OPIN for business: Ottawa software company one of Canada’s fastest growing
Posted Dec 18, 2019 02:41:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Chris Smith has gone from a teenager who enjoyed web programming for fun, to running one of the most successful digital agencies in Canada — Ottawa-based OPIN Software.
“I was that 12-year-old kid that had that old IBM PSII and I was just hacking away with my super slow machine,” Smith, the CEO of OPIN , said in an interview with OttawaMatters.com.
“I’ve always had the passion and the aptitude.”
Both of those remained in tact while he studied commerce in university and worked on various projects in positions across the country before coming back to his passion.
The open-sourced type of software, one that’s not owned by a large tech company like Microsoft or Adobe, has always been a draw to Smith and that’s where OPIN has doubled down.
Specializing in Drupal, a content management system like WordPress but open-sourced, Smith and OPIN have used this to help clients and companies overhaul or create new websites that are much more customizable and easier to use than other systems.
“It just seemed like, in my young career and then as I started my career in technology, open-source was always the enabler for me to deliver value and do good things,” he said, adding, it also saves companies from expensive licensing fees.
The company’s Catherine Street office is much like any other modern startup; open space, lots of people abound, and has continued to grow with the company over the past eight years.
OPIN currently has 80 clients from across the public and private sector and has been ranked one of the fastest growing companies in Canada the past two years, which has led to significant revenue growth this year.
The largest reason for the success and growth, according to Smith, is that the big companies like banking and finance have used proprietary software to build great websites, but mid-level companies and others still have the same marketing and communications needs.
“So, they’re saying, 'How am I going to deliver on the expectations of our clients, the same way the banks or Amazon are delivering to their clients, but in a way that’s feasible within our constraints as an organization?’” Smith said.
“That’s where our company really steps in — we’re the experts in open-source, we can bring you as much value if not more than the proprietary system,” he said, without the added costs.
With its growth and expansion, Smith and the OPIN team aren't sitting still as Internet continues to grow and change rapidly, with sights on offering a suite of marketing services in the near future as well to aid with website development.
“The Internet, eight years ago… night and day to the Internet we experience today,” Smith said.
“What we’re noticing now is that marketing and communications teams within enterprises have much higher needs for speed to market, the ability to innovate quickly and multiple channels of communications,” he added, which could include email, mobile devices and targeted ad services.
“The ecosystem or the web experience is much more complex, so we’re trying to respond by saying we’re no longer going to be a Drupal open content management company, we’re going to deliver the full web experience.”
Other expansions are purely geographical, opening offices in cities where the company has clients, like its current office in New York City, noting it also helps add a layer of local accountability.
“That should help us not just deliver better products to our clients but also with talent and recruitment because being part of more labour markets is just going to open the opportunities for more talent,” Smith said.
While it’s been a successful ride at OPIN to this point, it hasn’t always felt like that, so Smith does offer advice to budding entrepreneurs, which is to stay challenged and engaged.
“When you’re an entrepreneur, you are learning everyday, so that idea of challenge, I think I might have bit off more than what I was going to. I wanted some challenge in my career, but didn’t want every moment of my life to being challenging,” he said with a laugh.
“You have to stay very progressive in your mindset and always looking forward, you have to evolve and change.”