Turning 2010 Business Opportunities Into Winning Bids
Publish Date: September 2006
When Tim Redpath and Charmis De Boer attended different 2010 Commerce Centre Business Opportunities workshops to learn about how their companies could benefit from 2010-related opportunities, they had no idea they would end up as partners on a winning bid. Tim Redpath, manager of the Coquitlam-based commercial division of Williams Moving & Storage, signed up for a workshop hosted by the 2010 Commerce Centre to find out about potential transportation needs connected to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. He said the workshop inspired him to look for opportunities in areas he hadn't considered before.
"It opened my eyes to looking harder and deeper for opportunities," Redpath said. "It gave me the information I needed." De Boer, director of business development for Innovation Networks, attended a different workshop to learn how her employer could find business opportunities related to the Games. The Delta company provides computer support and maintenance as well as other IT services. "I wanted to explore ways we could be involved in the 2010 Winter Games," De Boer said. "I wanted to know what contracts might be available to businesses, but more than that, I wanted to know what the Games meant for businesses in the province."
De Boer left the workshop and created a document outlining the company's expertise and credentials. Established in 1997 on the Tsawwassen First Nations reserve, Innovation Networks is 56 percent aboriginal owned, committed to sustainable business practices and has a strong track record.
"I walked away thinking we weren't going to be big enough to get a contract on our own, but it was still attainable if we looked for partners among our business community," De Boer said. Williams Moving and Storage doesn't exactly qualify as a member of the IT community De Boer had in mind, but when Redpath responded to an ad for a company that could move VANOC's headquarters -- including the computer system -- he knew who to call. Innovation Networks has been providing computer support and maintenance to the 77-yearold, family-owned moving company for nearly a decade.
"Our movers aren't trained to disconnect, move and reconnect computers," Redpath said. "But we've had a long-term relationship with Innovation Networks and I knew they have the ability and trained staff we needed. It was just a natural to go to someone we know and trust." Redpath added Innovation Networks to his bid to move VANOC's offices, and since De Boer had been to a procurement workshop, she knew what the organizing committee would need to evaluate her company's ability to do the job. She even had that document ready.
Williams Moving and Storage won the bid, and the two companies completed the move last spring. It was a small contract for Innovation Networks, but a big source of pride for the company.
"It was a huge gain for us in confidence," De Boer said. "It was a proud moment." Redpath said the partnership was so successful, the two companies plan to work together in the future with Williams Moving and Storage offering customers moving packages that include disconnecting and reconnecting computers. "It was a fabulous experience," Tim Redpath & Charmis DeBoer Redpath said.
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