Today’s business buzzword is digitization, and helping businesses understand technology and how to embrace it is one of the key competitive challenges in Atlantic Canada. It’s also Dave d’Entremont’s singular passion as the president and CEO of Breton Group, a leading provider of digital business solutions and professional services to small-to-medium enterprises, corporations, unions, utilities, provincial/municipal agencies and non-profit organizations.

An entrepreneur with a 20-year track record creating several seven-figure companies, his mission is to enable other business owners to “reach their ultimate potential” and, he says, St. John’s-based Breton Group is doing just that across the region through the federal government’s Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP).

Established in 2022, CDAP provides grants to small- and medium-sized business owners to obtain the expertise and tools they need to integrate new, digital technologies into their operations.

In a nutshell, Breton helps businesses fix problems. Sometimes this means helping scale to more revenue and growth; other times it’s helping businesses control and lower costs. Established in 2022, CDAP provides grants to small- and medium-sized business owners to obtain the expertise and tools they need to integrate new, digital technologies into their operations. “They don’t always appreciate the importance and value of technology to their current and future competitiveness,” d’Entremont says. “That’s where we come in.”

In fact, Breton—founded in 2001 as a top-flight B2B consultancy with a team of highly-skilled and experienced professionals on board—is one of a few select firms in Canada chosen to deliver the program, advising participants every step of the way. “The government is not delivering CDAP,” d’Entremont says. “It depends on private sector advisors. The federal government was very intensive in their selection; not just anyone can do these assessments. You have to know business.”

The initiative is available to any for-profit company with between one and 499 employees with reported sales in one of the last three years of over $500,000. The two-phase process begins with a $15,000 grant to a business to work with an advisor like Breton.

Since the program’s inception, Breton has helped guide 65 firms across Atlantic Canada, Ontario and Quebec through Phase 1, and several have progressed to Phase 2.

“Under Phase 1 of CDAP, we do a whole audit to see where there may be gaps in how a business operates across each of its departments and, then, prepare a RoadMap that specifically addresses how it can fix some of these,” d’Entremont says.

The second phase involves implementing the recommended strategies and solutions. To pay for this, loans with tailored terms and eligibilities are available. Companies with sales below $5 million a year can obtain a $50,000 six-year, interest-free loan. For companies $5 million and above, it’s $100,000.

Since the program’s inception, Breton has helped guide 65 firms across Atlantic Canada, Ontario and Quebec through Phase 1, and several have progressed to Phase 2. “Lately,” d’Entremont says, “we’ve started implementing some of the technology tools as part of our information gathering. This is the ‘doing’ part of the digital adoption plans.”

He adds: “Lack of staff is always a top business challenge. A company can overcome this by adding more people, or by having processes or technology that facilitate growth. We can show companies how to automate and, with our own experience, how machine learning can help their companies grow.”

That level of commitment is integral to Breton’s service offering.

“We are experienced, very skilled business advisors with a track record of growing businesses, and also running businesses as CEOs. We don’t have new graduates or general consultants here. The benefit is in the return on investment, and we work with companies to bring that to these projects.”

Let’s meet! Book a 15-minute “CDAP Initial Overview” meeting with one of our Breton CDAP Senior Business Management Advisors. Visit https://cdapconsultants.ca/ or call 709-757-9000.