Q4 Blog

The Q4 team attended the CICA corporate reporting awards (CRA) earlier today at the Carlu in College Park in downtown Toronto.  In attendance were myself who has served as a judge for the annual awards in the electronic disclosure category for the past three years, Catherine Crofton our VP Sales & Marketing who has also participated as a judge in the electronic disclosure category for the past seven years and Karen Adams our Client Relations Director.

The CRA is in its 58th year and presents awards for excellence in financial reporting, corporate governance disclosure, electronic disclosure and sustainable development reporting to companies listed on the TSX and to federal Crown corporations.  Separate excellence and honourable mention awards are also presented to reports that are judged to be the best, regardless of industry sector, in each of these four judging areas.  Lastly, among the industry winners, one company is given the overall award of excellence for corporate reporting.

A lot of the companies were repeat winners from last year and Q4 would like to take this opportunity to extend our congratulations to all of them!
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Q4 was recently named as one of Canada’s Emerging Growth Companies by PROFIT Magazine, as part of the 10th annual PROFIT HOT 50 ranking and awards program.

Canada’s Emerging Growth Companies are a tiny elite. Most of the tens of thousands of businesses launched each year in this country fail within a few years. Even among the survivors, only a precious few expand at anything close to the blistering pace of the PROFIT HOT 50, whose revenue growth averaged 1,007% over the past two years.

In spite of sectoral downturns, qualified worker shortages, prospects’ reluctance to buy from a young firm, and currency fluctuations, every HOT 50 firm at least doubled its revenue from 2006 through 2008, and 13 grew by at least 1,000%. The extraordinary performance of the PROFIT HOT 50 goes beyond the top line. Fully 70% were already in the black in 2008.

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Last week our CEO, Darrell Heaps, and I presented to a study group formed through an initiative of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) Research Studies Department. Comprised primarily of volunteers, this panel of experienced professionals research and provide guidance for comprehensive and integrated corporate reporting in order to promote effective communication.

By reading their reports and following their guidance, any IRO in North America can improve the standards of their company’s stakeholder communications.

To familiarize you more with their work, I have provided an overview of their most recent study, Corporate Reporting to Stakeholders.

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Congratulations to all of the IR Magazine Canada Awards winners – well done in a particularly challenging year! The awards dinner was held at the Fairmont Royal York on Thursday, February 5th, 2009. It was great to see so many familiar faces and we look forward to seeing everyone at the 22 nd annual CIRI conference in Victoria, B.C.

Best investor relations by sector Winners Read more…

As a panel judge in the electronic disclosure category, I attended the CICA corporate reporting awards earlier today at the swank Carlu in College Park. The usual suspects were all in attendance – it’s beginning to feel like “going home” with all the familiar faces. Many of this year’s winners were predictable – a select group of companies whom consistently excel in corporate reporting and take these awards very seriously.

In the electronic category it was great to see so many companies having improved over last year and honourable mention Petro Canada, was definitely one of them. What I find interesting is how many companies submit for the electronic disclosure category, knowing full well that they won’t win or even score highly. What this tells me is that the feedback from the panel judges is highly valued and perhaps a contributing factor in some of the improvements we see. Read more…

I’m glad to announce that Q4 has been selected by the Branham Group and Backbone magazine as one of the Branham300 Top 25 Up and Comers. The list is composed of companies established within the past three years, no earlier than Jan. 1, 2004. These companies are not ranked; rather, they are showcased alphabetically as firms that show tremendous promise within Canada’s ICT industry.

You can download the full list here: http://www.backbonemag.com/files/PDF/Top_300_2008/top25-up_and_comers.pdf

As part of our ongoing effort to improve and upgrade our infrastructure I’m pleased to announce that the new Q4 data center is now fully redundant and SAS 70 TYPE II certified.

SAS 70 is an internationally recognized auditing standard developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Our data center’s SAS 70 certification enables us to further our expansion into the enterprise market by delivering certification of the controls needed for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

This certification deals with the controls related to service delivery, operations, infrastructure maintenance, change management, backup of programs and data files and logical and physical data center access.

Over the next couple of months we’ll be transitioning all clients over to the new data centre. Q4 has always provided a highly secure service delivery but now our customers will feel even more confident that our services are safe, secure, reliable and compliant with regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley.

Technorati Tags: Q4 Web Systems, Q4, Disclosure, Disclosure controls, Compliance, SAS 70, Sarbanes Oxley, Investor Relations, IR Web Sites

Earlier this week we announced the closing of latest round of funding. Here’s the full press release:

Financing to fund ongoing development of innovative workflow compliance and disclosure solutions and expanded sales and marketing efforts

Q4 Web Systems Inc. (“Q4 Web Systems” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has closed $1.8M CDN in private placement financing from investors including a Schedule A Canadian bank.  The proceeds of the financing will be used by the Company to expand sales and marketing activities and accelerate the development of Q4 Web System’s innovative suite of workflow and collaboration solutions for managing capital markets disclosure and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.
“We’ve grown rapidly over the past year and are pleased with our investors’ confidence in our company, our products and our plans for expansion across North America,” says Darrell Heaps, President and CEO of Q4 Web Systems.  “Increased regulation has strained the resources of issuers who are challenged to balance Sarbanes-Oxley compliance with corporate disclosure and the expectations of real-time transparency “  said Mr. Heaps.  “Our suite of innovative solutions addresses the management, tracking and distribution of disclosure and automates many tasks, saving time and money while speeding the delivery of material information to the market. “

Q4 Web Systems’ products aid in the certification of disclosure controls and procedures as specified in Sarbanes-Oxley Act section 302 and Canadian Securities Administrators’ Multilateral Instrument 52-109 and streamline compliance with CEO/CFO certification and Bill 198.  They do so by automatically routing information upward and generating time-stamped, auditable records of all viewers, versions, comments, edits and approvals.

About Q4 Web Systems
Q4 Web Systems is a leading provider of end-to-end disclosure management software. help publicly-traded companies increase efficiency, reduce compliance risk and gain complete in-house control over their disclosure. Q4’s innovative solutions automate many of the manual tasks related to disclosure, saving issuers time and money while speeding the delivery of their material information to the market. Companies across North America rely on Q4Web Systems to manage their disclosure more efficiently, more effectively and with less risk.

For further information: please visit http://www.q4websystems.com/ or contact: Darrell Heaps, President and CEO, Q4 Web Systems Inc., darrellh@q4websystems.com, Tel: 1-877-426-7829, or (416) 626-7829 ext. 222

Technorati Tags: Q4 Web Systems, Q4, Venture Capital, Disclosure, Investor Relations, financing, software

Congratulations to all of the IR Magazine Canada Awards winners! The awards were held last Thursday. We were pleased to present the Lifetime Achievement award to Ron Blunn’s two sons. It was a privledge to present such a special award.

Best investor relations by a TSX Venture Exchange company
Shift Networks Inc

Best investor relations for an IPO
Tim Hortons

Best investor relations web site – small to large cap
ATI Technologies Inc

Best use of conferencing – small to large cap
Canadian Tire Corporation Limited
Gildan Activewear Inc

Best investment community meetings – small to large cap
ATI Technologies Inc

Best senior management communications – small to mid-cap
Cineplex Galaxy Income Fund

Best senior management communications – large cap
Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited

Best use of technology
RBC

Best annual report
PotashCorp

Best communications with the retail market
TELUS Corporation

Best disclosure policy
Inmet Mining Corporation
TD Bank Financial Group

Lifetime achievement in investor relations
Ron Blunn

Best M&A investor relations
Inco Limited

Best corporate governance
RBC

Best investor relations in the US market
CN

Most improved investor relations
Angiotech

Best investor relations officer – small to mid-cap
Isabelle Adjahi – Axcan Pharma Inc
Pat Marshall – Cineplex Galaxy Income Fund

Best investor relations officer – large cap
Janet Craig – Angiotech

Best investor relations officer – mega-cap
Bruce Mann – Rogers Communications

Best investor relations by a CEO
Hunter Harrison – CN

The CIRI grand prix for best overall investor relations – small cap
Cineplex Galaxy Income Fund

The CIRI grand prix for best overall investor relations – mid-cap
Axcan Pharma Inc

The CIRI grand prix for best overall investor relations – large cap
Canadian Tire Corporation Limited

The CIRI grand prix for best overall investor relations – mega-cap
CN

Technorati Tags: Investor Relations, IR Magazine, IR Magazine Awards, Q4 Web Systems

Here are the final categories for the IR Magazine Canada Awards. The awards are tomorrow night and we look forward to seeing many of you there. Congratulations again to all the companies and people nominated. Job well done!

Best disclosure policy
CN
Inmet Mining Corporation
TD Bank Financial Group

Most improved investor relations
Angiotech Pharmaceuticals
Canadian Pacific Railway
Nexen

Best M&A investor relations
ATI Technologies
Falconbridge 06
Inco

Best investor relations for an IPO*
Canada Cartage Diversified Income Fund
Teranet Income Fund
Tim Hortons
* New listings on TSX

Best investor relations by a TSX Venture Exchange company
Active Control Technology
Shift Networks
Sterling Resources
Titanium Corporation

Best investor relations in the US market
Canadian Natural Resources
CN
Nova Chemicals
Research in Motion

Best retail investor communications
RBC Financial Group
Rogers Communications
TD Bank Financial Group
Telus

Technorati Tags: Investor Relations, IR Magazine, IR Magazine Awards, Q4 Web Systems