Since its launch in August 2020, the Recovery Activation Program has supported hundreds of businesses across the province through its programs. Over 800 companies have completed their Digital Needs Assessment, and hundreds have already completed one or more program streams.
Through the program streams detailed above, the Recovery Activation Program helps businesses to identify the gaps in their digital capacity, but the Virtual Marketplace will support them in taking the next step to remedy these gaps. The intention of the Virtual Marketplace is to create a platform whereby businesses participating in the Recovery Activation Program can easily identify and connect with regional technology solutions providers and vendors. This marketplace will act as an extension of the Recovery Activation Program by supporting its mandate to assist businesses across the province digitally modernize their operations.
The Virtual Marketplace must have two states – public (accessible to anyone) and login (accessible only to those who have completed their Digital Needs Assessment), with functionality contingent on the version. However, the public state should underscore the features that are available on the login state as to incentivize users to complete their Digital Needs Assessment. The login state must be a highly curated experience for users. This state must leverage the information in each Digital Needs Assessment, as well as the information on each business’ program participation, to generate a customized and applicable vendor recommendation list for each
8 First Canadian Place | 77 Adelaide Street W | Toronto, ON M5X 1C1 | bot.com
user. The vendors will be sourced by the Recovery Activation Program team, however, the successful Respondee will be taxed with developing the platform and curation mechanisms.
Through this marketplace, the World Trade Centre Toronto and the Scale-Up Institute Toronto seek to fulfill the objective of supporting both sides of the supply and demand chain among small and medium-sized businesses in the regional economy.
Audience: Ontario-based businesses spanning various sectors and geographical locations
