Coffee Briefing August 30, 2022 – CapIntel announces new partnership; Twitter adds new podcasting and audio features; Xero teams up with BBPA to launch scholarship; and more

Coffee Briefings are timely deliveries of the latest ITWC headlines, interviews, and podcasts. Today’s Coffee Briefing is delivered by IT World Canada’s editorial team!

Missed last week’s Coffee Briefing? We’ve got you covered.

What’s new this week

CapIntel announces new partnership with NEI Investments 

Source: CapIntel

Canadian company CapIntel, a sales platform for financial advisors and asset management sales teams, has announced a partnership with NEI Investments (NEI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of one of Canada’s wealth management firms, Aviso Wealth Inc.

Through this new partnership, NEI will employ CapIntel’s FinTech solutions to streamline sales operations and enhance the use of fund data. The companies say that, with the help of CapIntel’s proprietary technology, NEI’s wholesalers will experience added efficiency in their day to day tasks, such as the ability to build portfolio comparisons more quickly, and easily craft best-in-class sales materials to assist advisors in their client conversations.

CapIntel’s platform will integrate with NEI’s existing technology, taking the company’s sales enablement capabilities to a new level in response to advisor demands and client expectations. 

“The current market has highlighted the need by Canadian investors to have access to advisors who take the time to understand their goals, provide sound and personalized financial advice, and add clarity and context to those recommendations,” said James Rockwood, chief executive officer of CapIntel. “We’re thrilled that our platform will support the teams at NEI to continue doing just that, while improving the wholesaler, advisor and client experience.”

Twitter to add Podcasts and new audio hubs to its platform 

Source: Twitter

Twitter has launched an experiment with select users that will showcase an all-new reimagined audio journey, including a redesign for the Spaces Tab. The new features will allow Twitter users to listen to podcasts on the platform and have a more personalized listening experience through new audio hubs curated specifically for them.

The personalized hubs group audio content by categories such as news, music, and sports. Twitter listeners can now access a more catered selection of live and recorded Spaces discussing the topics that they want to hear. 

Currently, the experiment will only be available to a select group of people globally who have their Twitter settings set to English language, across iOS and Android. 

Three Canadian startups joining the Google for Startups Accelerator: Women Founders Program Class of 2022

Photo of women entrepreneurs
Source: Ponomariova_Maria | Getty Images

Three Canadian women-led startups will be participating in the 2022 Google for Startups Accelerator: Women Founders program. The startups include MedEssist, Blossom Social and Emaww. 

Blossom Social, a Vancouver-based company, is building Canada’s first social brokerage, combining mobile-first stock trading with a social community for investors.

MedEssist, based in Toronto, is a healthcare delivery platform enabling digital health, diagnostic, and pharmaceutical companies to leverage a pharmacy’s physical space and trusted health professionals to scale innovative solutions.

Emaww is a Montreal company that provides advanced and non-intrusive emotion analytics for websites to better their user experience and improve their digital well-being with emotional intelligence. 

The 10-week program aims to give women founders technical support and mentorship opportunities to help scale their business. This year’s cohort features 12 women-led startups from Canada and the U.S. 

Xero partners with the Black Business and Professional Association to launch scholarship

Source: Xero

Xero, a provider of cloud-based accounting software for small and medium-sized businesses, has announced an annual scholarship with the Black Business and Professional Association (BBPA). The award, based on academic achievement and financial need, will be given to a Black student who studies any accounting field at an accredited Canadian college or university. 

Gartner’s Labor Market Survey, released last year, revealed that corporate finance ranks among the lowest of any industry when it comes to increased representation, with people of colour making up only 11 per cent of the total workforce and just 6 per cent of senior finance roles.

This recent move aims to improve these numbers and represents an evolution of Xero’s partnership with BBPA, established in 2021.

More to explore

Is “state-backed” ransomware excluded from cyber insurance? Plus three points of irony. This Week in Ransomware – Monday, Aug 29th

We were sent a note drawing our attention to the following story from a company engaged in cyber security protection. It raised interesting questions about not only future insurance coverage, but also what exclusions might exist that we haven’t thought about.

Layoffs and recession fears in the tech sector affecting employee morale

In recent months Canadian-based technology companies have downsized, trimming large portions of their staff.

SpaceX partners with T-Mobile to provide cellular service across the entire U.S.

SpaceX has partnered with T-Mobile in its first major step towards ending cellular dead zones, SpaceX chief-executive officer Elon Musk and T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert announced at a live event in Starbase, Texas on Aug. 26.

Canada faces a shortage in digital and STEM skills, says C.D Howe Institute report

Toronto-based policy research organization, C.D Howe Institute has released a study examining the shortage in digital and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills in Canada.

Channel Bytes August 26, 2022 – Blackline Safety, UK partner score $2m deal; Field Effect, iSpire partner to protect SMBs; New managing director for Sage Canada; and more

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.

Women in the IT Channel Recognition Award honourees

The CDN Women in the IT Channel Recognition Luncheon took place last week, highlighting the accomplishments of women in the IT channel.

Intel signs a ‘first-of-its-kind’ co-investment agreement with Canadian asset management company

Intel has signed a co-investment agreement for up to US$30 billion with Canadian investment company Brookfield Asset Management to fund its semiconductor expansion efforts in Arizona.

Quebec’s privacy bill 64: Is your business ready?

Certain provisions of the “An Act to modernize legislative provisions for the protection of personal information” (formerly known as Bill 64) will come into effect in just over a month, on September 22nd. It will affect all businesses doing business in the province of Québec. Will your organization be ready to comply?

Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Trending

FTC sues data provider for selling sensitive location data, California wants to cover its waterways with solar panels, and NASA delays a rocket launch.

Listen to the latest episode of Cyber Security Today

This episode reports on a Door Dash hack, a tentative deal from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, California penalizes a cosmetics retailer and more

Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Tendances (Hosted by Direction Informatique)

If you live in Quebec, or prefer to consume the latest technology news in French, our sister publication Direction Informatique has you covered. Follow them on Twitter as well.

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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Samira Balsara
Samira Balsara
Samira is a writer for IT World Canada. She is currently pursuing a journalism degree at Toronto Metropolitan University (formally known as Ryerson) and hopes to become a news anchor or write journalistic profiles. You can email her at [email protected]

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