/p>\n

It is difficult to describe the company\u2019s activities in one paragraph. The Ottawa-based company was founded by former mayor Larry O\u2019Brien as a quality assurance firm in 1982.\u00a0 It now employs 2,200 people and provides the private and public sector with people, training exercises, medical services, aerospace technology and mechanical maintenance.<\/p>\n

Ford plans to meet with Calian CEO Ray Basler to discuss its brand sometime next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me it\u2019s all about moving from staffing and on to program delivery,\u201d Ford said.\u00a0 \u201cPrograms are things that you continue to deliver, and have really no end, but they\u2019re normally larger in scope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calian is best known for finding IT professionals for the federal government and other private companies, but Ford says they have found footholds in other industries, like health care and defence.<\/p>\n

A focus on health care<\/strong><\/p>\n

Calian operates 130 health clinics through a partnership with Loblaws. It also has two of its own clinics: one in Sackville, N.S., the other in Ottawa\u2019s Westboro neighbourhood\u2019s Real Canadian Superstore, and it is looking \u201cto expand that program nationally,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n

Calian also runs 55 health programs for the military across Canada and recently won its first contract with an oil company, he said.\u00a0 Calian will supply nurses for Shell for remote oil and gas development regions in Western Canada, Ford said.<\/p>\n

The company needs to show it is evolving, without \u201cabandoning\u201d the recruiting side of its business which is still a key part of Calian, said senior marketing manager Sharon Daly.<\/p>\n

Staffing is one of the biggest issues facing the IT sector,\u00a0 said Cindy Baker, vice-president of policy at the Information Technology Association of Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the biggest issues facing the industry right now is a skills gap,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Calling IT professionals<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a huge shortage of people to fill high-demand IT positions in Canada. This includes management, engineering and computer programming positions.<\/p>\n

The sector contributes $67.2 billion to Canada\u2019s GDP, accounts for 3 percent of total employment at approximately 600,000 jobs.<\/p>\n

An IT company should look at Calian and think of its IT services division, while the Canadian Forces thinks of Calian as its healthcare provider, Daly said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s okay for a brand to mean different things to different people,\u201d she said. Niche marketing can be a very important strategy for companies like Calian.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons Calian is diversifying is to reduce its reliance on government contracts, such as National Defence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking to diversify in specific sectors like telecommunication and healthcare,\u201d said Ford.\u00a0 \u201cIf you look at what government is going through right, with the cutbacks, and defence as well, if that was your only customer, it\u2019s very tough to maintain and grow your business with one customer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slipping revenue<\/strong><\/p>\n

The revenues of Calian\u2019s staffing services division fell 5.5 per cent year-over-year to $38 million during its fourth quarter, which ended on Sept. 30.<\/p>\n

Its health contracts were the only one not affected by government cutbacks, according to their quarterly results.<\/p>\n

That being said, Calian\u2019s engineering division, called SED Systems, reported an 8.3 percent jump in sales year-over-year to $19 million.<\/p>\n

That division is based in Saskatoon and develops a range of products including technology for cable television, for satellite radio such as Sirius,\u00a0 communication satellites and deep space travel.<\/p>\n

It also builds the test sets for Blackberrys to make sure they work properly before being sold, Ford said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do manufacturing for the aerospace and defence industries. So we put antennas and radars on tanks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Guarded projections<\/strong><\/p>\n

Calian reported revenues of $232 million and net earnings of $13.1 million for the 2013 fiscal year.\u00a0 It reported revenues of $235.9 million and net earnings of $14.1 million last year.<\/p>\n

Net profit was 41 cents per share, down from 44 cents per share from last year.<\/p>\n

Expected revenues for the coming fiscal year are between $230 million and $250 million and a net profit of $1.65 to $1.85 per share, said CEO Ray Basler in Calian\u2019s latest quarterly results.\u00a0 He says he remains guarded it in his expectations, \u201cgiven the continued uncertainty associated with federal government spending.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is why Calian needs to show itself as a diverse company, Ford said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t just do one thing,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cPlease don\u2019t call us a staffing company.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is time for Calian to re-think it\u2019s brand, according to a senior executive. The company struggles to be seen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[256],"tags":[279,280,282,281],"class_list":["post-3642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corporate-profiles-2013","tag-calian-techno","tag-ogies","tag-sed-systems","tag-veroninque-hynes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3642"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4487,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3642\/revisions\/4487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}