Coffee Briefings are timely deliveries of the latest ITWC headlines, interviews, and podcasts. Today’s Coffee Briefing is delivered by IT World Canada reporter Pragya Sehgal, with files from the rest of the editorial team!
Missed last week’s Coffee Briefing? We’ve got you covered.
What’s new this week
Canada gets new high-value payment system
Payments Canada last week announced the launch of the first release of Lynx, Canada’s new high-value payment system which will be owned and operated by Payments Canada and overseen by the Bank of Canada. Lynx will replace the Large Value Transfer System (LVTS), which has served as Canada’s high-value payment system for over 20 years.
Designated by the Bank of Canada as a systemically important payment system under the Payment Clearing and Settlement Act, Lynx will process large value wire payments with real-time settlement finality and will provide enhanced cyber security and resiliency capabilities, according to a Sept. 1 press release. Payments Canada says Lynx has been designed with the flexibility to support future technologies, including interfaces and APIs, and will be used to send and receive high-value payments by several financial institutions across Canada and their customers.
Hootsuite Integrates with Microsoft Teams
Visual Generation | Getty Images
Hootsuite last week announced Amplify by Hootsuite for Microsoft Teams, a new integration within Teams that encourages Hootsuite Amplify and Teams customers everywhere to share curated social media content directly from within the Teams business communication platform. An employee advocacy solution, Hootsuite Amplify was launched in 2015 with the goal of enabling brands to boost social reach and increase employee engagement.
The integration will enable users to:
- Promote key campaigns
- Extend reach to new audiences through employee networks
- Share curated pre-approved content across multiple channels, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram
- Stay connected to the stories and news resonating across different departments, divisions, and regions within the Teams application
To adopt the integration, Amplify licensed Teams users can install the Amplify by Hootsuite for Microsoft Teams application within Teams and add the application to a Teams group to start sharing employer-approved content right away.
Accenture acquires B.C. firm Gevity to accelerate transformation within Canadian healthcare industry
yalcinsonat1 | Getty Images
Accenture, a global professional services company with more than 5,000 people in Canada, last week announced the acquisition of Gevity, a strategy and consulting service provider headquartered in Victoria, B.C. and focused on healthcare technology systems to expand its capabilities to deliver health transformation services in Canada and internationally. While the terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, Accenture says it will add a team of nearly 100 experts and practitioners located across Canada, with experience serving clients globally.
This is the second acquisition for Accenture Canada in 2021 to strengthen its capabilities in the Canadian market. In July, Accenture acquired Toronto-based Oracle Cloud service provider Cloudworks.
U.S.-based fintech firm raises CA$229 million in 90 days, plans to expand to Canada
SurfUpVector | Getty Images
After announcing last week that it has raised over CA$229 million in 90 days, New York-based Jeeves, the creator of a global all-in-one expense management platform built for global startups, revealed it will be launching in Canada in Q4 2021.
Currently serving more than 1000 companies and covering over 12 currencies and 10 countries across three continents, Jeeves says it will use the capital to fuel its launch in Canada, Colombia, UK, and Europe; to scale its proprietary infrastructure to cover more currencies; to acquire new talent, and to accelerate the onboarding of new companies to the platform from its current 15,000+ company waitlist.
More to explore
What is Western Digital’s OptiNAND?
Among the announcements Western Digital made at its HDD Re/Imagine event on Sept. 1, OptiNAND stood out. At first glance, it appears that Western Digital is simply adding a NAND component into its hard disk drives, but it goes a little bit deeper than that.
Ontario shouldn’t re-invent the wheel with COVID vaccine verification app, says developer
The Canadian developer of a free platform used by businesses for COVID-19 contact tracing and customer symptom data says Ontario should use its solution for verifying residents’ COVID vaccination status instead of developing its own app.
Canadian company touts test of its quantum key distribution solution
An Ottawa security company says it has successfully tested its quantum key distribution technology over long distances on the internet in preparation for the commercial launch of products later this year.
Staying informed is a constant challenge. There’s so much to do, and so little time. But we have you covered. Grab a coffee and take five while you nibble on these tidbits.
Canadian businesses to get new Sage accounting software features
Sage has announced improvements to its business cloud accounting software, including invoice customization and other usability improvements to provide automation, efficiency, and accuracy to allow small businesses in Canada to run their business from anywhere.
Goodfood teams up with Microsoft to continue growing without disruption
While grocery stores may not be compelled to enforce safety protocols post-pandemic, smart, future-minded companies will refine their service processes, specifically when it comes to product pickup and delivery.
ITWC Podcasts
Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Trending
Automated resume scanning softwares are filtering out good candidates, patents created by an AI gets rejected by the patent office, and Germany wants tougher laws surrounding smartphone support.
Listen to the latest episode of Cyber Security Today
The number of sextortion complaints made to the FBI keeps going up. These involve nasty people who threaten to spread private and sensitive images of victims if they don’t do something. That includes paying money, sending more sexual images or performing sexual acts.
Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Tendances (Hosted by Direction Informatique)