03-02 Internet and Information Services

We have pure Internet companies today where everything that is made and sold is done via the web. And all software services employed are web savvy. Like accounting services, an e-commerce platform and a range of marketing and communication tools.

It was 1996 and I was trying get my head around the concept of using the Internet as a vehicle for training. I thought I had an original idea, but a look-see using one of the first search engines revealed two other companies were already in the Internet training business.
The original company was a not-for-profit venture called the Learning Institute for Small and Medium Enterprises. But when we realized we would have to raise $2 million to build our own platform and courseware, we turned the company into a for-profit called Vubiz Ltd. And today it has a sister company in the USA called Vubiz Inc.
In every sense it is an Internet company, with employees working from both their home and in the office. And all financial, marketing and communication software tools being web-savvy.
Our content for both the USA and Canada need only be on one server, but to meet legal requirements our content is on a USA server for American sales and a Canada server for Canadian sales.
Sales are made using e-mail and the telephone. And potential customers use the web to find us. Often a prospect will check out our web-site and make a note of some of our clients. They then check out the quality of our products and service by e-mailing our clients.
Having been a technical sales rep in a former life, it is hard to believe how efficient the web is for doing business. My old sales territory was the City of Hamilton. But using the web to find and reach customers means the province of Ontario in Canada can be your territory working from the office or home.
There are so many Internet platforms that companies of all sizes can use. We have accounting software that the Board uses to receive financial statements every month.
And believe it or not, our e-commerce platform now accounts for about 20% of our annual sales.
And the big Internet service we all use is called Zoom for group meetings. And how useful to be able to see one another during a Board meeting or AGM.
We are just a small business focusing on the Canada-USA market. But software is also available to instantly translate our content and communications into a dozen different languages.