pixcode Inc. is a niche development company.

What?

In a nutshell: we started out as a web development company, but we continually evolve to meet the needs of (select/niche) opportunities that open before us. We may bring the skills we need in-house, contract out specific tasks, or find partners to co-venture with, whatever it takes to make sure we can take advantage of the right opportunities when they appear. And we help you do that too.

Can you give an example?

Definitely. Imagine it's 2004 and we're still viewing ourselves strictly as a web development company. We were building websites for clients, doing Flash development, doing search engine optimizing, developing our in-house content management system, and managing our own properties. One of those websites had a little section on "Workplace Wellness for Small Business" (that's a teeny tiny version there to the right). It had some information about the benefits of starting one up in a business, and it had some stats, and some downloads - basically, a self-help information centre.

Then the phone started ringing. Which would be great, except they were asking for more posters, and could they be bilingual, and did we have people who could come out and help them with their program? On top of this, the page clearly said "workplace wellness for small business" and the calls were coming from such "small businesses" as different departments in the Government of Canada, hospitals, and large corporations in the US.

And we sat here perplexed, wondering, "Why are they bothering us? We're a web development company." So, one of us had a conversation with a business friend that went something like: "How can we make this stop?"

This friend, being an excellent business woman herself, said, "Why would you do that? You can either refer these requests to people whose core competency it is, bring the skills in-house, or partner — all of which are money-making opportunities.

Three years later (after using a combination of those techniques) we spun that project out into its own brand: Wellergize. Our core team does what it does best - bring in the clients - and our partners do what they do best - provide the services. Our newest team member, Suhujitha, is a graduate of Centennial College and does health and wellness facilitation.

So, how do we actually put this to work in other areas?

We constantly watch trends - what's new, what's growing, what's fading, what's relevant to what we are already doing, and what can we leverage in our existing toolkit to make sure we're part of the growing and profitable ones. And, we have a well-stocked toolkit — people, technology, connections — that lets us turn around quickly to stay at the front of new trends.

Other strategies/techniques:
We have an extensive network of partners and suppliers. We promote online and offline, developing and using media partners, cross-promotion, events planning to support the work we do, and more. We're not tied to a particular technology (though ours has been custom-developed to meet the needs of our team), but it's the people who make it happen.

You can get our team working for you by calling 647.723.6381 ext 290.