After closing the books on a record-setting 2019, Kanata-based Calian Group started the new year with a bang by announcing it was acquiring two Ottawa firms: Allphase and Alio.
Techopia Live recently sat down with Jeff Smith, the owner of the two healthcare companies, to learn about how the $14.5-million deal materialized.
Smith started Allphase back in 2001 as a way to tap into the pharmaceutical industry, running clinical trials for big-name drug companies and surveying the products once they got to market.
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But it was in 2012 when Smith entered a new realm of business: automated at-home health care. Alio began as a business to connect patients with trained nurses for in-home care, but as Smith told Techopia Live, there was a more efficient way to run the system.
The answer was the HOME software and resource management tool designed by Smith’s team at Alio, which can cut the time it takes to find and book a nurse or support worker from 15 minutes down to as little as 60 seconds.
The software’s efficiency proved invaluable to Calian, who now has nearly 2,000 healthcare workers operating across the country through various industry acquisitions. Smith met with Calian CEO Kevin Ford a handful of times and it quickly became clear the companies would be a good match.
“I got to talk more and more with Calian and learn about what their objectives are, I told them what my ambitions are, and they seemed to be very well aligned,” Smith told Techopia Live.
“I loved the process by which he was doing these acquisitions because it resonated with the type of organization we are.”
To hear more about the acquisition and how Smith’s healthcare software is streamlining the at-home care industry, watch the video above.
