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A Puzzle by David Wolfe
August 11, 2010
SheepDogInc.ca employs talented individuals with diverse backgrounds and expertise. David Wolfe is a member of our development team and a PhD in Computer Science. His passion? The mathematics of games. David has published several books and publications on the mathematics and logic surrounding hundreds of mainstream games. Download the puzzle (Note: you may have to zoom in on the image) and - Follow us on Twitter for the answer!
Julia Rivard Introduced as 'Chief Shepherd' for SheepDogInc.ca
August 9, 2010SheepDogInc.ca, Google's Canadian enterprise professionals, announced the promotion of Julia Rivard as Chief Executive Officer last week. The former VP of communications will take over high-level management in an effort to align the organization, both internally and externally, with their strategic vision of continued growth in the area of custom application development, IT consulting and the deployment of Google Apps for organizations across North America. Julia will facilitate external business while ensuring all employees, from department managers to developers, are focused on the organization's central objectives.
Julia Rivard comes from a business / marketing background and has significant experience as an executive of several small businesses including Queen Street Studios, Norex Unified Media and SheepDogInc.ca. A distinguished graduate of both Dalhousie University and NSCADU, Julia mixes her experience in communication and business to build relationships with existing and potential clients. Her extensive network and hands-on approach will help lead SheepDogInc.ca towards a promising future. In her other life, Julia competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia as a member of the Canoe Kayak team. She continues to stay involved in sport working with the Canadian Olympic Committee as Team Services Officer in both Beijing and Vancouver. She is the Vice Chair of Marketing for Canoe Kayak Canada and sits as the Federal Appointment to the Board of the Halifax 2011 Canada Games. In 2006, Rivard was nominated for the Globe and Mail's Top 40 Under 40.
SheepDogInc.ca is Google's Canadian Enterprise expert renowned for consulting, migrating and training clients on Google Apps. The organization is composed of professionals with years of experience deploying Google Apps and managing change for clients located across North America. SheepDogInc.ca is also an industry leader in the development of customized applications that are independent from or that integrate with Google Apps. Their applications leverage the benefits of cloud technology and are built on a variety of platforms including the Google App Engine.
The organizational restructuring will also allow former president, Brandon Kolybaba, to take on the position of VP of Product Development for SheepDoginc.ca. The growing demand for customized software requires an experienced manager to guide the growing application development team. Brandon will provide technical experience and innovative vision to the team tasked with the development of customized applications for a wide variety of enterprise clients. This announcement falls on the heals of the latest release of gTrax; a custom application designed to enhance the project management process for businesses by creating an integrated system for recording and reporting employee time usage.
SheepDogInc.ca also announced an addition to the consulting team, Ron Stewart, as Executive Consultant.
gTrax Development: An Inside Look at Table and Div Elements
July 20th, 2010
Written by: Brendan MacDonell, SheepDogInc.ca Application Developer
Though the HTML 'div' and 'table' elements are both over a decade old, the choice of an appropriate element for a given task is never an easy one. This can be seen in the markup originating from Google itself. While the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) promotes ubiquitous tables for easy layout, Google Wave eschews tables in favour of divs for all but the most trivial formatting tasks. Similarly for other sites, a hallmark of Web 2.0 has been the transition from table-based sites to flexible layouts defined by CSS styles.
However, the table tag remains the semantically correct means of presenting tabular data, and so it required little thought to begin using it as the basis for an revised rich grid widget for the upcoming version of gTrax. Surprisingly, it proved to be an inappropriate choice for such use, due to problems ranging from implementation quirks to standardized behaviours. Ultimately, the table element proved to be a problem for several extended uses:
- It was difficult to produce a widget of a constant height, where the table body was free to scroll between a header and footer fixed in given positions. While Gecko-based browsers (but not WebKit browsers) would allow the table body to scroll, the assignment of a fixed height to the body resulted in vertically stretched rows, which broke the styling. Even attempts to float the body out of normal layout to an absolute position resulted in the columns of the body and header failing to align correctly. It proved necessary to maintain each of the table, header, and foot elements within a separate div within the widget.
- Table headers and footers with assigned backgrounds proved to be a point of contention between rendering engines. While Gecko-based browsers (Firefox) applied the background to the entire row displayed on screen, Webkit-based browsers (Safari, Chrome) would apply the background to each cell within the element individually, resulting in bizarre tiling of the background. Fortunately, the necessity of splitting the header and footer into separate container divs solve this problem by making the table element itself transparent, and correctly applying the background to the containing div.
- Dynamically-resizable columns proved to be another headache. Although the column widths could be changed on-the-fly in the colgroup, a quirk of the standards prevented the column width from being set any smaller than the contained content. All standards following CSS2 have defined the width attribute of tables cells to behave identically to the min-width attribute of other display types, while the min- and max-width attributes are ignored, which proves to be an issue with their use in layout as well. This problem was circumventable only by placing a dynamically-sized div with 'overflow: hidden' within each cell of the table, so that the entire table structure was composed of divs nested in td elements.
By this point, the markup of the table had grown so contorted that it was no longer recognizable as such; each logical element was either wrapped by, or contained a div element. In order to ease maintenance, and make the code easier to work with, a few hours of work were invested to strip out the last vestiges of the tables, and replace them with a custom implementation, using only div elements for the header, footer, body, rows, and all of the cells. The new layout proved successful in eliminating all of the above problems, while rendering correctly across more browsers. As a result, this new layout will be the basis for the presentation of most forms of tabular data for gTrax in the next release.
Of course, this should not be interpreted as a blanket condemnation of tables. Despite the problems encountered, many such pitfalls are encountered only in edge cases, where the developer needs more control over the display and behaviour of the table itself. In other cases, where static tabular data needs to be presented without any such interactivity or layout constraints, the table element is a significant time-saver, as it frees the developer from the burden of predicting the space and layout requirements. On the other hand, complex and dynamic compontents require simpler building-blocks than tables, so that the developer has full control over the layout strategy and positioning of data.
Big Growth on Horizon for Tech Firm
Article written by Chris Lambie-Business Editor and Published in the Chronicle Herald-Business on July 15, 2010
Tech firm SheepDogInc.ca plans to triple in size within a year.
Last fall, the Halifax company, which offers web services, said it plans to hire at least 60 people under a five-year, $700,000 provincial payroll-rebate program. But now it’s out-stripping that estimate, saying the firm, which now has about 35 full-time employees, could be up to over 100 people by next summer.
"We’re sourcing venture capital to move forward in a very aggressive way over the next couple of years," Julia Rivard, SheepDog’s vice-president of marketing, said Thursday.
"It’s very, very rapid growth and it’s all going to be determined on the capital we access."
SheepDog is now looking to raise $6 million to $8 million, she said.
"We develop intellectual property. You don’t bring in PhD developers and have them free for two years. You have to fund that development."
The company is in the final throes of negotiating a deal with a Halifax-based investor, said the former Canadian Olympic kayaker.
"The deal that we’re doing right now will be closed within the next month," Rivard said. "And that’s a seed investment to then go out and have a second round of financing."
She wouldn’t say how large a chunk of SheepDog the potential investor will get.
"It’s definitely not a controlling stake in the company."
The information technology startup company was approved last year as a certified Google Apps partner in Canada.
"Our position with Google makes us a very interesting company to be involved for venture capitalists."
The company, which operates out of Bayers Lake Business Park, is involved in the rapidly evolving cloud computing marketplace.
Clouds provide many standard information technology services for a variety of users from remote locations. Google has reselling partners like SheepDog around the world for its package of business applications that can provide email, calendaring, word processing and spreadsheet services.
"Since there aren’t high margins in that business, we’ve moved our focus to the training, consulting, and product development side of the business, which is going to be highly lucrative if we do it well," Rivard said.
SheepDog is in the process of hiring a chief executive officer.
"We’re looking at bringing somebody in, possibly from Boston," Rivard said. "We’re down to a very, very short list right now."
SheepDog has a one-person office in California.
"We do need to have that presence in the United States for that whole Buy American thing," Rivard said. "But we are very committed to Nova Scotia. With the continued support of organizations like (Nova Scotia Business Inc.), we’ll keep our business here. It’s not the easiest place to do business by any stretch. It’s quite difficult at times, actually."
Taxes are "huge" in this province, she said. And the American venture capital market "is much more mature . . . more savvy."
Rivard is a partner, along with Brandon Kolybaba, in Norex, a Halifax web design company.
"Norex is still a business of ours and was the business, actually, where we developed all of our programmers," she said. "We had an asset sale from Norex to SheepDog in May. So basically we sent all of our development team over to SheepDog to work with Google."
View the Original Article at the ChronicleHerald.ca
SheepDogInc.ca Lands Deal
As Published on Nova Scotia Life - Friends of NS on July 12th, 2010
The Renewable Corporation (TRC) announced last week, that SheepDogInc.ca joined with E3 Corporation, a subsidiary of TRC, in the development of a proprietary web based technology platform. For the past two years, SheepDogInc.ca has been the top-ranked service provider for Google enterprise applications.
The highly scalable cloud computing based technology platform will provide E3 certified agents single users access that combines; sales and marketing, products and services, training and certification, order fulfillment, and customer service. The E3 agent portal integrates all of the Google Enterprise application and productivity tools such as Google mobile, maps, contacts, calendar, voice, video, Google docs, G-mail, and blogger as well as enabling the use of leading social media tools such as YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and many others.
"We are very pleased with SheepDog's expertise and capabilities, said Andy Badolato,� CEO of TRC. “The E3 business model enables small businesses to participate in the alternative energy and clean technology economic boom now taking place.�
“Our company has always been committed to the development and use of renewable products and sustainability,� said Julia Rivard, vice-president Communications at SheeDogInc.ca. “We look forward to the successful launch of E3."
SheepDogInc. has offices in Santa Monica, California and Halifax and are a charter member of Nova Scotia Come to life.
E3 Signs Groundbreaking Deal With SheepDogInc.ca, Market Leader in the Development of Google Applications
As Published on MarketWatch on July 7th, 2010
SARASOTA, Fla., July 7, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Renewable Corporation (TRC) (Pink Sheets:RNWB) announces that SheepDogInc.ca has joined with E3 Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of TRC, in the development of a proprietary web based technology platform. For the past two years, SheepDogInc.ca has been the top-ranked service provider for Google enterprise applications.
The highly scalable cloud computing based technology platform will provide E3 certified agents single user access that combines; sales and marketing, products and services, training and certification, order fulfillment, and customer service. The E3 agent portal integrates all of the Google Enterprise application and productivity tools such as Google mobile, maps, contacts, calendar, voice, video, Google docs, Gmail, and blogger as well as enabling the use of leading social media tools such as YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and many others.
Andy Badolato, CEO of TRC, stated, "We are very pleased with SheepDog's expertise and capabilities. The proprietary cloud computing platform is state-of-the-art, seamlessly integrating the tools for the Certified E3 Agents to succeed. The E3 business model enables small businesses to participate in the alternative energy and clean technologies economic boom now taking place. We provide a comprehensive package of support services to the E3 Agents including green training, certification, customized software, and federal programs compliance administration in addition to the synergistic features of the Google enterprise applications. Our business model enables E3 agents to become involved in improving our economy, creating new jobs, and decrease our global dependence on foreign oil. We are focused on the rebuilding of Main Street, not Wall Street. The E3 platform is scheduled to launch in the third quarter."
Julia Rivard, VP Communications of SheepDogInc.ca, states, "Over the past two years we have been seeing progressive companies like The Renewable Corporation realize great success by using collaborative tools in cloud technology computing. Our company has always been committed to the development and use of renewable products and sustainability leading the way 10 years ago with the purchase of wind credits. We look forward to the successful launch of E3."
About TRC
The Renewable Corporation-(TRC) has developed business models that enable the distribution of alternative energy, clean technologies, and energy efficient related products and services that enhance, rebuild and restore America's small businesses, manufacturing base and localized economies. TRC additionally employs proprietary technology platforms using cloud computing technology, custom software, social media applications, and database management tools that are implemented via its operating subsidiaries.
E3 Corporation (E3) provides and distributes alternative energy, clean technologies, energy-efficient and preparedness products and services. These products and services are provided to Individuals, homes, businesses and municipalities through a national network of certified E³ Agents. E³ provides the certified Agents with various tools and services including: green training and certification, a proprietary cloud computing technology platform that integrates Google enterprise business applications, social media tools, sales and marketing resources, customized energy efficiency field software, back office order fulfillment, and federal programs compliance and back office administration services. Certified E³ Agents will provide products and services in categories such as: Wind, Solar, Lighting, HVAC, Automotive, Water, Preparedness, Energy Efficiency, Get off the Grid, as well as select specialized products that provide and promote independence, self sufficiency, health and personal well being. E³ independently evaluates and selects product manufacturers and service providers based upon technological competitiveness, performance, price and overall value criteria. E³ is scheduled to be launched in the 3rd quarter 2010.
About SheepDogInc.ca
With offices in Santa Monica, California and Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, we are one of the top Google Apps service providers in North America and among the top group of developers for the Google App Engine worldwide. We are positioned and focused on dynamic and rapid growth. SheepDogInc.ca consults on cloud technology, migrates clients to cloud solutions and develops applications to integrate to new and legacy systems. Our team is comprised of creative thinkers, industry experts and talented developers who consistently deliver top quality results.
Forward Looking Statements:
Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: The statements contained herein which are not historical are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, certain delays beyond the company's control, inability to successfully conclude negotiations currently in progress, and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
As Published on MarketWatch on July 7th, 2010
A Shift Towards Customized Application Development
July 7th, 2010
Written By: Julia Rivard, VP-Communications
Published: Google Enterprise Blog June 30th, 2010
Editor's Note: With the launch of the Google Apps Marketplace in March 2010, many members of our Authorized Reseller Program are taking full and immediate advantage of the benefits the Marketplace provides – new apps for their customers and a new channel for resellers to sell their own customized apps to Google Apps users. We asked Julia Rivard, VP-Communications for Canadian-based SheepdogInc.ca, to talk about her experiences as a Google Apps reseller and now a vendor within the Google Apps Marketplace.
SheepDogInc.ca, founded by Shawn Wilkie and Brandon Kolybaba, recognized early on the strengths and functionality associated with the Google Apps suite of communication and collaboration tools. In 2007, we began working with Google to become an authorized Google Apps reseller, allowing our team to bring Google Apps migration expertise to organizations in Canada and across North America. Based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, our team has migrated many organizations which were formerly utilizing a mishmash of tools to the unified, cloud computing platform created by Google Apps.
SheepDogInc.ca's position as an authorized Google Apps reseller accelerated our move towards custom application development in the cloud. The launch of the Google Apps Marketplace enabled us to create applications in the cloud specifically catered towards the needs expressed by our clients. For example, our team developed an application on Google App Engine for the 2009 World Canoe Championship that delivered race results to millions of global followers as well as a medal counting application for the Canadian Olympic Committee that delivered updates to Olympic athletes on their mobile devices at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Focused on enhancing and improving existing business processes, SheepDogInc.ca recently launched our custom application, gTrax in the Marketplace.
gTrax
gTrax is a time tracking business tool that enables employees to track their work, facilitates intuitive reporting functionality, and integrates the user's Google Calender with the time-tracking application.
The application is aimed at organizations looking for a simple and user-friendly process of drilling down and analyzing time management and internal activities, and helps identify and allocate internal resources to projects which facilitates accurate time budgeting. Complete integration with Google Calender means that gTrax utilizes entries from the employee's calender thereby reducing the need for repeat data entry and decreasing the overhead associated with other time-tracking systems.
The developers at SheepDogInc.ca have been working tirelessly to develop a user-friendly mobile interface for gTrax. The app is now fully accessible on both the Android and iPhone platforms allowing users to conveniently access gTrax from their mobile device. Since all data is securely stored in the Google cloud, it is accessible anytime and anywhere.
Our relationship with Google as an authorized reseller has allowed us to deploy the Google Apps suite in numerous organizations across North America and the addition of the Google Apps Marketplace has created new and exciting opportunities for SheepDogInc.ca. With our development team focused on creating applications on Google App Engine, we now build both fully customized apps for specific client's business needs, as well as packaged apps for a larger audience of users through the Marketplace.
Original article published by Google Enterprise Blog. on June 30th, 2010
Google Storage for Developers On App Engine Python
June 8th, 2010
Written by: Adam T., SheepDogInc.ca Application Developer
I’ve been using Google Storage since I/O, and I’m impressed with it so far. At SheepDogInc.ca, we’ve converted some of our application resources from using S3 over to Google Storage this past week. Being early adopters has it’s downfalls for sure; some of which usually include system instability, a lack of published tools, and proper / extensive documentation. I’ll try to help address the latter in this short tutorial. Configuring Storage for App Engine has come up a couple of times in the Google Storage for Developers group… The biggest hurdle to overcome from looking at the Python Library Docs for GS <link> is getting the boto library properly configured. Once it is set up, you should be able to run all of the sample code provided by Google. Lets get you there.
The Problem:
As you can see by my fail note, App Engine has no way to access your ~/.boto file where your Secret Key is located. We can solve this by diving into boto.config. When the boto configuration is initialized, It checks for the initial file and tries to parse it and load it into memory by using “add_section(section_name)� and “set(section_name,key,value)“. Knowing this, you’re able to call those functions yourself after loading the boto lib and it runs flawlessly. It only took a little bit of hacking around to find a solution, but it works great for me. I’d love to hear your experience, or how you got it rolling differently.
My Solution:
Pay close attention to the 3 lines following config = boto.config
Original article published by Adam T. on June 7th, 2010. Read the original blog at Thurloatdotcom.
SheepDogInc.ca Travels to San Francisco for Google I/O 2010
May 28th, 2010
Members of Halifax's SheepDogInc.ca team recently returned from an exciting and educational trip to the Google I/O conference in San Francisco. Leader Brandon Kolybaba and developers Adam, Sam and Mark were tasked with unveiling the latest release of gTrax to Google and representatives from 180 companies participating at Google I/O 2010. Our team from SheepDogInc.ca was the only Atlantic Canadian organization represented at the conference.
During their time in San Francisco, our team was able to interact with some of the 5000 developers sharing tricks of the trade and received valuable feedback and advice from Google employees and other companies represented at the conference. The fantastic swag and huge after-party weren’t the only advantages of attending the conference! By attending Google I/O, our team was able to learn about cutting edge developments occurring in the cloud and got a firsthand preview of new technologies being rolled out by Google.
Representatives from SheepDogInc.ca were able to attend the two keynote speeches and witnessed several exciting announcements first hand. Vic Gundotra, VP of Engineering at Google, kicked off the Day 1 keynote speech. The speech touched on HTML5, GoogleApp Engine for Businesses, WebM, The Chrome Web Store and much more. The anticipated release of GoogleWave, a GoogleApp that has significant collaboration and project management functionality for all types of organizations and users, was announced and is now available to everyone utilizing the Google suite. The Day 2 keynote also featured stirring announcements surrounding the Android mobile operating system, codenamed Froyo, as well as the official launch of GoogleTV, a new product by Google that brings internet content and functionality to the users television.
Perhaps the most exciting announcement (for SheepDogInc.ca developers at least) was the launch of Google Storage for Developers. SheepDogInc.ca is now among the lucky few with exclusive access to the newly launched storage platform. Google Storage for Developers is a “RESTful cloud service built on Google’s storage and networking infrastructure�. This platform will allow developers to connect applications to Google data centers located across the United States ensuring fast, efficient and reliable storage. Finally, Google announced a partnership with VMware in an effort to enhance the efficiencies associated with bringing applications to the Google cloud. This partnership will enhance functionality for java developers making it much easier to bring their applications to the Google platform. You can watch the full Google I/O keynote speeches online! Click here for Keynote Speech-Day 1 and Click here for Keynote Speech-Day 2.
The SheepDogInc.ca team came home to Halifax with a feeling of accomplishment as they were recognized for their expertise in Custom Application Development and the GoogleApp engine. We were delighted to have the opportunity to attend such a valuable conference and are looking forward to Google I/O 2011!
gTrax Now Available Through the Google Apps Marketplace
March 10th, 2010
SheepdogInc.ca today announced it has added its gTrax application to the Google Apps Marketplaceâ„¢, Google's recently launched online storefront for Google Appsâ„¢ products and services. gTrax is an integrated tool for the recording and reporting of employee time usage. Employees effortlessly log their activities right from Google Apps, thereby providing managers with the information needed for effective project management. Integration with Google Calendarâ„¢ simplifies data entry and reduces overhead.
"gTrax is a project that has been a long time in the works. It is designed to be intuitive and easy to use for managers in any industry where the tracking of employees' time is needed," says Brandon Kolybaba, company CEO. "By adding the gTrax app to the Google Apps Marketplace, we've made it extremely easy for Google Apps customers to integrate time tracking into the Google App suite. They can create projects, assign resources, and track time, thereby measuring and increasing efficiency in the workplace."
Built on Google App Engineâ„¢, gTrax installs directly to your domain for central administration. The application allows Gmailâ„¢, Outlook, and mobile users to easily access a common web-based browser directory resource and projects information.
"We are very excited to have gTrax in the Google Apps Marketplace," adds Scott McMullan, Partner Lead for Google Apps. "Through the Google Apps Marketplace, software vendors like SheepdogInc. are helping us build a rich ecosystem of integrated apps that work seamlessly with Google Apps, allowing IT administrators to leverage the benefits of cloud computing and extend Google Apps to meet more of their business needs. We are happy to offer gtrax to the millions of Google Apps users who have embraced the cloud."
The Google Apps Marketplace makes it easy for more than 2 million Google Apps customers to discover, purchase and deploy integrated business applications and related professional services. By integrating with user account and application data stored in Google Apps, these cloud applications provide a simpler user experience, increase business efficiency, and reduce administrative overhead. To learn more, visit google.com/appsmarketplace.
Google Apps brings simple, powerful communication and collaboration tools to organizations. With Google Apps, users can use applications such as Gmailâ„¢ webmail service, Google Talkâ„¢ instant messaging service, Google Calendarâ„¢ calendaring service, Google Docsâ„¢ program, Google Sitesâ„¢ web application, and Google Videoâ„¢ for business on their own domain to work together more effectively. Best of all, it's all hosted by Google, so there's no hardware or software to download, install or maintain.
N.S. hot location for IT firms to set up
February 12th, 2010
If you had an information technology (IT) company, why would you set up in Nova Scotia? That’s the question that may be on the minds of many people in our region in the wake of recent news of numerous companies in the knowledge-based economy choosing our province as a place to start up or expand their IT firms.
Industry experts say the IT companies are choosing Nova Scotia because of our highly-skilled workforce, many new graduates from local universities and community colleges, and our location to key markets. Another reason is the Atlantic Time zone, which allows you to do business in the same day with customers all the way from California to London, England. Yet another reason for the IT industry’s growth here is that Nova Scotia has a lot of home-grown talent and fosters a keen entrepreneurial spirit.
SheepDog Inc. is a great example of a locally-born company that has been rewarded for their innovation, talent and perseverance. Its founder, Shawn Wilkie, after seeing the potential in the developing trend of cloud computing — globally offering Software as a Service (SaaS) on virtual computing resources provided over the Internet — reached out to no less than Google itself.
After being initially turned down he was asked to be part of a test project with Google as one of 30 other resellers. Now, two years later, SheepDog is the first certified Google Apps partner in Canada.
Read the original news article as published by The Chronicle Herald on February 8, 2010.
Sheepdog participating in the Developer Sandbox @ Google I/O
February 3rd, 2010
Sheepdog Inc. is attending this year's Google I/O, Google's annual developer conference, on May 19-20 in San Francisco. Members of the Sheepdog engineering team will participate in the Developer Sandbox where over 150 companies will be on-hand to demo their use of Google technologies, answer questions, and exchange ideas with other developers.
Sheepdog will demo Gtrax, an application that is built on Google App Engine with Google Web Toolkit (GWT). The application tightly integrates with Google Apps APIs and fully integrates with OpenID, MVP design pattern, command design pattern, and DI design pattern.
To learn more about and register for Google I/O, visit code.google.com/io
Companies to Watch
November 30th, 2009
Halifax-based Sheepdog Inc. is Canada's only authorized provider of Google AppsTM and has recently been approved for enterprise-level applications.
Google Apps are part of the global Cloud Computing marketplace - offering Software as a Service (SaaS) on virtual computing resources over the internet. SheepDog offers complete deployment, training and support for the environmentally friendly Google Apps suite of products.
Companies migrating to Google Apps save money, increase productivity and – by reducing infrastructure – decrease their carbon footprint. Google is a renewable energy leader, and boasts of "the world's most efficient data centers". Sheepdog's website itself is powered on Norex Web servers that are powered by renewable energy.
Original article published by Foreign Affairs and Internal Trade Canada on November 30, 2009.
Google Enterprise Apps – a first look
By Steven Robert for State of the Emerging CIO
November 9th, 2009
I attended my first Google event last week at Google’s Ann Arbor, MI office. The event was titled “ready for the cloud?� referencing today’s IT organizations are in the midst of a cloud computing revolution, as a growing number of businesses choose hosted messaging and collaboration solutions — such as Google Apps — to help employees collaborate more effectively while saving significantly on IT costs. [...]
Speakers included two Google employees from the Enterprise division and one of their Enterprise partners, Sheepdog inc. [...] In summary, the session was good. Clearly, there is some tremendous potential for SaaS/PaaS and the Cloud in general. I personally am excited about the space and the opportunity it presents. Like some, I do see “cloud� as evolutionary vs. revolutionary, but it does challenge you to think differently. If you’re part of an emerging organization already leveraging SOA, SAN, GRID, and virtualization – the cloud becomes a no brainer. If you’re not familiar with the technologies leading up to the cloud, you have a serious homework assignment. There is a watershed event taking place around us and you owe it to yourself to become versed in this [arguably] new ecosystem.
Read the original blog post as published by State of the Emerging CIO on November 9, 2009.
New Charter Member Sheepdoginc.ca in Toronto
By Stacey for Nova Scotia Come To Life
October 19, 2009
The sesssion is scheduled just weeks after Canada's only Google Apps provider announced expansion plans with the support of a payroll rebate from the province.
Nova Scotia Business Inc. and SheepDogInc.ca have signed an agreement worth up to 700-thousand dollars to create up to 60 jobs over the next five years.
Premier Darrell Dexter says SheepDog is creating the type of opportunities needed for our young and talented professionals. SheepDogInc.ca president Shawn Wilke says the province's support, through NSBI, will help the company remain business focused as they work with Google in the future.
NSBI president and CEO Stephen Lund says SheepDog is a great example of how technology, talent and a little risk-taking can drive a business to success.
SheepDog is a new charter member of Nova Scotia Come to life. President Shawn Wilke signed the charter document with Premier Darrell Dexter at a ceremony in Halifax.
Event details:
Are you ready for the Cloud?
Today's IT organizations are in the midst of a cloud computing revolution, as growing numbers of businesses are choosing hosted messaging and collaboration solutions -- such as Google Apps -- to help their employees work more effectively while saving significantly on IT costs.
The cloud computing model is secure, efficient and practical for businesses of all sizes. Wondering whether your organization is ready? Join Google and Sheep Dog for an informative seminar on Google Apps, Google's cloud-based suite of messaging and collaboration applications. At the event, you'll learn:
- What cloud computing means for your business, and how you can benefit
- Why companies have chosen to make the transition to Google Apps
- How to get started with Google's cloud computing solutions
When:
Wednesday, November 4
9:00 am - 11:30 am
Where:
Google Toronto
Toronto Life Square
10 Dundas Street East, Suite 600
Toronto, ON M5B 2G9
RSVP today:
Visit http://tinyurl.com/googletoronto to register.
Space is limited so please RSVP early.
Read the original news article as published by Nova Scotia Come To Life on October 19, 2009.
Web service firm plans to hire 60 people
By BILL POWER Business Reporter for The Chronicle Herald
October 16, 2009
Halifax company with Google Apps link to get $700,000 payroll rebate
SheepDogInc.ca, a Halifax company offering web services, plans to hire at least 60 people under a five-year, $700,000 provincial payroll-rebate program announced Thursday.
However, company president Shawn Wilkie said this will be just the tip of the iceberg for the information technology startup company, which was just approved as a certified Google Apps partner in Canada.
"We know rapid growth will be necessary to take advantage of the many opportunities that have arisen as a result of this relationship with Google," Mr. Wilkie said in an interview.
The company negotiated the provincial payroll rebate with Nova Scotia Business Inc. SheepDog said it is rapidly expanding and hired five more people last week.
"Rapid growth can be a risk for any business," Mr. Wilkie said. "In our case, we’ve planned for this from the outset."
He said the company, operating out of Bayers Lake Business Park, has an aggressive plan to establish itself as a key service provider for Google Apps within the rapidly evolving cloud computing marketplace.
Clouds provide many standard information technology services for a variety of users from remote locations. Google has about 50 reselling partners like SheepDog around the world for its package of business applications that can provide email, calendaring, word processing and spreadsheet services.
There are supposed to be cost savings in computer hardware, software and maintenance for businesses, institutions and government users who use cloud computing. SheepDog is looking for people with backgrounds in cloud computing or in related information technology fields to keep up with a growing roster of clients in Canada and abroad who are turning to remote services as in-house systems mature or become outdated.
Premier Darrell Dexter announced the payroll rebate for SheepDog during a speech to the Empire Club of Canada in Toronto. The rebate is available for five years, has a $700,000 cap and would cover a maximum of 70 people.
Mr. Wilkie was a student at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish when he started StudentComputers.ca, a successful computer sales and service business. He said he connected with Google while attending a development conference in San Francisco.
"We know rapid growth will be necessary to take advantage of the many opportunities that have arisen as a result of this relationship with Google," says Shawn Wilke.
Read the original news release as published by The Chronicle Herald on October 16, 2009.
Nova Scotia-based SheepDogInc.ca Set for Growth with Google
By Nova Scotia Business Inc.
October 15, 2009
With an increased demand in services, the company plans to create up to 60 new jobs in Halifax over five years. As the company expands, the province, through Nova Scotia Business Inc. (NSBI), is supporting the company with a five-year payroll rebate for a maximum of $700,000.
Premier Darrell Dexter made the announcement in Toronto today, Oct. 15, before delivering a keynote address to the Empire Club of Canada. SheepDogInc.ca president Shawn Wilke, chief technical officer Brandon Kolybaba, Google's North America channel manager Pat Spears, and NSBI president and CEO Stephen Lund were in attendance.
"I'm proud to support this innovative and competitive company that truly demonstrates Nova Scotia's great entrepreneurial spirit," said Premier Dexter. "SheepDog is creating exactly the type of opportunities needed for our young and talented professionals to live and work in Nova Scotia."
SheepDogInc.ca plans to establish itself as a key service provider for Google Apps, within the global Cloud Computing marketplace. Cloud Computing is a concept of globally offering Software as a Service (SaaS) on virtual computing resources provided over the internet.
"Partnering with Google and now having the province's support will enable us to remain business focused." said Mr. Wilke, "As our customer market expands, we are working collaboratively with Google to remain competitive and serve the needs of our clients."
The company has clients worldwide and the list is growing, as businesses recognize the technical benefits and cost-saving solutions the applications offer.
"Strong partnerships are key to our success," said Ms. Spears. "We're excited to be working with a Nova Scotia company like SheepDog -- a company that provides value to our business and continues to deliver positive results."
Many businesses, universities and governments are switching to Google Apps like Gmail and realizing significant cost savings in computer hardware, software and maintenance.
"This is a great example of how technology, talent and a little risk-taking can drive a business to success," said Stephen Lund, president and CEO, NSBI. "SheepDog's perseverance captured the attention of one of the most successful companies in the world and we want to see more companies like this in Nova Scotia."
SheepDogInc.ca is not only a Google Apps Authorized Reseller, it also understands what today's business consumers require to maximize business productivity. SheepDogInc.ca offers complete deployment, training and support for the Google AppsTM suite of products. The SheepDogInc.ca team is knowledgeable, friendly, and professional.
Nova Scotia Business Inc. is Nova Scotia's private-sector-led business development agency. NSBI is the investment-attraction arm of the province and helps businesses in Nova Scotia meet growth potential through advisory services, trade development, financing and venture capital. Go to www.novascotiabusiness.com for more details.
Read the original news release as published by Nova Scotia Business Inc. on October 15, 2009.
Read the re-posted article as published by Sourcews on Ocyober 15, 2009.
Read the re-posted article as published by Progress Media on Ocyober 15, 2009.
Sheepdog opens second location
Posted by admin on October 2, 2009
Sheepdog Inc. has taken another leap forward in its continued expansion by opening a second location in Santa Monica, California. In order to serve our growing client base, we’re pleased to announce we’ve taken the necessary steps to accommodate sales and support in our new US office. We’re excited to have Farlan Dowell as manager of the new location.
Sheepdog Inc.
1453 3rd Street Promenade, Suite 305
Santa Monica, CA
90401 USA
Tel: 1 (310) 499-1964
Silver linings
Posted by admin on September 28, 2009
Based on a cloud-computing model, the Enterprise Applications allows companies to shift emphasis from static stand-alone applications to shared environments accessed via the Internet anytime, anywhere. "Since I've been using PCs, this is literally the biggest thing I've ever seen," says Wilke. "People talk about the old, dumb terminal–the green screens. They were nothing more than a monitor and a keyboard. And that's what's happening with cloud-computing, but on a much more secure and intense level.
"All of your information–your photos, email, music, videos, and applications–is being taken off your computer and put up on the Internet, managed by data-security experts. They have 17 copies of your data in multiple places around the world. So unless a nuclear bomb goes off and destroys the world, your data is safe and can be accessed at any time."
Seven years ago Wilke was a recent St. Francis Xavier University grad working in the IT industry in Fort McMurray, Alta. (he calls it "Fort McMoney"), when he moved back to Antigonish to start his own company, Studentcomputers.ca. Now boasting nine full-time employees, the company sells Macs and other computer products at a student discount. It also sells technology solutions for small and medium-size organizations.
Lately Wilke has been spending more and more time in Halifax, where his new company, Sheep Dog Inc.–as in "information's best friend"–is located. "I kind of miss Antigonish," he says. "I'm part of the community down there; I'm a volunteer firefighter. I think the saddest thing in this new venture is that I'm not going to get to fight fires any more. I like the adrenaline rush. And there's a comparison to business there as well–the highs and the lows. I love it."
In a sense, Sheep Dog was born out of Wilke's work in Antigonish, where he was dealing with customers having problems with email spam and viruses. The best solution he could find was Google's free Gmail service. Then he started hearing about the company's apps for small business. It was a new product segment that didn't exist before," says Wilke. "I started trying to get hold of Google but it was impossible."
Eventually he signed up and paid for the product, then called the support number with this message: "I know that this is the wrong number. I know this is not the typical request. But I want to partner with you guys. I've been using Gmail since it came out. I've been deploying it for my customers. I'm very excited about the product."
That could have been the end of it but Wilke kept hounding Google. "I had the phone number now and kept calling back and calling back," he says. "Finally someone called me back from their enterprise division and said, 'We know that you've been aggressive with calling. We're interested in chatting with you. Can we set up an appointment?'"
Wilke has been back to San Franssisco several times since that first trip a year ago, and Sheep Dog is now the only authorized Google Apps reseller in Canada, and one of about only 30 worldwide. The company, which has a dozen people working in a tight noisy space in Halifax's Bayers Lake Industrial Park, has closely aligned itself with Google. "We're an extension of their reach, so we work with them very collaboratively," says Wilke. "It's a really interesting situation. They've been absolutely phenominal to work with."
Wilke says that on a single day recently Sheep Dog did $25,000 in sales; he hopes to be doing $500,000 a quarter by the end of the year. The company, which has clients in the Northwest Territories, California, Chicago, and China, recently signed a deal with a university in London, England. Wilke can control clients' computers remotely from pretty much anywhere in the world. "I just spent a month in Honduras on the beach with my computer, working," he says. "I have voice and video chat. I can be in my office even if I'm not in my office. I have a 1-800 VOIP phone number that rings on my computer. Nobody knows where I am half the time."
In an industry that is evolving as quickly as new ideas are hatched, is Wilke worried that someone will come up with a better product? "Not at all; it's Google," he says. "It's efficient, it's quick, it always works, it's never broken. For instance, there are 45 million Gmail users right now, and if anyone gets a spam message, they click on Report Spam. That message goes back through Google's computer network and blocks that same spam message for every other Gmail user and Google Apps user worldwide. You've got 45 million humans fighting spam on a second-by-second basis. Nobody else can compete with that."
The aggressive gamble Wilke made a year ago appears to be paying off big time. "Yeah," he says. "When I doubled down, I did all right."
Read the original news article as published by Chris Lambie of Progress Magazine (Volume 16 Number 05).
Microsoft Puts Web-Based Office Apps into Beta
Posted by admin on September 22, 2009
The question remains though whether the Web versions of these products will impact sales of Office 2010 for partners as customers see the cost-savings associated with cloud versions of this s
