The inaugural Alberta Export Awards were presented on March 25, 2009, in Edmonton by Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters – Alberta Division, ATB Financial and the Government of Alberta and sponsored by Deloitte & Touche LLP and Bennett Jones LLP. Winners were chosen from among more than 35 applicants by an independent panel of judges.
Profiles by Wes Lafortune and Noémi Lopinto
Last January, for the first time in 32 years, Canada fell into a deficit position in its balance of trade, reflecting the downturn in commodity prices and the diminished spending power of our heavily indebted best customers in the United States. Those fundamentals aren’t likely to turn around any time soon. Fortunately, there are companies like the Alberta Export Award winners and finalists celebrated here that are successfully probing new markets with value-added products and services. If everyone in Canada’s business community thought and acted this way, our economic future would be assured
Wireless Without Borders
Walk into the offices of Wmode Inc., located in the Alastair Ross Technology Centre across from the University of Calgary, and you’ll see a line of busy workers sitting behind a bank of computers. And chances are the people they are connecting with are clients in Kuala Lumpur, Panama City, Berne, Switzerland or any number of a growing list of business centres located around the world.
Still one of Alberta’s best-kept secrets, Wmode is a proud Calgary-headquartered company that views the world as its high-tech oyster. Operating its digital media logistics business in Asia, Europe, Central America and South America in a multilingual, multi-currency environment, Wmode proves on a daily basis that a homegrown company can survive and thrive in an international context against some of the world’s corporate heavyweights.
“We’re all from the oil and gas business,” says Emanuel (Bert) Bertolin, who was named the company’s CEO in 2006. “We all worked internationally and understood the opportunities.”
Yet there the similarities with the energy business end. Wmode’s business model could not be further removed from commodity cycles. Inspired by a Japanese company that provides a similar service in that country, Duane Sharman, Dennis Woronuk and Robert Woodward launched the company in 2000 to serve as a conduit between the creators of content for mobile devices and the carriers. The service, called ClearMode, formats content, delivers it, handles billings and even manages “storefronts” where consumers can download from the carriers’ networks everything from music videos to the hottest new games.
“These are very complex, tough integrations,” says Bertolin. “So the concept of having a company in the middle that would facilitate all of that is where we grew from.”
He adds, “We make sure everything gets to where it needs to get to, it’s in the right formats and is packaged properly. We’re kind of the FedEx of digital media.”
With export growth pegged at 72% in 2008, Wmode generated revenue from service agreements and revenue-sharing arrangements with the wireless telecommunications carriers with which it works. Targeting mid-sized carriers which have between three million and 10 million voice subscribers, Wmode has carved out a profitable niche in a sector that continues to grow on a global basis as customers who own digital devices discover an increasingly sophisticated range of services and entertainment options available on their cellphones and other mobile devices.
One of Wmode’s most recent international conquests was securing a contract with Base, a Belgian mobile operator which has two million voice subscribers and reports that it signs up 1,600 customers per day. To secure the three-year deal with Base, Wmode went up against and beat out Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson, one of the dominant players in the global digital media business. “Base paid a set-up a fee, they pay a monthly fee and they pay us a revenue-sharing fee,” says Bertolin, who happily leads a company which now makes money every time one of Base’s subscribers downloads a ringtone, music track or video game.
“Our target demographic is 14 to 24,” he says. “So they are the last ones to face the realities of a recession.”
And thanks to a solid business plan, backed up by technical know-how and a view to pursue international business, so too Wmode seems recession-proof. “We’re telling our board we’re going to do from 10% to 15% growth this year,” says Bertolin.
Finalists (New Media)
Joe Media Group Inc. – design, animation and visual effects firm serving U.S. television networks, production companies and other clients
Jump Studios Ltd. – increasingly export-oriented television, commercial and corporate video producer
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