Orleans Weekly Journal
Published: Friday, July 11, 2008 Forging strong ties with the community When folks think of the high tech, web 2.0 economy and the Ottawa region, thoughts of the west end and the 2001 dot-com boom and bust usually come to mind. But Orléans is home to a nice little cluster of innovative companies including a unique web firm called Virtuo. And while its ICMS (Internet content management system) tool allows individuals and large organizations to publish and produce their own websites, the real story behind Virtuo is the reason why they chose our community to set up shop and the degree of dedication to community projects which the two main principals devote their energies. Established in 2001, Virtuo chose the east end (Blackburn Hamlet to be precise) for a variety of reasons, including our highly educated (number one in the province, actually) and bilingual (number one again) workforce, against the rush hour traffic grind locale and desire to serve clients in a bicultural environment. Firm founder and president Alain Vachon and his business partner and vice-president Bernard Charlebois have also pushed their web tool into the realm of the classroom with several local school boards and educational organizations among their active list of 300-plus clients. But what distinguishes and augments their professional work is a commitment to our community in which they both live that goes above and beyond their business interests. Among several community efforts, Vachon was the driving force behind the Franco-Ontarian monuments group that has now erected six public monuments and consequent flags throughout our region celebrating Franco-Ontarian contributions and culture. Meanwhile, Charlebois volunteers his spare time with the Ottawa’s social purchasing portal and serves on the board of the emergent group SKETCH Orléans, which is a unique youth centre model run by youth for youth. If there is a tie-in with the Virtuo product/service offering and their community approach, simply showing up is not an option; there must be value and a positive outcome if you are going to go on-line or volunteer your time for a worthy cause. Indeed this defines the Virtuo approach to building sites for their customers. Web stats now show that a page must grab your attention and direct you where you want to go for information or a transaction (inquiry, blog post, purchase, etc.) in 10 seconds or less or you click back to Google or some unrelated page. In other words, sites with immediate value is their proposition. But more importantly for us, they bring this business ethos to community and charitable causes in which they and their staff of 10 are individually involved: immediate and measurable impact. As this summer series of profiles continues, your thoughts on unique people or innovative organizations that enrich our community are welcome. = = = = = Comments can be sent to Walter Robinson at orleansouttakes@transcontinental.ca. |