Twelve Entrepreneurs Confess: How will technology be changing their business for the better?

These 12 women entrepreneurs agree: technology has the power to change a business. As participants in the Cisco Circle of Innovation program, they’ve been paired with engineering interns to help build their organization’s digital strategy, scale, and impact in the marketplace. They’re sharing how their business will be getting better through technology this year — could it help your company, too?

Lara Autio, Experience

Lara Autio is the President (and owner) of Experience, an IT staffing solution company specializing in staff augmentation for time and material contracts and IT Project Staffing. Her company services the North American market from their IT Center of Excellence in Montreal — a technology hub specializing in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning. Her website is ready for a refresh, so she plans to focus on digital marketing design and development.

Lise Snelgrove, This Space Works

Lise Snelgrove left her role as a marketing director in the telecommunications sector to pursue her business idea full time: giving innovative brands a simple way to transform their beautiful meeting rooms into powerful marketing tools. As co-founder and CEO of This Space Works, Lise places a strong emphasis on technology and innovation. Her plan is to implement a virtual assistant who will connect business clients who need meeting space with the beautiful offices of synergistic companies, creating a unique way to discover and connect with innovative brands around the world.

Tiffany Clark, Elements Mortgage Team

Tiffany Clark has worked in the finance industry for more than 14 years, entering the mortgage broker network in 2009. She now leads the Elements Mortgage Team under the banner of The Mortgage Group (TMG), helping homeowners in Grande Prairie, Alberta with their finances based on their unique needs. To help continue to grow her business, Tiffanywants to share her brand messaging through social media and search engine optimization.

Chantal Levesque, SHAN

Chantal Levesque founded SHAN in 1985 — a company that specializes in haute couture bathing suits, leisure wear, and accessories for both men and women. As president and designer, Chantal Levesque has been instrumental in transitioning SHAN from a promising company based out of Laval, Quebec, to a renowned luxury brand available in over 30 countries. With such impressive growth, SHAN is investing in a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, integrating an online platform and digital archiving.

Heather Stewart, BBE Expediting Ltd.

BBE Expediting Ltd. has been moving cargo into remote areas of Northern Canada for four decades. Under the leadership of Heather Stewart — president since 2011 — the logistics company has been reorganized and restructured, increasing their skills and knowledge of best practices of supply change management. Providing freight services to the mining, airline, oil & gas and construction industries, Heather understands that she can get a competitive advantage by staying on the leading edge. Her goal is to integrate the GoBox technology platform into BBE’s shipping services.

Rhonda Hewko, Elkan Environmental Engineering 

Rhonda Hewko is the president and owner of Elkan Environmental Engineering, based out of Grande Prairie, Alberta. She has nearly two decades of experiences as an environmental consultant and engineer, and the consulting company she founded has been providing environmental and wastewater engineering services in Western Canada since 2010. Rhonda is looking for new solutions for her company’s network.

Nicole Smith, Flytographer

Nicole Smith’s entrepreneurial inspiration came while she was on vacation with her family. She went on to create Flytographer, the first global marketplace connecting travellers with local photographers for fun, candid vacation shoots. The venture has been successful: as founder and CEO, Nicole has built a community of hundreds of local photographers in 200 destinations around the world. She’s looking to continue the growth with website development, including enhanced features for Flytographer’s booking application.

Allison Christilaw, Reddin Global Inc.

Allison Christilaw has more than 25 years of entrepreneurial experience. After selling the
management consulting company she was a partner in to one of the Big 4 firms, Allison once again took on a leadership role as CEO of Reddin Global Inc., home of The Emerson Suite — a technology platform offering a complete suite of mobile management tools for leader-managers to accelerate the performance of their teams. Integration with Microsoft and other business platforms is the next development focus, with the aim of enabling teams to work seamlessly.

Erifili Morfidis, iRestify

Recognizing that the cleaning industry was trailing behind many other industries in technological advancement, Erifili Morfidis co-founded iRestify, an online platform that provides an easy way to book and manage a trusted and insured cleaning service. By integrating advanced workforce management and logistics tools, the company has modernized the way in which commercial and residential customers hire cleaning experts, and made the market more efficient. Erifili plans to continue web development to improve their platform and their reach.

Debra Van Dyke, Frilly Lilly

In 2005, Debra Van Dyke opened the first Frilly Lilly boutique in Alberta, specializing in waxing, manicure and pedicure services, along with the distribution of signature bath and body care products. With the support of her children, Jeremy and Lisa, Debra has grown her business to include several locations, with products in stores across Canada. Debra’s biggest focus for 2018 is to establish a competitive advantage by leveraging technology. This includes revamping their website and  implementing an SEO strategy, streamlining computer and device management for all locations, and implementing a chat system for customer service — all while ensuring there are strict security and privacy protocols for employees and customers.

Martha van Berkel, Schema App

Martha van Berkel is a co-founder and CEO at Schema App. Schema App is a software as a service that translates content at scale to be understood by search engines and voice search resulting in increases in organic traffic and higher quality leads from their website. Prior to starting the business, Martha worked at Cisco for 14 years as a senior manager responsible for Cisco’s online support strategy. She leverages her experience at Cisco to partner with digital marketers at Enterprise and Global Digital Marketing Agencies to translate their brand at scale for machines. During this co-op,  Martha is looking to introduce more automation to scale and mature her operations and marketing.  

Lisa Will, Stonz Wear

It was Lisa Will’s own experience as an outdoorsy mom that inspired her to create Stonz Wear, a Vancouver company making high quality baby and kids’ footwear and apparel giving parents more time outdoors with their kids. Launching with the Stonz Bootie, the brand now offers a broad range of functional, innovative, and stylish products for all seasons — sold in over 500 stores and in over 16 countries. Stonz is already using technology to create its products, track their progress, market, engage with customers, understand their needs, ship and track product, and better service and surprise customers once they’ve purchased. Lisa’s goal is to continue to embrace technology whenever she can — it’s helping Stonz achieve its goal more quickly of being the go-to outwear for kids and baby.

The Cisco Women Entrepreneurs Circle addresses some of the obstacles women-led businesses face in building their tech capabilities. In partnership with organizations including the Business Development Bank of Canada, Cisco is connecting women to the expertise and knowledge needed for their entrepreneurial ventures to thrive. Are you a business owner? Fill in a short survey to register for free virtual training from the Cisco Networking Academy, and kickstart your journey towards business success.