By: Cassandra Kyle
View this article on The StarPhoenix

When Saul Klein leaves Saskatoon on Friday for his family home in San Diego, Calif., the CEO of Point2 Technologies Inc. will be celebrating a successful 2009 business year.

Klein, who works out of the company’s Saskatoon office every other week, says the past year has brought about a number of positive changes for Point2, which creates web technologies for the real estate and heavy equipment industries.

StarPhoenix business reporter Cassandra Kyle asked Klein five questions about how the company handled a year that brought challenges to many local companies.

SP: Can you tell me about Point2′s deals with MLS associations across North America?

SK: Sure. We began in earnest our campaign to make MLSs in North America, at this point primarily in the states, but throughout North America, our partners in listing syndication. We have successfully signed over 30 MLSs representing over 100 associations of Realtors representing about 250,000 real estate licencees and about a half a million listings.

So we’ve had a very successful year. Some people might say we’ve achieved the impossible, but that’s what Point2 does.

SP: Many companies faced employment cutbacks or hiring freezes in 2009. Did Point2 have to lay off any staff this past year?

SK: No we didn’t, as a matter of fact. . . . We won two awards this year, one for being one of the top-25 companies in Saskatchewan and one for job creation. We went from something like 110 to 135 employees in 2009. We’re expanding our presence and building our strategy and that takes more people, not less.

We know that in many places, many companies had to do things that they otherwise would not do — layoffs, cutbacks — but we’re very fortunate that our business strategy for the year allowed us to actually hire people.

SP: How is the heavy equipment side of the company’s business doing?

SK: The heavy equipment side continues to maintain itself; it’s not a growth area for us.

Heavy equipment itself is an industry that’s slowed by the economic situation, so for us, it’s been in more of a maintenance mode. In 2010, though, we’re expecting that at some point when the economy gets going again people are going to need to buy more heavy equipment.

In the meantime, because our major product in heavy equipment is used heavy equipment, there is still a market for that.

SP: It’s been two years since you took on the role of CEO at Point2. What changes have you seen at the company during the past 24 months?

SK: When I took over two years ago, we had 90 employees and now we have 135 — that’s a big change.

We changed the strategy of the company two years ago and so instead of acquiring listing content for syndication individually through agents, we decided to do it through MLSs, that’s a major change.

A major, major change is in our software development philosophy and strategy. We’ve gone from developers believing they needed to be in individual offices to open floors of developers collaborating and sharing. It’s very productive and it was a major change here because that was not the way software was developed here.

SP: Does the company have any goals for 2010?

SK: We’d be dead in the water if we didn’t have goals, so we absolutely do.

We’re proceeding on our strategy that we refer to as MLS 500, which is to acquire 500 MLS partners over the course of the next 15 months or so, so that’s a major goal for us. And, to continue on with our presence in the United States by attending more trade shows and more events with more of our staff.

We’re also projecting, obviously, increases in revenue over the course of 2010.