New CATA Advanced Technology Index Reveals Hesitant Growth, Faltering Job Sector and Uneven Worker Satisfaction; CATA Launches Snapshot of Health of Canadian Advanced Technology Sector

Business Wire, May 2, 2002

Business Editors

OTTAWA, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 2, 2002

The tumultuous state of Canada's advanced technology sector is revealed in the new CATAAlliance Tech Index, a Web Page designed to provide media reporters and industry observers with accessible information about the industry.

"The CATA Tech Index charts the main elements responsible for the growth of advanced technology," said Barry Gander, Senior Advocate, Public Policy, for CATA. "Like our successful TechAction Town Hall series, with its four elements that gauge a community's readiness to adopt and use advanced technology, the Tech Index tracks Infrastructure Investment, Employment, Job Satisfaction, and Community Growth. These factors will be updated regularly, and more will be added."

The CATA Tech Index, prepared with the help of CATA partners and experts, is a Web page that can be found at: http://www.cata.ca/cata/cna/techindex.cfm

Among the findings:

- ICT Investment in Canada, reveals that "the Canadian advanced technology
sector hovered at zero growth in the past quarter, with a few hot sectors,"
according to Mike McCracken, Chair and CEO of Informetrica Limited. "Overall,
the upward march of ICT investment stopped in 2001, with a decline of $800
million to $33.6-billion. The decline was even more dramatic for computers,
though telecom investment also weakened. An increase in software sales partly
offset this weakness." In the past 20 years, software has risen from 20% to 50%
of total ICT investment.

- Job Satisfaction, according to Sean Fitzpatrick of Talentmap, is a story of
dramatic highs and lows: "We were surprised to see such a wide range of
difference between companies with high job satisfaction scores and those with
low scores. Because employees today are looking primarily for an environment in
which they can grow, job satisfaction is an extremely important measurement --
because they can leave very fast! The question is: will executives recognize
that they have a problem, in time to act? The Job Satisfaction index shows that
executives as a group have the highest job satisfaction scores, while the
employees who are most likely to drive product innovation such as IT services
and R&D round out the bottom with low scores."

- Employment, as measured by the number of software job postings being
advertised on the Internet, has experienced a steady fall since September,
2001. "We are seeing an implosion in job offerings across North America," said
David Perry, President of Perry Martel International and Co-Founder of
WorkInsight, the engine that tracks job openings. "This recognizes that
employers are no longer fishing for any employee they can find. They are now
engaged in a precision hunt for the one or two people who can make the critical
difference to their company's prosperity. It's now quality, not quantity, that
counts."

- Ottawa TechAction Survey, designed by KPMG and implemented by IPSOS-NPD, is
one of ten community surveys that act as the foundation for blueprints for
growth. The Ottawa results were extremely satisfying to OCRI's Vice President
of International Marketing, Michael Darch. "The results show that Ottawa has
surmounted the challenge of being on the Northern periphery of an economic
powerhouse, and scores highly in the growth components needed for the advanced
technology sector. Access to capital, skilled human resources, technical
infrastructure and leadership are ready-to-hand. Ottawa's challenge today is to
put in place the measures to sustain its momentum in the coming decade".

The Ottawa TechAction Survey also showcases the data publishing, analysis and reporting capability of -based Databeacon Inc. "Databeacon provides users of the TechAction portion of the Tech Index with a simple way to analyze and interact with survey data," said Nathan Rudyk, Vice President of Marketing at Databeacon. "You can see summary information on Ottawa's human assets, for example, and then drill down easily through charts and graphs to see the weight of specific factors such as educational opportunities. As we do at our Storydata site (www.Storydata.com), we give site visitors a graphical, interactive representation of data in bar, pie and line charts and graphs. Anyone with structured or time-series data can use Databeacon software to publish interactive reports and analytics so their online audience can find out what they need to know, and even save their interactive data explorations on their PCs much like they would save a bookmark in a browser."

The CATA Tech Index is a service of the CATA News Agency, which helps SMEs get affordable, simple access to media coverage across North America. "The goal is to provide reporters with a central source of information about advanced technology in Canada, as a way of helping Canadian news stories get prominent coverage," concluded Mr. Gander. "For the Tech Index, we have assembled a powerful combination of news-making partners, and we look forward to providing a series of snapshots on the health of Canada's most important sector."