15 years of Canadian ICT success   |  March 18, 2008  

 

 

Branham Group’s annual ranking of Canadian ICT companies celebrates its 15th anniversary this year with the 2008 edition of the Branham300. Since its first publication in 1994 as the Branham Top 100 Software Companies, the Branham300, aptly named to represent growth in the industry, has been dedicated to promoting the Canadian ICT industry domestically and abroad by providing Canadians with an up-to-date and inclusive snapshot of the health of the industry.

In 1994 it depicted only the Top 100 pureplay software firms, at the time considered the engine of the Canadian ICT sector. Combined, the 1993 fiscal year revenue of these hundred software firms was $1.076 billion. Nineteen of the firms in this ranking were publicly traded. This was also the year of the introduction of the first GSM cellular phone network, as well as the release of Intel’s Pentium (P5) processor and the official launch of Microsoft’s Windows NT 3.1. With the emerging Internet, just 50 Web servers were known to exist.

By the fifth anniversary edition, the listing had evolved into the Branham200, including the Top 100 Software firms as well as the Top 50 IT Professional Services, Top 25 Multinational and Top 25 Up and Comers companies. Meanwhile, organizations were busy with the development and introduction of handheld devices such as the PDA, the first DVD players and CD-RW discs, and new operating systems and programming languages. In 1998, Branham reported that the Top 100 software companies employed approximately 17,500 individuals in Canada.

In the years leading up to the 10th anniversary edition of the Branham listing, the industry experienced a significant downturn, a decline in compound annual growth rate that was heightened by the effects of 9/11. Many pioneer companies retired from the industry. Larger companies, as they adapted their businesses, acquired a number of smaller players as few companies focused completely in any one category. A single company conceivably provided proprietary software, third-party software, consulting services, hardware and system integration solutions. The Branham300 listed not just the software and professional services rankings, but incorporated IT security, wireless and xSP. The IT industry was no longer organized in distinct silos.

Through the course of the past 15 years, the Branham300 has morphed considerably to include new sub-sectors that have shown considerable growth. Nortel Networks takes the number one spot on the Top 250 in 2008 for the fifth consecutive edition of the Branham300. Adoption rates of the Internet, e-mail and wireless have risen considerably, demonstrated by the increased revenues exhibited by BCE, TELUS and other xSP companies. With innovative technology from Canadian Hardware and Infrastructure firms, the wireless wave is expected to continue well into the future. As portability increases, companies are expressing concerns for corporate data security and risk mitigation. Finally, as one of its latest additions, the Branham300 includes the Top 10 healthcare companies for the first time this year.


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