Cofomo, among Canada’s largest IT consultancy firms, is celebrating an important milestone: 27 years of enabling digital transformation for successful companies. That’s an entire generation of growth-generation for our clients, and it’s helped us too.
In 1995, the online world was coming alive, and its growth gathered speed and scope. In three short years what had been a global total of 10 websites had grown to over 25,000 URLs. IT was entering the common lexicon and Cofomo was about to get down to business.
Every successful business venture begins with an inspiration, a vision of improving the way things are done, making better products, providing services that are unique, or superior, to what exists, and, in the case of Cofomo, serving an industry that has quite literally arisen from seemingly nowhere. That was IT, as we know it, in 1995. At that time, Cofomo was run out of the basement of one of its founders. Today, it operates out of offices in four of Canada’s largest cities serving Canada’s biggest companies.Like the Internet and online commerce, Cofomo has grown. And it’s this company’s people that have made it successful.
Onward and Upward
Training and staffing for IT was where it all began as an effort to raise the bar and prepare an entire generation of technology professionals to ensure that the global phenomenon known as the Internet was fully leveraged, fully secure, and fully serviced.
Cofomo’s vision was based on knowledge, experience, and foresight – the wherewithal to appreciate that this was not a passing fad. Cofomo’s growing body of knowledge was amplified exponentially after the arrival of Régis Desjardins, who along with Pierre Provencher acquired controlling interest by 2003. Régis remains at the helm of the company to this day.The hunt was on for other key players. Lyne Lazure, Executive Vice-President and General Manager of the Montreal office came aboard in 2003 – followed in 2014 by Bernard Robitaille in Québec City, while key names such as Claude Brulé, and Martial Rivard joined in and greatly reinforced an already stellar lineup.
Know-How Becomes Knowledge
The acquisition of knowledge is just as important to Cofomo’s objectives. It also counts among its strength names and certifications that read like a textbook for world-class IT. Our association with Microsoft, AWS, VMware, Oracle, Red Hat, and Mendix hint at body of knowledge its experts have acquired. That’s a testament to Cofomo’s continuously growing expertise.
Growth, impressive clients, strategic acquisitions, and essential certifications are good ways to benchmark our success. However, another is the awards our peers and industry influencers have bestowed upon us, whether it’s making Canada’s Best Managed Companies twice, the prestigious LesMercuriades, or the Fidéides to name a few. We continue to be recognized for our qualities and persevere in wanting to raise the bar higher.
Building-Out and Growing Up
Great names mean something. Reputations too. Cofomo, under its new, potent leadership is leveraging a concerted strategy that prioritizes expanding the company’s service offering, expertise, and global reach.
Throughout the years, Cofomo’s incorporation of L-IPSE, EMERION and, most recently, Nexio, in partnership with Novacap, affirms the company’s confidence in its growth potential and will serve to solidify its position as one of Canada’s leading IT consulting firms.
“We are now in an ideal position to become a dominant player in Canada and to accelerate and sustain growth. All of this to better serve our clients and their digital transformation needs.”
Régis Desjardins, President, Cofomo
Community Values. Corporate Values.
Ultimately, for a company that has as its prime objective being a force for good, it is how it helps the communities we work in, and for, improve and provide opportunity to those who may not be as fortunate. Volunteering, charitable donations, and supporting local business are also deeply held Cofomo values. It has always encouraged team members to reach out and indulge in acts of generosity and selflessness.
Whether it’s the Red Cross, Centraide, The Welcome Hall Mission, The Canadian Cancer Foundation or Mira (and that’s only a few), corporate social responsibility is a course of action Cofomo embraces.
“Looking outside of ourselves and our own reality has helped us see the world through the eyes of those in need. Cofomo and I see eye-to-eye when it comes to giving from the heart.”
Lyne Lazure, Executive Vice-President and General Manager – Montreal
We’re Just Getting Started
Cofomo’s earliest years were indeed humble, but ambition meant it always kept an eye on the prize: growth, great success, and being the best in everything it does. No one anticipated it would be so prominent a rise to recognition. But it wasn’t an overnight success. It took perseverance, commitment, business acumen, vision, and talent. A lot of talent.
Today, Cofomo boasts over 2,800 technology professionals in four cities serving major clients in the financial, insurance, transportation, health services and governmental sectors.
Ultimately, we know it’s always about people. Their passion for innovation and creativity, as well as for embracing all that the future can be, has made Cofomo what it is today. Which is still much less than it will be in years to come. This story has only begun.
