- Information technology is becoming an important part of the business landscape in PEI. A new company, Simscape Development Corporation, has entered the industry with a new Windows-based simulation software for business, industry and education.
The product, called LOGIS, is a logistics simulation software product. The idea for the product came from company president Robert O'Rourke, a professor at the University of Prince Edward Island, who felt there was an opportunity to make learning logistics easier for students.
"The product is already in use at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Australia," said O'Rourke. "Students simply download the simulation software from the Internet and when they complete the program, they send their decisions through the Internet for evaluation on our local server here on Prince Edward Island."
Sales of the logistics product have already been made in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Canada. The simulation is under review in the United States and the United Kingdom. Prentice Hall, a New Jersey publishing company, is currently reviewing the software with a view to incorporate it into the company's current learning material.
"The Information Technology Division of Enterprise PEI has been set up to assist businesses like Simscape in developing new products," said Robert Morrissey, Minister of Economic Development and Tourism. "This type of technology will not only benefit students, but will also make it easier for companies to do business as well."
"The establishment of this software company will help make Prince Edward Island more competitive in the information technology industry," said the Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, Secretary of State (Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, ACOA and Veterans). "It also gives students a unique opportunity to learn in their own environments."
Simscape is currently in the process of developing a second product, known as WASE, which will do cost allocation and rate design for water and sewer utilities. WASE is designed to give utility managers the ability to prepare their own rate cases and to test their rate design to changes in demand forecasts and operations and maintenance expense projections. This product is set to be released in December. Simscape intends to move to full-time production of simulation software and multimedia products and to offer Internet services to both academic and business customers. To do so, the company has full-time programming, manual design, diskette duplication, and multimedia development capabilities.
The company has received a repayable contribution of $165,000 through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency's Business Development Program and $97,500 from Enterprise PEI, $75,000 of which is repayable. Simscape will operate from the first floor of the Watts building in the West Royalty Industrial Park and will create four full-time jobs.
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