#CalianAt40: Living our core purpose

As we celebrate Calian turning 40 this year, I’m reflecting on our journey — one of humble beginnings, great transformations and steady growth. Despite being established for 40 years, Calian remains one of Canada’s hidden gems. We continue to partner with our customers in helping them do their most important work.?

I look forward to sharing more about the work we do with an incredible global team of employees, contractors, partners and what the future holds. ?

Whether it’s dealing with increasing climate incidents, terrorism, cyber attacks, or healthcare being stretched to capacity, we can all feel how unstable the world is. As challenging as this is for us and humanity, companies like Calian are essential in helping us get through some of these challenges.

Incidentally, these hurdles are what brings meaning and purpose to our work, which instills confidence in our customers which comes from our 40 year track record in business. Reflecting on the past is enriched by thinking back to the challenges we’ve faced — ?the dot com ups and downs in the 90’s, the 2008 stock market crash and recently a global pandemic. The fact that we're still here, still growing and still thriving is a testament to the people who have made Calian the company it is.?

I look forward to sharing different aspects of this journey with you in a four-part article series, I’m beginning with a deep dive into ‘Living our core purpose’.?

And over the next few months, I encourage you to join the conversation as I share more about the following topics:??

1. Living our core purpose ?
2. Teamwork behind our success?
3. Innovation and technology driving us forward?
4. What the future holds?

When I think back to the past couple of years, one thing I am particularly proud of is how we responded to the global pandemic. Asking “How can I help?” in times of need has highlighted the importance of our diverse portfolio and the opportunity to be helpful in more ways than one. From advanced technologies to healthcare, learning and IT & cyber solutions — we were fortunate to be able to count on our dedicated team to assist in whichever ways we could.

Of particular note, our decades of experience in partnering with public and private sector healthcare organizations across Canada for the fast and effective delivery of critical health services, which positioned us well to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. ?

Keeping Indigenous communities safe?

Whether it was administering the COVID-19 vaccine in 31 fly-in northern locations to Indigenous community members and residents of First Nations’ elder care homes or providing COVID-19 screening and paramedic services, Calian stepped up to help keep Indigenous communities safe.??

Assisting clinical trials??

When the pandemic interrupted an ongoing global clinical trial, the pharmaceutical company conducting the trial asked Alio Health, a Calian company, for help. We pivoted quickly from providing telephone support for the trial to conducting a pilot project to provide in-person patient care, on a global scale. The project was successful and exceeded all industry KPIs—with nursing assignments allocated in 45 minutes, compared to the industry standard of 48 hours and first contact with patients occurring in 6 hours instead of 48 hours.?

Expanding virtual healthcare??

When the need for virtual healthcare increased rapidly, Calian surveyed Canadians to hear directly about their challenges and priorities in navigating the healthcare system as we explored new ways of delivering patient-centred care. Calian Corolar? Virtual Care enabled healthcare teams to unlock the potential of digital transformation to deliver care beyond clinic walls, shorten wait times and improved collaboration for over 3,000 frontline workers, hundreds of community partners and more than five million Canadians.?

One thing I always come back to is our core purpose — it’s why we exist, not what we do. Calian helps people communicate, innovate, learn, stay safe and lead healthy lives —today and tomorrow. We live this vision every day, with every customer across the diverse portfolio of Calian offerings. Here are a few examples of our core purpose in motion.

Communicating and innovating for NASA??

This year, our advanced technologies team has once again been entrusted by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center to provide a third high-performance antenna for NASA’s Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) Global Observing System (VGOS). The VLBI antennas can be used to measure the Earth's orientation in space from which geoscientists then study such phenomena as our atmosphere, ocean tides, currents and the elastic response of the Earth. The team’s ability to meet such exacting standards set by NASA in addition to nurturing a long-term relationship are key values which contribute to our steady growth.

Leading provider of military training for NATO?

Over the past 13 years, Calian has supported the design and delivery of over 70 NATO exercises, with exercise planning, computer-assisted technologies, role-playing, mentoring and advising. Calian played key roles in delivering pre-deployment exercise and training events for NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), NATO Mission Iraq and NATO Mission Georgia deployments. Customer retention and innovation are key pillars of the Calian growth strategy and the recent engagement which demonstrates both.?

Using digital tools to detect breast cancer??

Breast cancer is the most common cancer worldwide and affects over two million women each year. Yet, early detection can greatly increase chances of survival. Early this year, Calian partnered with Syantra Inc. to help bring the Syantra DX breast cancer blood test nation-wide. The Syantra DX | Breast Cancer is an advanced, innovative test that measures a panel of biomarkers from whole blood and uses software developed with machine learning to interpret results with a simple positive or negative test result. The Calian digital health platform will enable efficient test administration and data collection to support patient safety and the generation of Real World Evidence (RWE). This has enormous potential to change the face of this devastating cancer. ?

Important work deserves a celebration??

These are just a few examples of the complex issues we help our customers face. We help solve complex problems with reliable, innovative solutions delivered with integrity. Which paints a picture of how we help the world move forward. I’m incredibly proud of the team for their intelligence, drive, and hard work to make this happen. It’s a privilege to lead an organization like Calian. ?

Over the next few months, I’ll unpack what’s driving these successful feats and what is going to drive us towards our goal of becoming a $1-billion company.??

***??Share a comment below: What stands out to you most about the work we do???

I encourage my network to share your thoughts and all Calian present and former employees to share their experiences and most proud moments across 40 years.??