In 1997, Founder Joel McLean was teaching at Western University’s Ivey Business School when he spotted a gap. IT leaders were struggling to keep up with a rapidly changing digital landscape.

He imagined a subscription-based service, unusual for the time, that could provide them with timely guidance and practical tools to improve performance.

“The goal was to advise IT leaders on what’s happening in technology so that they don’t have to scour the internet and figure out what’s going on,” said Gord Harrison, Info-Tech’s Chief Research Officer.

The initial solution was a newsletter, sent by fax machine, to interested IT professionals. And as the Internet era began to take shape, McLean bet that businesses would fund a new process to access support and knowledge. 

He was right…(Read more).

Published on August 26, 2025
Originally published by BetaKit
Written by Jacqueline Loganathan
Image credit: Info-Tech Research Group