Birds of a feather innovate together.
When electronic payment processing company Interac went shopping for a location for its new corporate innovation lab, it paused and lingered when it got to Communitech. What Interac liked about what it saw going on in the Tannery was that there were 17 other corporate labs already up and running.
“What differentiates Communitech for us is the corporate partnerships,” explained Debbie Gamble, Interac’s Vice-President of Digital Products and Platforms.
And that’s why Gamble was on hand at Communitech Tuesday, as Toronto-based Interac officially opened its lab’s doors with a lunchtime event at Area 151. Gamble said that the proximity of those other companies – being able to network and collaborate, and perhaps over time develop partnerships – was an opportunity not to be missed.
“I think the model here is a little different,” Gamble continued. “What we needed was not just the ability to work with startups, but the ability to think differently as a corporation, to better refine our innovation process and accelerate the ideation and when we looked into the options of doing that, Communitech was really the ideal space.”
Debbie Gamble, left, Interac’s VP of Digital Products, with Innovation Lab Director Tricia Gruetzmacher.
(Communitech photo: Sara Jalali)
Interac is a smallish company – less than 300 employees – with an oversized impact on the lives of Canadians. Its payment products are a daily staple for almost everyone, allowing people easy access to their money and easing money transfers.
“We’re the No. 1 trusted financial services brand in Canada for the third year running,” said Gamble. “But we’re a relatively small company. It’s a necessity for us to partner to ensure our relevance and continued leadership in the space.”
The lab director is Tricia Gruetzmacher, a Kitchener resident and University of Waterloo grad in math and computer science who has worked for companies like Toshiba, Epson, and Kitchener’s Unitron Canada (recently rebranded as Sonova), which makes hearing aids.
“I was probably the only girl at the gym in 2000 wearing hearing aids and streaming music to my hearing aids,” she said on Tuesday. “[Those were] my ear buds.”
Gruetzmacher said Interac already has an established pedigree of innovation – money transfers via email and text, for example – and that it will be her task to prove and deploy ideas removed from the company’s everyday activity and the bias of what has already been accomplished.
“I think that what this lab will be about is watching those trends in the marketplace and picking certain trends that we need to be aware of, on top of,” she said.
