Information And Communication Technology (Toronto)

Information and Communication Technology (Toronto) By: Kevin Fernandez MRK625

Sectors and Industry Leaders

Three key sectors

Manufacturing, Software & Systems Development, and Services

Industry leaders

Celestica, Xerox, Sony, IBM, CGI, Oracle, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Allstream, MDS and Hewlett-Packard Canada.

IBM Toronto Software Lab , with more than 2,000 employees is Canada’s largest software development facility.

Industry Size and Comparison Employing more than 148,000 people in over 3,362 ICT facilities, the GTA’s ICT cluster rivals historical leaders such as San Francisco and New York, and is ahead of such technology centres as Boston and Washington D.C. Source: E&B DATA, Greater Toronto Information & Communications Technologies Industry Profile; 2004.

Labor Force

The total ICT labor force in the GTA consists of 148,000 workers, 70% of which are concentrated in the Development and Services sectors.

Services employ 64,000 workers, 43% of total employment.

Development (Systems and Software) employs 48,000 workers, 33%

Manufacturing employs 28,000 workers, 15%

The Toronto Region is ranked as the #1 North American location in terms of low labor costs for ICT operations.

Toronto region is more affordable than all of its U.S. counterparts, in particular when compared to other metro areas such as San Francisco (including Silicon Valley) and New York.

Source: KPMG, Competitive Alternatives, 2004.

Education Institutions

ICT-related firms in the GTA have access to graduates (225,000 students) from a number of other highly regarded universities less than two hours from downtown Toronto.

Top universities and colleges with ICT related programs include the University of Toronto (23 programs), York University (12 programs), Ryerson University (8 programs), and Centennial college (7 programs)

Seneca College has 5 ICT related programs.

Research and Developement

Approximately 100 R&D centres have been identified within GTA universities

The University of Toronto has more than 50 ICT research centres.

Ryerson University has more than 20 ICT research centres.

York University has more than 10 centres.

Events

This event, on March 19th, highlights the important technology advances, emerging business models and technology leaders who are shaping today’s competitive markets

Toronto Technology Week is a week-long showcase and celebration of Toronto’s ICT sector’s success and innovation. Techweek.to creates opportunities for new projects, new businesses, new sales, new hires and new business and cultural partnerships.

ICT Clusters in Canada

Canada's ICT advantage includes a competitive economy with excellent fundamentals.

ICT advantages are enhanced by the seamless access to North American markets through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), for goods and services substantially produced in Canada.

Canada is very committed to ICT research and development.

Ottawa ICT Cluster

Ottawa is especially renowned for its wireless and photonics industries. The majority of the companies in Ottawa’s ICT cluster are comprised by the ICT service sector (software development etc.)

Ottawa

ICT Cluster

1,500 companies, 64,000 people

Nortel still the largest player (6,000 people), many MNEs (70)

Services accounts for 60% of cluster companies and government is major customer

Key strengths in wireless and photonics, shifting focus to emerging markets

Montreal ICT Cluster

Montreal specializes in telecom and new media. The new media technologies in Montreal are notorious for its development of special effects software for Hollywood productions. Specialties include 3D & 2D animation, interactive imaging, game development, multilingual browsing, and Internet applications development.