Strategis: Industry Canada Online
Strategis: Industrie Canada en direct 1

Industry Canada's mandate is to "promote jobs and growth in Canada" and to "provide policy advice, industry sector information and business services." The role of Industry Canada is to create a marketplace that is efficient, competitive, supportive, fair, and driven by informed consumers. 3 Strategis is characterized as Industry Canada's Business Information Site.

Business information covers a wide range of subject matter and this fact is reflected in the size and scope of "Strategis." The creators of the site assert that they are committed to gathering, assembling, analyzing, packaging, and delivering hard-to-get information. Reviewing "Strategis" is a daunting task because of the shear magnitude of the information available. I will concentrate on the usefulness of the site from the perspective of an academic audience.

Technical

From a technical point of view the site developers have presented a pleasing home page with a judicious and intelligent (meaning limited) use of graphics. The pages load quickly and the background colour is a generic grey. Each page provides the reader with a button to provide feedback and to report any problems. Using a non-graphical browser such as Lynx can be time consuming and somewhat confusing but this may be a reflection of the writer always using a graphical browser.

Content

After the viewer chooses either the English or French stream, the main menu presents eight choices: company information; international business opportunities, trade and investment; business information by sector; micro-economic research and statistical analysis; technology, innovation, and licensing; business support and services; consumers and the marketplace; and human resources and training. To get a good overview of the site, it is best to choose the site map button, which provides a table of the choices available in a clear and concise format.

Company Information: Provides a database of Canadian companies (Canadian Company Capabilities), which is fully searchable by keyword, company, or province. Searching for a particular product or a company leads to basic directory-level information such as the mailing address, phone and fax numbers, business type, number of employees, year of establishment, export information, products and services, and contact person. Canadian businesses may register in this database online and update the information when necessary. The other information available in this area is a link to the Corporations Directorate's home page, where information kits and administrative forms are available.

International Business Opportunities, Trade and Investment: Under this category are three links. International Business Information Network includes information about exporting from Canada. This information is comprised of market research, key Canadian export contacts, and a listing of export related activities and events. Investments in Canada gives information about investing in Canada and provides documents relating to the opportunities available in Canada. Trade Data Online provides links to the Statistics Canada and the U.S. Department of Commerce Web sites.

Business Information by Sector: Provides detailed information such as industry analysis, market research reports, associations, and more by industry sector. Some of the industry sectors are Plastics, Transportation, Rubber, Automotive, Aerospace and Defence, Consumer Products, etc.

Micro-Economic Research and Statistical Analysis: Provides a link to research and analysis of trends and changes in the Canadian economy. A quarterly newsletter, research publications, and monthly economic indicators are available. Quarterly provincial industrial overviews are also provided.

Technology, Innovation and Licensing: For entrepreneurs, exporters, and inventors this page is a real find. It provides links to the Canadian Patent Database, which is fully searchable (a search on the word baseball retrieves 33 hits). You may also search a database with over 35,000 licensable technologies (the word baseball nets nine possible baseball-related products to license).

Business Support and Services: Provides information regarding aboriginal businesses, a listing of the Canada Business Service Centres, and information about Small Business Loans Administration. It also links to a site with business management advice and small business success stories.

Consumers and the Marketplace: Services, Laws and Regulations: Provides documents for and about consumers from the Office of Consumer Affairs and information from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, information about Bankruptcy, and information about business rules and regulations. A link for lobbyist registration data is also provided.

Human Resources and Training: Provides links to SchoolNet and a very interesting site for new graduates, the National Graduate Register, which allows recent graduates to register in the database when looking for employment. Other links include the Student Connection Program and the Computers for Schools Program.

Searching

One of the best methods to locate pertinent information is to view the Site Map. The default graphical version of the page takes a bit of time to load but the textual version loads quickly. The site map gives an excellent overview of the content of "Strategis."

The site developers have made it very easy to search the database, and include a link to searching the site from almost every page. The button states that the search is acting on 300,000 documents. The search engine, Fulcrum, uses a strict Boolean logic and ranks results based on the number of hits. The operators used are "all", "any", and "phrase", which parallels "and", "or", and "phrase within the same title", respectively. The choices for searching the text of "Strategis" are many. You may search the full texts or only titles. Upon choosing Advanced Text Search you may limit the search by topic, sector, information product, and geographic region. Although the subject of the limits may not be self-evident, an alphabetical listing of the choices is provided. For example, limiting by "information product" presents choices such as automotive, bankruptcies, Canadian patent database, Competition Bureau, and more.

The online help screens are constructive and detailed.

There is a separate search function used for the Canadian Company Capabilities database. The choices for searching this database are keyword, company name, and provincial location.

Conclusion

From the perspective of an academic community the most important features of this database are the Canadian company information, the market research reports, small business information, and industry reports. Finding Canadian industry information has been a haphazard proposition in academic libraries for years. Library patrons are always searching for the Canadian equivalent of the Standard and Poor's Industry Surveys. They want expert industry analysis all in one location. One-stop-shopping, you could say. The Strategis industry profiles and market research reports, written by experts in the field, are valuable in trying to fill this information gap. The market research reports are particularly relevant for patrons with international interests.

This site is not generally for finding quick facts, with the exception of the directory-level information from the Canadian Company Capabilities database. Perhaps the one major criticism I have with "Strategis" is the staggering amount of information available, which is, however, quite inevitable in our information-drenched society. Even though the search engines have proved adequate, one should be prepared to spend a considerable amount of time when visiting this site.

Developers of "Strategis" and the content providers should be commended for providing this excellent Canadian Web site.

Notes

"'Strategis': Review," Daphne Flanagan Government Information in Canada/Information gouvernementale au Canada 3, no. 2 (1996). [http://www.usask.ca/library/gic/v3n2/flanagan/flanagan.html]
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