Perseverance, determination, validation

Christian Dandeneau and Robert Piché’s Winnipeg-based information technology consulting firm is called IDFusion Software Inc. But there was a period of time, more than two decades ago, when it was known as MyLocalStore.com.

At a time when consumers were hesitant to put make online purchases for fear their credit card data wasn’t safe and local retailers didn’t have the capacity to build and maintain their own webstores, Dandeneau, Piché and company co-founder Daniel Piché created a platform that helped small businesses market their goods and services online.

The company’s website, mylocalstore.com, functioned as an electronic mall where customers could make purchases from Manitoba businesses such as Pictures-Frames & More and U.N. Luggage, with minimal involvement from the retailer.

The site linked directly to a local courier company that picked up the goods and delivered them to the customer. Payment was made electronically to the retailer at the same time.

Local e-commerce is commonplace now, but when Dandeneau and the Pichés started developing the website at the end of the 1990s, it was anything but.

After establishing mylocalstore.com, the trio created two more websites: one that allowed consumers to order food from local restaurants and have it delivered, and another that functioned as a grocery ordering/delivery service.

“We were maybe a touch ahead of our time, I guess you would say,” Dandeneau says.

Approximately 40 people had invested in the company when the dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s. The idea of purchasing items online became less interesting to people, Dandeneau recalls, and everything “kind of went quiet for a while.”

MyLocalStore.com had around $1.5 million in debt on the books, and dozens of shareholders were looking to the three founders to find a solution.

“We were determined not to be a failure,” Dandeneau says. “So against better judgment, we pivoted and kept the debt and said, we’re going to work our way out of this and pay everybody back.”

In 2003, MyLocalStore.com rebranded as IDFusion Software Inc., the name Dandeneau and the Pichés had chosen when they first incorporated the business in 1999. They also returned to their roots as a company dedicated to helping Manitoba businesses solve their problems using technology.

Today, IDFusion is a thriving business that offers a variety of services, from IT support to custom software buildouts to mobile strategy development. The company counts Bell MTS, Bison Transport, the Province of Manitoba and the City of Winnipeg among its longtime clients, and its annual revenue is around $6 million.

IDFusion employs about 40 people, a dozen of whom work in the company’s headquarters in St. Boniface, the neighbourhood where the proudly Indigenous organization (its founders are Métis) has been located since its inception.

“My biggest validation comes from being able to actively help my customers with their businesses, with their organizations, and to see the value that we are bringing to them and how that actually makes them successful,” says Dandeneau, the company’s CEO.

“Bringing solutions and really being helpful (by solving) complicated problems has always been how I really get validation.”

In recent years, IDFusion has added artificial intelligence consulting to its list of offerings. The company helps clients think through how they might implement AI and what they should be mindful of along the way.

Dandeneau says after more than three decades working in IT, the most interesting part of his career is happening right now.

“The pace at which the change is happening (is) the fastest I’ve ever seen,” he says. “Because of that, it’s creating a lot of anxiety for people.”

Dandeneau tells customers AI is transformational, like the invention of the steam engine. “There’s many major technologies that have completely transformed so many aspects of society, and this is one of them.”

No matter what challenges IDFusion is helping clients tackle, Dandeneau says he and his employees bring a mix of what people typically define as left-brain and right-brain thinking: logical and analytical on the one hand, and intuitive and creative on the other.

“I think people appreciate the ability to think logically through something, but then also think outside the box,” Dandeneau says.

IDFusion’s founders are proud of their Métis roots and view them as foundational to the company, which takes a special interest in working with Indigenous communities and organizations, supporting Indigenous causes and celebrating Indigenous traditions.

The Métis have historically used commerce to create win-win scenarios and as a mechanism to build relationships, Dandeneau says, and IDFusion tries to do the same. He credits his Métis heritage with instilling in him the determination and perseverance he’s needed when IDFusion faces obstacles.

“Through hard times, through difficult challenges, there was never a time where we said, yeah, we’re just gonna give up,” he says. “It was, no, we’ve got to find a way. What do we need to do?”

The founders’ determination and perseverance led to IDFusion marking its 25th anniversary last year.

That’s no small feat, says Chuck Loewen, founder of Online Business Systems, the Winnipeg consultancy that was acquired in recent months by Montreal-based IT giant CGI.

“There’s always peaks and valleys, and they have done a good job of staying in the game,” says Loewen, who has known Dandeneau for at least 20 years.

IDFusion is a well-respected company, adds Joelle Foster, president and CEO of local incubator and accelerator North Forge, where Dandeneau mentors entrepreneurs.

“He had the tenacity to start something like this 25 years ago, when there were not a lot of technology-based companies out there,” she says. “Twenty-five years is something to be proud of.”

Dandeneau says he expected IDFusion to be a bigger company by the time it hit the quarter-century milestone, but at the same time, people have reminded him it’s not easy for a technology company to stay solvent for 2 1/2 decades.

“I am proud of that,” he says.

When Dandeneau considers different experiences he’s had with IDFusion, the MyLocalStore.com days still stand out as some of the most memorable.

“We were working ridiculous hours, a small group, so driven by how we were going to be able to change the world,” he says. “If you weren’t working, you were sleeping or eating, and that’s about it. That was really, really an exciting time for me.”

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca