Since moving to Aurora three years ago, I have been regularly amazed at the incredible entrepreneurship and innovation that seems to be tucked away throughout our community, many of whom are active Chamber members. Commport Communications, on Ross St. east of the GO train station, is one such example.

Dave Ralph, founder and president of Commport Communications and its related companies, has built his business by seeing opportunities in the very places where other businesses have problems. In the early 1980’s, he left his sales and marketing position with CP Rail and acquired a company that handled paperwork for the trucking industry. Dave quickly became one of the early innovators in EDI (electronic data interchange).

In its early form, EDI meant the transfer of invoice data to tape and Dave had more than 10 staff who basically did little but data entry: In 1988, Dave saw the potential for eliminating the need for data entry altogether and looked for ways to create seamless information transfer between different databases. In the mid 1990’s Commport Communications was one of the very first to see the potential of the Internet for its business applications and became a major point of connection between businesses. For example, they worked to link Pepsi, the supplier, to the thousands of Macs Milk stores that each ordered and had to be invoiced separately. A process that had taken on average .5 days was reduced to 6 minutes and more than 100,000 transactions were handled per month, without any paper
and with dramatically improved accuracy: A perfect example of recognizing a “problem” as an opportunity to create a solution that met a unique need. Commport has continued to push the boundaries of innovation in their use of the Internet to improve business processes. Their clients now span the globe and they have branched into such web-based activities as on-line education for the airline industry.

Dave, and many of his team are classic entrepreneurs.  “New things excite me,” said Dave in a recent interview. “For example, we saw an opportunity to enhance the relationship between buyers and sellers by creating global catalogues so that all formatting is consistent across a wide range of vendors. It has made the whole ordering processes simple and incredibly accurate.” “I love tough times” he continued. “When the economy is in a downturn, businesses become incredibly focused on cost-cutting. What we do is help businesses reduce low value-added jobs so that they can focus their people on creating new opportunities and client relationships. When times are good, we recognize that EDI is a commodity, but by having our business in Aurora, we have tremendous control over our costs. We are close to Toronto Airport, and can focus on enhancing client relationships. Pay careful attention to the market forces that are shedding old economy jobs: That’s where you will find opportunity. How will your business contribute to the emergence of a new, web-based economy? We haven’t begun to scratch the surface on what is out there.”

Dave’s encouragement to all business owners is to think global. “You can use the Internet to have a presence anywhere in the world. The first thing is to shed the ‘we’re just a little, local business’ and expand your horizons. Let your product or service define how far
your reach will be, not the limits of your own vision. And then use the web to service your customers like crazy.” He also makes the point that you don’t have to be the service provider in all settings. “We have partners all over the world that help us develop shared revenue streams and we have found that, given the differences in culture, the key to success is the highest standards of ethics. We don’t make agreements lightly and when we do, we honour both the letter and the spirit of all agreements.”

Dave’s final encouragement is an interesting one. “Don’t buy into the recession. Everyone is covering their heads and thinking that the sky is falling but I don’t see any obvious evidence of it in Aurora or York Region. Don’t be foolish, but don’t ever stop looking for opportunity.”

Dave chose Aurora as a location for his business because it is also his home. He initially had his business at Yonge and Front Street in the heart of Toronto, but quickly realized that the lost productivity of the commute and the high costs of office space were significant constraints on business growth. The move to Aurora has proven to be a boon to the more than 50 staff members who have an average commute time of 15 minutes. Dave has, in fact, sold his property to GO Transit and will be moving into a larger facility in Aurora.

Next month, I would like the opportunity to share some thoughts from other Chamber members who are doing innovative or even quirky things in these times of uncertainty. If you have an interesting story you would like to share with the business community, please let me know and we can set up some time for an interview. Can be contacted at (905) 466-6340 or at peter@theirisgrouponline.com.

Peter Dickens is a member of the Chamber Board and Principal of The Iris Group, a boutique consulting firm specializing in personal and organizational change strategies.