Cambridge Bay (July 02/01) - The two-headed god that is the computer has a grinning profitable face on one side and a costly uncaring face on the other.
With businesses around the North starting to take advantage of e-commerce opportunities, people are waking up to the fact that this technology can be both beneficial and frustrating.
Jim Patterson is a Cambridge Bay resident who currently works at a community airdrome radio station. He has also been a computer troubleshooter for many businesses all around Northern Canada for more than 20 years.
"Due to the vast distances between a lot of the communities in the North, instantaneous sending and receiving of messages through e-mail has become heavily relied upon," said Patterson.
E-commerce has greatly enhanced business expediency in the North. It is far faster and easier than mailing letters or packages, especially to communities who rely heavily on air freight.
"E-commerce has played an important role in the growth and efficiency of companies in Northern Canada," said Jim Grant, the chief technical officer for Tamarack Computers in Yellowknife.
"I remember the astounding amounts of money it cost to do the same type of business over the phone ten years ago. When you have up to 50 e-commerce transactions a day, it can really build up," added Grant.
Due to e-commerce, companies of the North are more able to compete with established businesses in the bigger cities found in the south of Canada.
This is partially because global business is as quickly accessed from an isolated Northern location like Resolute Bay as it would be from Canada's capital city.
One of the ways businesses depend on computers is through ordering the parts and equipment they need.
While suppliers might be thousands of kilometres away, an order is as quick as sending an e-mail or dialing into a business Web site.
Another competitive equalizer is that quality key personnel are much easier to attract here and keep in the North due to the introduction of e-commerce.
Be prepared
While computers and the Internet have provided new business opportunities, businesses must be prepared for some of the pitfalls.
"Not unlike the old adage about putting all your eggs in one basket, when you become dependent on a new technology and then it suddenly becomes unavailable, you can find yourself in trouble without any warning," explained Patterson.
When a business's lifeline is their access to e-commerce, and it is suddenly denied them, it immediately starts costing them money. The longer the problem takes to fix the higher the losses, sometimes the amounts are staggering.
"We're currently much too dependent on the South for our Internet providers. Sometimes it feels like being held hostage.," said self-employed computer whiz Bruce Peterson.
"In Cambridge Bay, like a lot of places in the NWT, we depend on Yellowknife for our service provider. Yellowknife is the hub for e-mail service and isn't even that far south," added Peterson.
Some people are working to ensure quality Internet service are available to places like the Kitikmeot. In Cambridge Bay, one of those businesses is Polarnet.
It delivers service to all five communities in the region. Manager Darrell Ohokannoak training with SSI Micro, then in Fort Providence, NWT in 1996, and is now responsible for ensuring service is provided to 600 subscribers in Cambridge Bay, Kugluktuk, Gjoa Haven, Taloyoak and Kugaaruk/Pelly Bay.
Others see other promises posed by technology. In Kugluktuk, a group of 10 people who took the same computer course through Nunavut Arctic College, have formed Kugluktuk Computer Consulting. Partner Allen Ahegona said computers can offer a lot to the North.
"We have the means of communicating through technology," he said. Right now, their business focus is repairing computers, network installations, software upgrades and fixing Internet access problems.
- With files from Kerry McCluskey
