Our Story
(an ode to our history)
~ Our story begins with people ~
whom we trusted and who trusted us
when we had no portfolio to show,
just a vision to share
back in August 1995
~ It is about enterprising professionals ~
who were the first to get on board with us
inspired by our approach and the opportunities we offered
~ It is about bold, resourceful industry leaders ~
who took a chance on us
when we were still unknown
~ Our very first customers were ~
Government of Canada organizations
and the great Canadian company that was Nortel
providing opportunities to work in Ottawa and across Canada
and travel to Europe, South America, Australia, and the US
~ We seized the moment ~
our teams learned to manage travel requirements, multiple currencies
and to support our consultants and clients across different time zones
~ It truly was an exciting time ~
but business, like life, is all about riding the waves of change
our story as it unfolds is about transformation
~ Throughout our 30+ years in business ~
we have focused on nurturing long-term relationships
and providing service excellence across our founding pillars:
Customers – Colleagues – Consultants – Community
~ We have known many ups & downs over the years ~
we celebrated the “ups”
but the “downs” are the most potent source of innovation
every roadblock is an opportunity for renewal
and we’ve had our fair share
~ We have come a long way and are so grateful ~
lots of hard work and a good dose of luck,
but mostly great people that helped us along the way
we are fortunate and grateful to have
countless successful engagements and projects in our portfolio
~ Our services have evolved ~
to focus on the most sought-after technical and business skills today
but more than ever we are passionate
about bringing together
innovative professionals and forward-thinking customers
~ Around a shared vision ~
Our story continues to develop and change as we learn from, and honour, the people who are part of our story. As we continue to celebrate successes and surmount challenges we are mindful of the people and organizations that work tirelessly to sustain the communities that we live in and are a part of.
Thank you!
Your IBISKA Team
Our Timeline and Some Fun Facts
The Beginning: Working from Home
Without text, email and cell phones we were at the mercy of the black wired phone sitting on the office desk. This phone was prone to stay silent all day long and ring off the hook just as we sat down for dinner. Not wanting to miss an important call we rushed to our basement office mostly to find out that the caller was a telemarketer. And yes, we persisted in this strange behaviour as long as our office and our home were one and the same place.
The Billing Question
As we went about meeting clients in downtown offices during our first year, we encountered many friendly people. Once we met a competitor in the elevator who asked a “compassionate” question: How is business going? The answer was cheerful talking about appointments and leads, but the astute businessperson was not impressed, and dove right to the heart of the matter with another question: Any billings yet?
Vacations
Starting a business from home is an all-consuming endeavor. Leaving the “office” for a vacation was a scary proposition at that time with no smart phone to keep us connected. We decided to take a week off, comforted by the fact that we were able to bring a cell phone for a road trip. Little did we know that this thing was a monster, too big to carry anywhere with us, so we had to keep it in the car where its usefulness was limited to say the least. We surely missed many important business calls, but we could brag about owning a cell phone!
Breakthrough!
In 1996, Nortel held their annual conference at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, a key event for anyone wishing to do business with Nortel. We did not have an invitation, so we sat in the lobby and approached Nortel managers during session breaks. Jokingly, we described this approach as “lobbying”. But we realized that sitting and waiting for the right moment to engage can be effective. Our first engagement with Nortel in Frankfurt, Germany, came out of this “lobbying”!
Basement Office Highlight
Our basement office was turned upside down when a Nortel Manager announced that he was flying to Ottawa from Germany to interview our consultants. The timing was not ideal as Narindar had just put his back out and was in excruciating pain. But we were ecstatic when the ‘dashing' young Nortel manager waltzed into our basement office in the summer of 1996, completely at ease and unfazed by the barebones workspace. Narindar propped himself up on a chair with some pillows doing his very best to make a good impression. The client was impressed and stayed for dinner! Shortly thereafter, three of our consultants flew to Germany and stayed for multiple years. This was the beginning of what we call “The Nortel Years”.
FINALLY, A Real Office
In 1997, we were excited to set up office on the 18th floor of the Varette Building on Albert Street - with a view of the Parliament building and the Ottawa river and the freedom to ‘go home’ at the end of the work day. Our enthusiasm to commute to work seems strange today, but these were different times. A downtown office meant that we were here to stay! And the view was impressive! Sadly, a tower was soon built in front of our building, but we remained at that location for 25 years - minus the view.
Holiday Parties
Our company is now famous for hosting great Holiday Parties (best in town, so we are told). The tradition began in a small way from a group of 30 invited guests in 1997 to the current IBISKA Holiday Gala with 300+ invited guests. This event takes months of planning and perfecting but provides us an opportunity to connect with and celebrate our colleagues and consultants.
The Y2K Problem / Opportunity
Companies with network technology experience were in high demand during the late 90’s when the “Y2K Problem” raised panic. The Government of Canada was prompt to act with a massive upgrading of its mission critical systems. “Being in the right place, with the right product, at that time’… there began our long-standing relationship with the Government of Canada. We supplied a team of engineers to the Department of National Defence for 4 years. The year 2000 rolled around without a hitch. Did our work have something to do with it? Maybe, maybe not. But we realized that our work could make a difference in how efficiently and reliably critical services are delivered to people that rely on them. We realized how meaningful and rewarding our work could be as we collaborate with Government of Canada business owners to advance their departments’ IM/IT capabilities and services.
Learning the Ropes
We began expanding our public sector business when the Government of Canada was modernizing its procurement practices with Government On Line (GOL). Nothing we had learned so far from an administrative standpoint compared to the amount of information and person-hours required to submit a compliant bid by the deadline. It felt like starting anew! We often spent all night proofing, printing, binding and packaging multiple copies of our proposal, each hundreds of pages long, and driving it to the Bid Receiving Unit. We sometime barely made the closing deadline with just a couple of minutes to spare. However, the page turning, assembling and packaging were team building exercises. There was a sense of pride in watching our colleagues leave the office to deliver our collective effort - our completed bid!
CPSA: The Largest Bid
Our largest physical bid delivered prior to COVID was arguably our bid to win a Cyber Protection Supply Arrangement (CPSA) qualifying our company to provide Cyber Security professional services across the Federal Government. At that time, few companies had entered this field. Our focus on networks and our work with DND and the Bank of Canada, in particular, provided the IT security experience. We partnered with Elytra, a small IT Security company and together we developed a proposal that was comprised of multiple volumes for a total of 1,000+ pages, submitted in 6 physical copies. The bid volumes laid out on our conference room table occupied the entire 25-person table! Getting it done was a huge effort but winning the Supply Arrangement was a turning point. CSE issued a refresh in 2008 and IBISKA bid solo and won a new Cyber Protection SA.
Nortel Bankruptcy: The Roller Coaster
Our relationship with Nortel across world-wide locations went on for many years, until they outsourced their design and testing functions abroad. It finally ended abruptly when Nortel declared bankruptcy in 2009. The ups and downs of business are sometimes extreme like a roller coaster climbing to great heights and suddenly diving down through a dark tunnel. Looking back, we see that downturns are often “blessings in disguise”, as we are invited to re-align our business to enter a new landscape.
Task Based Contracts
Task Based IT Professional Services contracts were introduced in 2005 in the Government of Canada. We rose to the challenge by creating “contract service delivery” teams to manage new requirements for TA Requests responses. In 2011, our company was awarded our largest task-based contract to assist the Government of Canada in the consolidation/modernization of their IT infrastructure services, with SSC as the new organization mandated to implement this transformation. This was a massive undertaking with multi-year large-scale projects being initiated to modernize and consolidate network, telecom, data center and email services. At peak, we had a team of 100+ project managers engaged in this work via Task Authorizations. We are thankful for the opportunity to play an important role in this transformational work from the very beginning.
Everything CISCO
Our company earned a Master Service Agreement (MSA) with Cisco System in 2011, and again in 2014, based on our experience designing and supporting Cisco-based Government of Canada networks as well as our Nortel experience. Many of our consultants achieved a CCIE certification, which was rare and very desirable at the time. The work under this MSA was for the development and testing of Cisco products.
Cyber Security IT Practice
The award of Task Based Cyber and IT Security contracts by DND in 2013 is a key milestone in the strengthening of our IT security practice. Corporate experience and a successful strategy to retain knowledgeable consultants and staff members was, and continues to be, key to meeting the high level of expertise, clearance and personal integrity required for work under this contract and subsequent contracts awarded in 2020 and 2022.
Advanced Technology
As technology is rapidly evolving, we have sought out training/certification in new technology focus areas such as cloud service, cloud security, cloud workload migration, data analytics and artificial intelligence. We are proud to have achieved partnership and certification with AWS in these areas. We are also thankful for the opportunity to further develop our knowledge in cloud services and data science through the delivery of professional services to our clients.
Communications for the Military
Our work with DND over the years has led to a great appreciation for our military’s work. We are thankful to be given the opportunity to contribute to DND’s innovative and critical technology projects. We are proud of our ability to provide subject matter expertise at the security level required to contribute to these projects in high security environments. Our background in network, telecom, satellite, multi-media and other channels of communication as well as our company’s highly developed IT Security practice are important factors in the success of our work with this major client.
Moving Forward
We are excited to continue our journey with gratitude for the people that are working alongside us on our path. We continue to focus on trust, excellence and creativity/innovation in all aspects of our operations and across all our service areas.