The University of Calgary’s Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking is bridging the gap between students and the new economy nationwide.

One of the biggest issues that innovation ventures face is a lack of easy accessibility to skilled talent. Establishing firm connections with talented individuals opens doors for collaboration, economic development, and continued prosperity for Canada. 

That’s why the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking offers many immersive talent experiences and workshops along with its social innovation and entrepreneurship training programs. They instill students from all disciplines with strong collaboration and problem-solving skills, resiliency, and a forward-thinking mindset that’s ready to grow and affect change to create a better future. 

The Hunter Hub creates, inspires, and supports future changemakers through its diverse curriculum, extracurricular, and experiential learning activities and programs. They build innovation initiatives across campus and beyond. They understand the new economy’s needs, which is why they strive to build a community of interdisciplinary innovators within the university while connecting with talent outside it. 

Honing future-ready skills

A new national initiative, Experience Ventures, is geared toward doing just that by giving students the chance to make an impact alongside real-world innovators. For aspiring student changemakers, these opportunities help to demystify and increase accessibility to the innovation community nationwide. 

Led by the Hunter Hub, Experience Ventures is a national initiative that has partnerships with eight other top Canadian universities so far. Having just launched in July, it’s had over 2,000 students participate in a wildly successful pilot year. 

“Our students are matched with early-stage startups and social ventures. Together they work to solve a defined real-world problem and build a solution,” says Keri Damen, the Executive Director of the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking. “Plus, students are paid for their experience, eradicating any potential financial barriers and increasing access to innovation opportunities from all backgrounds.”

With flexible working models, participants have a certain number of hours they must fulfill, and projects can be tackled as individuals or in teams. Students can apply what they’re learning in the classroom while integrating into local innovation ecosystems and building their networks.

Our students are matched with early-stage startups and social ventures. Together they work to solve a defi ned realworld problem and build a solution.

Advance your career

“We want to keep our brightest student innovators in our local communities supporting startups,” Keri adds. “Our students are getting hired by these ventures after the program ends.” Plus, the initiative was specially designed to reach rural and underrepresented communities, ensuring that the future of innovation is diverse in thought and representation by being accessible to everyone. 

Experience Ventures opportunities are open to students from 14 faculties at UCalgary and its partner universities — encouraging cross-discipline team building and mutual respect. Everyone gains experience in transferrable skills that will be useful in any industry, including risk management, collaboration, and the ability to spot opportunities. 

The university is actively looking for more partnerships to make this program available to more students. “The University of Calgary is on a very exciting trajectory in innovation,” Keri explains. Offering initiatives like Experience Ventures is why the school ranks number one for research-based startups in Canada amongst university institutions.

Building Canada’s innovation economy

The University of Calgary is also the youngest school to be ranked as one of the top five research universities in the country. The institution believes that research forms the necessary foundation for innovation and economic development. Not only are they finding that more students are going into innovation, researchers are now also increasingly considering the real-world impact their research might have. This crossover into entrepreneurship ensures that the school’s innovation ecosystem will continue to grow and thrive.

Experience Ventures gives students the sense of community that’s been lacking during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly through their upcoming Experience Ventures National Hackathon. Collaborating with interdisciplinary teams, participants will work with industry experts to solve a problem — this one being wellness. Students will build networks, test solutions, and learn how to strategize. The top teams compete at a national competition for $5,000 worth of cash prizes. 

The post How to Create Future Changemakers? Give Them Real-World Experience appeared first on HiveInnovates.

Jamie Bakos

President & CEO, Titan

Dr. Robin Smith

Academic Chair, SLICE, School of Natural Resources & Built Environment and School of Mining, Energy, & Manufacturing

Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s innovative new Sustainability-Led Integrated Centres of Excellence (SLICE) is empowering a better Saskatchewan.

Saskatchewan Polytechnic (Sask Polytech) engages in applied research, drawing on faculty expertise to support innovation by employers and providing students the opportunity to develop critical thinking skills. The institution’s new Sustainability-Led Integrated Centre of Excellence (SLICE) is an industry-centric, solution-oriented development and deployment centre that’s bringing sustainable development to Saskatchewan and Canada through local technology solutions with global application potential.

Turning waste into something useful 

“SLICE is a new Sask Polytech applied research centre advancing sustainable resource management with a full life-cycle lens approach,” says Dr. Robin Smith, Academic Chair of Applied Research Operations at SLICE. “Our focus is on key sectors of Saskatchewan’s economy including energy resources, manufacturing, agriculture, and forestry. SLICE is really about delivering solutions to applied research partners in support of a circular, bio-based economy.” 

The circular economy prioritizes reusing, recycling, and upcycling of materials and resources to minimize waste and promote sustainability, and two of SLICE’s recent projects highlight innovations in the field.

The ecological soil reclamation project was undertaken after Sask Polytech was approached by Andrew Carpenter, a freelance Environmental Consultant and President of Reclaimit, a company focused on forest and land restoration.

“I was doing a soil reclamation project up in Northern Saskatchewan and it failed,” says Carpenter. “I realized that I’m not a researcher — I’m a practitioner. I needed some horsepower from the research end.”

Carpenter went looking for support and came upon Sask Polytech. Together, they’ve been exploring how to restore soil using biochar, a charcoal produced by the thermal decomposition of biomass. 

“Biochar is made from repurposed waste, so we’re taking a waste product that would end up in a landfill and repurposing it into solid carbon, which is now considered sequestered carbon, so we’re using sequestered carbon to help repair the soil,” says Carpenter. “It’s really cool.”

One of the benefits of partnering with SLICE is that it’s a single-entry point to multiple areas of expertise at Sask Polytech. Sustainability issues are complex and we recognize that through our collaborative approach.

Supporting a bio-based circular economy

Another exciting project being undertaken by SLICE is the Waste Not, Want Not project, which aims to develop a biocarbon masterbatch, a solid additive used to impart colour and other properties to plastics, that could replace traditional petroleum-based carbon black. This project is with Titan Clean Energy Projects.

“We’re working with Sask Polytech and looking at how we can use materials that might be considered waste from another segment of the economy to improve processes and cycle back into the system,” says Jamie Bakos, President and CEO of Titan. “In this case, we’re looking at developing a product that could assist in making compostable bioplastics. We have the potential to export this material worldwide.”

SLICE’s collaborative, integrated, transdisciplinary approach is focused on understanding the relationships required to address complex issues related to sustainability. “Our partners have access to exceptional facilities, faculty expertise, and an amazing pool of student talent,” says Smith. “One of the benefits of partnering with SLICE is that it’s a single-entry point to multiple areas of expertise at Sask Polytech. Sustainability issues are complex and we recognize that through our collaborative approach.”

The first step to learning what Sask Polytech and its applied research team of expert faculty can do for your business is reach out. “All it takes is a phone call or an email to get started,” says Dr. Susan Blum, associate Vice-President, Applied Research and Innovation. “We’ll work with you — whether you’re just starting out or in a large organization — to determine what you need to accomplish and how we can help you get there.”

The post Addressing Complex Sustainability Issues Head on with SLICE appeared first on HiveInnovates.

Dr. Iosif-Viorel (Vio) Onut

Co-Director, uOttawa IBM Cyber Range & Senior Manager, IBM

The University of Ottawa and IBM have partnered up to launch a Cyber Range.

There’s a major cybersecurity skills gap in Canada. The data varies, but reports show roughly three to four million unfilled jobs in that field. Trained cybersecurity professionals are desperately needed to fill the void.

The forthcoming Cyber Range, located within the University of Ottawa’s Cyber Hub on the 5th floor of the STEM Complex, is a multi-year partnership between the University of Ottawa (uOttawa) and IBM Canada and is a giant step in the right direction. The Cyber Range will provide a full sensory-immersive and interactive training setting for visitors to experience true-to-life cyber response scenarios, in a full-scale security operations center (SOC) based on a fusion team model. The Cyber Range will further enable state-of-the-art research and training in cybersecurity and cybersafety while facilitating collaboration between government, industry, and academia. 

A unique collaboration 

The uOttawa-IBM Cyber Range will be the first of its kind in Canada and is being built with a $27 million investment by uOttawa and IBM. This latest partnership comes after years of fruitful collaboration between uOttawa and IBM

“We have a long history with IBM,” says Dr. Guy-Vincent Jourdan, Co-Director of the uOttawa-IBM Cyber Range and a Professor in uOttawa’s Faculty of Engineering. “IBM has been working with several of us at uOttawa, my team in particular, for the past 13 years.” 

Dr. Jourdan’s work with IBM is research focused, highlighting uOttawa’s position among the top 10 research universities in Canada. The University has long promoted dynamic research collaborations and it has leveraged Ottawa’s government laboratories, industry, and policymakers. Its latest partnership with IBM will continue to facilitate these connections.

“It felt natural for us to partner with uOttawa to bring the Cyber Range training to the university landscape,” says Dr. Vio Onut, Co-Director of the uOttawa-IBM Cyber Range and a Senior Manager at IBM. “We wish to accomplish two things: to start training students on cybersecurity and to enhance the scenarios that we have, because whenever you have a joint effort between two complementary partners from industry and academia, you always come up with better results.” 

We wish to accomplish two things: to start training students on cybersecurity and to enhance the scenarios that we have, because whenever you have a joint eff ort between two complementary partners from industry and academia, you always come up with better results.

From training to professional development 

The new Cyber Range will be a fully immersive and experiential-based facility that will enable state-of-the-art research and training in cybersecurity and cybersafety. Students, working professionals from government or industry, and other partners and clients will have the opportunity to use the Cyber Range on campus to learn, train, and upskill techniques, methods, and approaches in a world-class environment. The Cyber Range activities and operations are supported by simulation rooms, a broadcast room, a command room, and multi-purpose space for hosting visitors. 

The relationship between government, industry, and academia is essential. “Without this intersection, we’re basically spinning our wheels,” says Dr. Jourdan. “For us, it’s critical to be connected to industry and government so that our research can be oriented toward real problems that they experience.”

The Cyber Range will also create immense opportunities for interdisciplinary activities in training and research, bringing together numerous faculties and disciplines across uOttawa. “An enterprise-wide cybersecurity attack is not only handled by the technical team. Of course, there’s an incident response team that has an IT focus, but there are other important functions of the business that are also involved, including public relations, communications, human resources, legal, privacy, line of business, and more,” says Dr. Onut. All of these teams must work together as a fusion team to ensure a quick and efficient business response to preserve customer loyalty and trust, protect critical data, and maintain business operations.

The Cyber Range will help fill the training and skills gap in cybersecurity in Canada, and will offer training in both official languages. It will be operated collaboratively by uOttawa and IBM. 

The post uOttawa and IBM Join Forces with Exciting New Partnership appeared first on HiveInnovates.

Could food “waste” be used in natural beauty products? What are the opportunities for horticulture in deep space exploration? What secrets does the genome hold for the future of farming? As industry becomes increasingly concerned with sustainable development, Loyalist College is working to answer these questions through applied research in the bioeconomy.

Over the last five years, Loyalist College has transformed itself into a destination for applied research, rooted in strong relationships with community and industry partners. Located in Belleville, Ont., between major producer markets in Toronto, Ottawa, and Kingston, the College has aligned its programming with the evolution of the local agriculture and manufacturing sectors as they pursue renewable resourcing — from vertical farming and sustainable building supplies to circular food economics and new cosmetic formulations.

“At Loyalist College, we are deeply connected to our industry and community partners and know that we have an important role to play in driving regional economic growth and development,” said Dr. Ann Marie Vaughan, President and CEO of Loyalist College. “The innovative partnerships and synergies we are developing across natural products and the bioeconomy will benefit regional employers while also providing Loyalist students with unparalleled work-integrated learning opportunities. It has been truly remarkable to see the many ways in which our students and employees are lending their talents to our growing network of partners and demonstrating how being small gives us the power to do big things.” 

Tapping into the regional innovation network

Loyalist College’s Applied Research and Innovation Office has launched a series of partnerships to bring new sustainable products and processes to market — driving a new generation of social and economic development in the process.

Case in point: Canadian natural beauty company Afiya Beauty hoped to address one of its customer’s top requests — an all-natural product that helps fade skin discolouration. Traditionally, skin care companies rely on harsh de-pigmenting agents to treat dark spots. Afiya worked with Loyalist College and GreenCentre Canada, dynamic partners in applied research and industry, for formulation expertise. Afiya is now testing and formulating new products to create a de-pigmenting cream that meets customer demands and matches its all-natural ethos.

At Loyalist College, we are deeply connected to our industry and community partners and know that we have an important role to play in driving regional economic growth and development.

Leveraging each other’s expertise

With its mission to support sustainable chemistry and advanced material startups, GreenCentre Canada is the perfect ally for the College. Together, their focus is offering support for small- and medium-sized enterprises and multinationals who wish to transform their products, processes, and services. 

“The idea is to enhance the service offerings that Loyalist College and GreenCentre have to support companies that are developing new sustainable technologies, specifically in the bioproducts sector,” says Fatme Dahcheh, GreenCentre Canada’s Director of Business Development.

Alongside GreenCentre Canada, Loyalist College’s Centre for Natural Products and Medical Cannabis have used GreenCentre Canada’s CONNECT program to help seven companies grow and develop their technologies and products.

“Loyalist College has been fantastic to work with,” says Dahcheh. “Both organizations want to support innovative companies who are developing sustainable technologies, so we’re able to really leverage each other’s expertise and funding opportunities.”

Launching big ideas locally and beyond

Nowhere is this opportunity to connect local strengths with global challenges more evident than in Loyalist’s innovative new partnership with Ontario Genomics and Canadore College, which will mobilize DNA information to create advances in natural product development and research.

“Loyalist College is a very avant-garde college,” says Bettina Hamelin, President and CEO of Ontario Genomics. “We’ve been working with Loyalist and Canadore to unify genomics-based applied research, education, and training across the province. Loyalist is really working at the forefront of these emerging and game-changing technologies.”

As with all the College’s applied research partnerships, the goal is to help drive industry evolution while providing students with exceptional work-integrated learning experiences. 

Students in programs including Culinary Skills and Management, Cannabis Applied Science, Horticulture, and more can help solve real-world problems that small businesses are grappling with.

At the intersection of industry demand and research potential, these “local to global” partnerships represent the key to how Loyalist College is unlocking the future of Canada’s bioeconomy. 

The post Loyalist Leads the Way in Fostering Innovative Bioeconomy Partnerships appeared first on HiveInnovates.

In Canada’s saturated BNPL ecosystem, Zip stands out by putting customers at the centre and helping retailers increase conversions.

Consumer financing tools like Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) have traditionally been a way to help customers fit purchases into their budget and for retailers to boost their sales. “What’s new is the digital aspect which lets people get the approval and do the purchase instantly through their phone,” says Steve Croth, Managing Director in Canada for Zip, a payments and consumer financing firm founded in Australia eight years ago that recently expanded into Canada. 

Providing a superior experience 

Using Zip’s BNPL technology purchasers can break a payment into four equal interest-free instalments spaced two weeks apart. “It kind of hits the sweet spot of that millennial shopper who doesn’t have a credit card or doesn’t want to use one because of the high fees, but is comfortable using a phone or shopping online,” says Croth.

With a consistently high Net Promotor Score (NPS), Zip is managing to not only satisfy but also delight its customers, something Croth attributes to three core pillars of its market approach — an obsession with customer experience, a customer-first mindset, and constant measurement. 

“Keeping customers delighted really starts with the experience, so ours includes an easy-to-use product that provides a frictionless transaction backed up by great customer support, with no late fees or penalties,” says Croth. 

Zip’s customer-first mindset views customers as brand ambassadors, rather than simply people transacting using the technology. “As brand ambassadors we know they’re going to go spread the word about us good or bad, so our customer-first mindset focuses on customer satisfaction, resolving their issues quickly, and being empathetic,” says Croth.  

Finally, the company constantly measures and monitors its customer feedback. “We dissect all the reviews and comments and use that data to improve our service model,” says Croth.

Helping retailers convert budding shoppers into repeat customers

These three core pillars are also integrated with Zip’s merchant experience. “It’s about being a steward of their brand by representing their brand values and upholding the highest standard in customer experience because their customers are our customers,” says Croth. 

The strong customer experience focus extends to helping retailers struggling with low customer conversion rates. “I find many e-commerce merchants tend to focus at the top of the funnel, but you need to focus at the bottom. It’s kind of like a leaky bucket. You need to plug the leaks first and our technology, tools and processes can give retailers certain efficiencies to do that and get people to successfully transact,” says Croth. 

With improved efficiencies, it’s easier for retailers to convert the casual shopper, the shopper on a tight budget or the shopper without a credit card. “We help retailers sell more stuff to more people by getting customers for them online, in-store, and in their sales funnel,” says Croth. The increased transaction volume in turn helps to improve the retailer’s efficiencies in key performance indicators like customer acquisition costs, return on marketing costs, and average order value. 

With about ten million users of its app in 14 markets, Zip services 82,000 retailers globally. “I think by having one of the best products in the market from an experience and technology perspective really lets us deliver on our promise to retailers to drive top line, increase order values, and improve conversion rates,” says Croth.

The post Superior Customer Experience Sets Zip Apart in the BNPL Space appeared first on HiveInnovates.

To a modern shopper, a paper label raises many questions. Danavation’s Digital Smart Labels are smart enough to provide answers.

What a strange time it is to be a retailer. Just a decade ago, with online shopping on a steep ascent, everywhere you looked it seemed there was another breathless article foretelling the death of brick-and-mortar retail. Soon, they proclaimed, we would buy everything on the web and never step foot in another actual store. Today, coming off two years of intermittent lockdowns, it’s clearer than ever that no one actually wants that. We crave the human connection, the social interaction, the simple sneakers to floorboards experience of in-person shopping.

At the same time, consumers have grown accustomed to the convenience, the personalization, the agility, and the flexibility of digital storefronts, so their expectations of the shopping experience have shifted and grown more discerning. And, in an era of aggressive online price-matching and personal financial uncertainty, they aren’t willing to compromise on the sticker either, putting pressure on the already thin margins of many stores. All this while the cost of labour is skyrocketing and retailers are still struggling to make up revenue lost during the pandemic.

In short, customers demand that the doors stay open and the prices stay low while the shopping journey undergoes a thorough digital transformation. Simple, right?

In fact, it can be.

Where we’re going, the old maps won’t take us 

Surely it would be too much to ask that a single unobtrusive technology could lay the foundation for a complete revamp of the retail experience, meeting all the expectations of the modern digital shopper without obstructing the charm (or hurting the bottom line) of even the coziest shop. Right? Well, let’s talk about Digital Smart Labels, the technology that strikes at the heart of retail’s hidden engagement problem.

The labels in the store, whether they’re price tags or sales announcements or in-store navigation aids, are the informational hooks of the retail voyage, and comparing Canadian innovator Danavation’s micro e-paper Digital Smart Labels to traditional labelling is like comparing a full-featured modern internet-enabled GPS navigation system to a torn and coffee-stained folding roadmap bought at a gas station in 1992. Either might get you there, if there aren’t any unexpected surprises, but one is going to have you in a very different mood when (and if) you arrive.

The way information is packaged and delivered matters. Danavation’s Digital Smart Labels ensure that prices are always accurate with instantaneous point-of-sale synchronizing. They create an environment where the right information can always be presented in the right place at the right moment. They provide a context-appropriate gateway to remote resources like product reviews, inventory updates, and loyalty programs. But it’s not just the content they display. To quote Marshall McLuhan for a moment, the Digital Smart Labels are the message. They tell the customer by their very presence that this is an environment where information is vibrant and reliable. This is a store they can engage with on their terms.

“Today’s customers are getting younger, smarter, and faster,” says Danavation’s founder and CEO John Ricci. “They rely a lot on technology, and they’re very sharp and price-sensitive. As a retailer, you have to find a way to impress and engage them.”

An engaged customer is an empowered consumer

The little things make a big difference. And, though most labels are small, they play an outsized role as conduits of information. Out of date flyers, incorrect prices, mislabelled shelves, missing product information. Any one of these things can break the flow of shopping and send the customer to their phone, or to another store. Digital Smart Labels remove all these stumbling blocks in one fell swoop, while simultaneously cutting costs by easing the workload of employees, shrinking the carbon footprint of the store, and increasing the agility of operations. And interactions that were once a point of frustration and uncertainty become an opportunity for engagement, right there at the shelf.

“Engage customers at the shelf and they will buy more,” notes Ricci. And that’s not a trick. It’s what people want. They have spent enough time in their homes, shopping online. They’re getting back out into the world and going into stores now very much on purpose. People are there to shop, to engage, to buy. They just want it to be easy.

Technologies like Digital Smart Labels make the little things easy, so that your business can focus on the big things. Because that’s where you shine.

The post How Retail Can Step into the Future Without Leaving the Best of Itself in the Past appeared first on HiveInnovates.

As the payments landscape evolves, financial institutions and other organizations must strive to stay consumer-centric and competitive.

The payments industry is currently undergoing significant disruption. Financial institutions, fintechs, and other organizations are all competing to keep up with customer expectations and to make payments faster, easier, and more convenient. This requires core infrastructure transformation, new product innovation, and adhering to the new regulations and legislations popping up to accommodate the industry’s transformation. Payments modernization has never been more important or diverse in strategic opportunity, choice for participation, and positioning organizations for the future.

Industry-wide disruption

“If you look back 10 or more years, the payments experience was characterized by quite a bit of friction for the end-user,” says Geoff Rush, Partner and National Industry Leader of Financial Services at KPMG in Canada, a leader in financial and payments services. “It took a lot of effort to complete a payment and often a lot of time for it to clear. What we’re seeing now is a lot of innovation to take that friction out of the process.”

Higher customer expectations are driving the trend. “Customers are expecting more on the service level, which includes the cost, efficiency, and visibility of their payments,” says Edwin Isted, Senior Manager at KPMG in Canada. And the non-traditional entrants into the payments ecosystem, big tech or fintechs, are shaking up the ecosystem significantly, forcing incumbent financial institutions to evolve and innovate.

Full-service payments support 

With organizations striving to meet customer expectations, stay competitive, and future-proof their businesses, they’re also now having to contend with new regulations and legislative changes around payment service providers, new digital currencies like crypto, and other disruptions. These compounding factors are driving an accelerated pace of innovation in payments, says Rush. That’s where KPMG comes in.

“We’re one of Canada’s largest professional services providers,” says Rush. “We’re well-known for our advisory, technology, and analytical services.”

Included in KPMG’s financial services management consulting business is its payments practice, which helps organizations manage risk, enhance regulatory compliance, optimize customer and digital strategies, and improve operations.

“Our payments team is industry-agnostic,” says Cody Greer, Senior Manager at KPMG in Canada. “We help both traditional payment clients — such as wholesale banks, commercial banks, investment banks, retail banks, central banks, card associations, and payment market infrastructures — as well as non-financial institutions like retailers, technology companies, fintechs, transit providers, and governments with payments transformation.

Embracing open banking

“One of the trends we’ve seen and which the Canadian market is about to embark on is open banking,” says Isted. Open banking refers to banking that provides third-party financial service providers open access to consumer banking, transaction, and other financial data from banks and non-bank financial institutions through the use of application programming interfaces (APIs). 

“Open banking is very interesting because we’ve seen a variety of models to enable it,” says Isted. “On the one end of the spectrum, you’ve got a pure legislative requirements-driven approach, while on the other end, you’ve got a purely market forces driven approach,  and then you have something in the middle which is sort of a hybrid of both. Open banking isn’t just about payments. It’s a fundamental change to many organizations in terms of how they view their data assets internally.”

“This is again about reducing friction and making lives easier for the end-customer,” says Rush.

What really separates us is the calibre of our people on an individual level. We’re the friendly firm and not only do we bring really great insights and help our clients achieve great results, we’re also great people to work with, and that’s hard to replicate.

Encouraging innovation   

“Modernizing the Canadian payments infrastructure can have enormous benefits to all Canadians, and other countries are already there,” says Rush. “At the core, what we’re trying to do with open data sharing is to create a more innovative and competitive payments landscape.”

“Open banking and payments modernization aren’t separate things,” adds Isted. “They’re both bringing more efficiency, lower costs, and require greater integration than before.”

From enabling real-time payments for both businesses and consumers to increasing operational efficiencies and boosting revenue for financial institutions, there are many benefits to open banking and payments modernization.

Open banking adds complexity, however, which the Canadian market is currently grappling with. “There are things that need to be in place to enable open banking, such as the surety of the actors involved,” explains Paul Jackson, Director of Payments Modernization at KPMG in Canada. “Being able to verify their digital identity becomes key.”

“To put this in place therefore requires some massive changes — changes to regulation, changes to incumbent players, technology infrastructure and processes, and even education and changes to consumer behaviour,” says Rush. 

Prioritizing payments modernization   

Payments modernization is therefore a critical priority, and organizations must work quickly to evolve their payment models and core infrastructure, adopt digital channel experiences, and innovate.

“We focus on three primary areas: payments modernization, getting financial institutions ready for the SWIFT mandates around ISO compliance, and strategy around payments across multiple industries,” says Isted.

“The new international data standard (ISO 20022) and open banking aren’t small transformations that organizations can just plug into,” says Greer. “These often require years of planning, testing and execution to ensure that they are ready on time. And compliance is only one half of the journey. At the same time, they need to consider the competitive and customer impacts in their new reality.”

KPMG assists its clients with a broad range of services related to payments transformation, from payments strategy and implementation to process reviews, automation and digitization, payment products, market research, risk assessments, and more.

Leading the way 

For organizations looking to tackle these changes and thrive in the payments landscape of the future, turning to a leader in financial and payments services like KMPG is a smart move.

“As a national industry leader, we’ve got some extremely talented professionals who are very deep in their areas of expertise,” says Rush. “But what really separates us is the calibre of our people on an individual level. We’re the friendly firm and not only do we bring really great insights and help our clients achieve great results, we’re also great people to work with, and that’s hard to replicate.”

The post Embracing Payments Modernization and Open Banking Is Good for Business appeared first on HiveInnovates.

Cheryl McGrath

Area VP & Country General Manager, Optiv Canada

The art of balancing innovation and risk management in the world of IoT

As organizations continue to digitally transform, Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as cell phones, tablets, watches, refrigerators, medical devices, vehicles and many more, are becoming critical components to enable companies to act quickly on information to increase competitive advantages and operational efficiencies. 

The addition of these devices to IT environments allows for improved data utilization to better manage technology, increase output and reduce costs and downtime. However, the effort to utilize these new data sources significantly alters an organization’s threat landscape, opening up vulnerabilities that previously couldn’t be exploited. In many instances, network security is unable to detect IoT connections or provide visibility into the extent of an organization’s expanded threat landscape.

Organizational goals are often focused on accelerating time to market. As such, much of the attention and celebration goes to the developers and pioneers who create these IoT tools. In the rush to market, many companies’ security programs are not optimized or utilized at all.  

In conversation with Cheryl McGrath, Area VP & Country General Manager at Optiv, Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia, Senior Director of Digital Economy, of Technology & Innovation at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, takes a closer look at some of the key concerns around IoT security. As the discussion demonstrates, the importance of this issue is pressing, as the trail of technological innovation, especially over the last five years, has also served as a pathway for threat actors to target what they should go after next. 

The term IoT is increasingly being used, and yet, the risks of its real use and application aren’t necessarily well understood. How can this discrepancy be explained?

Companies are looking to unlock data from the next asset class to consume and monetize   —   and that’s IoT.  

The physical interface to digital systems is changing along with everything else. Developers have unlocked tools and gadgets for a wide range of applications   —   machines that don’t run off of regular user laptops or standard servers. Keyboards and mice are being replaced with voice commands and VR.  And that is just the beginning. The development of this is still in its infancy and is guaranteed to create vast issues for security teams during this evolution.  

For critical infrastructure, let’s face it   —   IoT devices control most of the physical world. Everything from the gas in the pumps to our cars, medical devices, the temperature in food processing plants and nuclear facilities. Devices that operate without standard operating procedures are everywhere. 

You can’t secure what you can’t see and most organizations don’t have complete visibility to all of the devices on their networks. If threat actors exploit these IoT vulnerabilities, it can be disastrous. Look at Log4j.

The physical interface to digital systems is changing along with everything else.

How will security be knitted into these new environments? 

These devices are becoming integrated into many new forms of data. For example, consider modern distribution centers, where product is moved from one side of a factory to another via conveyer belt. Once these facilities had just a few sensors used for measurements for the whole facility. Now, more than a hundred sensors are used   —   per foot. We’re livestreaming terabytes of data regarding destination, package shape and weight and much more, but not securing the system any differently. Some security teams are still assuming that one external firewall will secure the facility. Contrast this with the cathedrals of defense implemented on the IT side. The rate of data creation is outstripping our ability to use and secure it.

As we look ahead to the next three years, what should people and businesses be considering with regard to IoT?

There are “three wants” that need to be considered.

Uptime: Many facilities care more about the ability to operate than they do about security. We are replacing aged digital infrastructure with modem cloud networks. A shift of this scale requires people to change their mentality and that can sometimes be a big ask. We also know that people are often wary of new business practices, so that needs to be thought through and immediately actioned.

Digital tools: Think of something as ubiquitous as temperature controls. Many automation systems are trained and honed to regulate small bands of temperature constraints. This plays out in many environments in varying degrees of criticality, ranging from data centers to food storage. All of these facilities have their own digital record, which will need to be extracted, centralized and made tamper-proof.

Security: In many organizations, these new data paths and devices have not been fully monitored or assessed against company risk thresholds. It took us 15 years to secure the modern ATM. These new IoT devices can be larger and closer to more valuable data (yes, more valuable than an ATM full of cash). With information this valuable and technology this new and vulnerable, security and risk mitigation have to be at the forefront of all organizations.

What can companies do to mitigate IoT risks?  

To be proactive, businesses can: 

1. Tap into their production networks to identify all IoT-connected devices and identify the most vulnerable assets.  Then assess devices for vulnerabilities and mitigate outstanding security issues.

2. Understand security in relation to new IoT devices that an organization is looking to purchase and how they may affect their network.  Companies may want to hire a trusted security provider with IoT labs to test devices before they’re implemented on company networks. This is done in order to ensure third party devices aren’t erroneously capturing private data via back door portals and to test integrations with their other technologies end-to-end.

3. Adopt a policy-driven, risk framework based on the organization’s business needs. These policies should include a baseline platform for the development of automated vulnerability management and incident response solutions for IoT.

The post Transitioning from the Internet of Things to the Interconnectedness of Everything appeared first on HiveInnovates.

Corporate decarbonization can be a long and complicated process, but Amp helps its clients become leaders in the push to net-zero.

The transition to a low-carbon global economy is increasing the corporate demand for power purchase agreements (PPAs) as organizations seek to reduce emissions and secure their long-term energy costs. As one of Canada’s leading renewable energy developers, Amp’s vision and technological innovations are reshaping traditional sustainability strategies and helping corporations realize their clean energy future.

Forging a new era in Canadian renewables

Steve Schaefer has been with Amp since its inception in 2009 and now serves as Senior Vice President of Origination and Head of Canadian Operations. Schaefer and his team have developed over 130MW of renewable energy across over 550 projects, primarily in the form of feed-in tariff contracts supplied by solar and, more recently, hybrid solar plus battery storage assets.

“The genesis of our commercial and industrial (C&I) strategy is to solve the challenges associated with C&I clients achieving their environmental sustainability targets by providing the most beneficial solutions,” says Schaefer. “This is why Amp is now a top-tier PPA provider globally.”

With decarbonization being new territory for many C&I organizations, Amp’s initial role focuses primarily on education, data collection, and strategic planning.

“More and more C&I organizations are making ambitious net-zero commitments, but they don’t always know where to start,” says Schaefer. “That’s exactly where we come in.”

A holistic approach to decarbonization

Amp has evolved from supplying clean energy solutions to complete decarbonization strategies. In the increasingly competitive renewable energy sector, one of Amp’s key differentiators is its holistic approach to C&I energy transitions.

“Many organizations have taken small steps in the decarbonization space to date, but have now either generated their own net-zero target or had one imposed upon them,” says Schaefer. “Decarbonization doesn’t rely on one single pillar. The only way to reach these goals is through a holistic approach.”

Amp’s unique approach will include combining renewable generation with battery storage and its proprietary digital energy platform, Amp X. “We’re now integrating and unifying real asset development with Amp X, combining supply and demand through a digital platform with a single optimization engine,” says Schaefer. “We will be taking all the energy nodes, whether they’re consumption, generation, or both combined with storage, and providing the unique capability to optimize behind the meter.”

Unlocking energy flexibility with Amp X

The development and evolution of Amp X has been a revelation in the integrated energy solutions space. Working in conjunction with renewable energy and storage assets, Amp X is designed to unlock new levels of optimization and flexibility, enabling C&I customers to potentially generate new revenue streams via participation in energy markets.

Amp is also rapidly establishing itself as a global leader in the energy storage space, with an expanding portfolio of standalone assets and hybridized systems pairing batteries with solar or wind. In addition to extending the penetration of renewable generation, energy storage is emerging as an effective way to reduce peak energy demand.

Amid the rapid progress of Canada’s C&I decarbonization efforts, Schaefer is excited by the scale of the opportunities that lie ahead. “It’s breathtaking to see how many organizations are making that net-zero pledge, and my team and I are excited to support our C&I partners in achieving this vision,” he says.

The post Enabling Commercial and Industrial Decarbonization with Amp appeared first on HiveInnovates.

The Solstex^® Solar Façade System enables building owners to generate clean energy, save on electricity costs, and provide community benefits.

We tend to think of traditional solar systems as ground mounted or rooftop mounted projects. However, there’s an argument to be made for integrating them with building facades. “If you’re looking at a high-rise building, for example, you have more opportunity to put solar panels on a façade than you do on the rooftop just due to space constraints,” says Hugh Lowry, Special Projects Engineer at Elemex Architectural Façade Systems, a London, Ontario based company specializing in photovoltaic façade systems.

Solar facades can bring economic, environmental, and community paybacks to a project. They yield cost savings and a return on investment by capturing and turning solar rays into clean energy in the building space. “Along with that, you’re offsetting the possible carbon emissions and providing a benefit to both the environment and the surrounding community,” says Lowry.

While using standard shapes, sizes, and colours is the most economical way to build a solar wall, there may be the odd finicky corner or tricky area that requires something more flexible and customizable. That’s one important consideration when looking into solar facades. Another is the fact that here in the northern hemisphere the south-facing walls are more economical than north-facing walls.

Solstex^® building-integrated photovoltaic façade system offers economical, custom solutions

Elemex’s Solstex^® building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) façade system lets designers and architects incorporate lightweight, large format panels onto a façade and is ideal for new construction and retrofits. The panel surface resembles black glass and integrates well with other surfaces like aluminium plates, sintered ceramic, and natural stone, and works seamlessly with the entire family of Elemex^® façade systems using our Unity^® Attachment Technology.

Solstex^® façade systems are also built to withstand the harshest elements and will soon be available in a new array of coloured panels to include dark grey, light grey, bluish-green, bronze, brass, gold, and orange.  

The post Solstex® Line of Solar Facades Generate More than Just Clean Energy appeared first on HiveInnovates.