A provider of IT services and mid-market outsourcing solutions opened a compliance centre this week designed to help firms meet a wide range of regulatory obligations.
OnX Enterprise Solutions said the Markham, Ont.-based facility will
provide technology consulting, implementation and support to help companies keep on the right side of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Ontario Securities Commission Bill 198 and the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act, among others. Included at the OnX Compliance Centre will be on-site operations, training, demonstrations and workshops focusing on technology OnX uses to support customer needs.
“It gives people a way to get a demonstration of the technology, which allows them to see how it (impacts) them from business and infrastructure perspectives,” said Victor Bocking, vice-president of business development at OnX Enterprise Solutions, adding that the centre will also feature almost $1 million of equipment from partners such as Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Network Appliance and Brocade Communications Systems. “Most times people talk about technology. We’re actually providing a place where you can see it.”
One of the key selling points expected to drive customers to the centre in the weeks and months ahead, said Bocking, is IntellinX, a monitoring solution for tracking business activity in real time.
According to Roberta Fox, senior partner at consulting firm Fox Group in Markham, Ont., IntellinX has “peaked my interest,” particularly as she reflects upon her CIO experiences.
It’s an interesting spin for OnX beyond doing just integration, she said, adding that she would be interested in testing out something like an IntellinX to see if it’s really all it’s billed to be. But while calling OnX’s move a smart one, she said getting the message out to prospective clients will require a good strategy.
“In small professional services firms, dealing with customer information is a challenge,” she said. “How do you (OnX) find us and how do you market to us? They may look at a channel strategy where they (work with) dealers and distributors already selling to SMBs…For example, we buy stuff at Staples Business Depot. So there could be scaled-down models sold through those channels.”
Iain Grant, an analyst at Seaboard Group in Montreal, said the centre really only amounts to yet another provider of compliance services to enterprises that already have plenty of options to choose from.
“Companies have been coping with regulations for some time,” said Grant. “Compliance is nothing new. There are some pretty draconian U.S. legislations that are important to understand, but everyone and their dog are out there helping people wrestle with these issues.”
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