Archive for June 26, 2025

TIME Magazine recognizes TELUS as most sustainable North American telecommunications company in 2025

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 26, 2025 by itnerd

Today, TELUS proudly announced that it has been recognized by TIME Magazine and Statista in their second annual list of the World’s Most Sustainable Companies. With recent research showing that 58 per cent of Canadian companies have significant opportunities to enhance their sustainability reporting, this recognition underscores the critical need for corporate leadership and demonstrates how organizations can drive meaningful environmental progress. TIME Magazine’s World’s Most Sustainable Companies were selected through a rigorous process analyzing over 20 key performance indicators, with only 500 companies out of more than 5,000 eligible organizations worldwide earning recognition for delivering impactful sustainability outcomes. This prestigious acknowledgment reflects TELUS’ proven track record of global leadership in corporate citizenship, philanthropy, innovation management, and comprehensive environmental and social reporting spanning more than two decades.

TELUS’ leadership in sustainability has been further recognized across multiple prestigious global assessments in 2025, including Corporate Knights’ Canada’s Best 50, earning inclusion in Newsweek’s World’s Greenest Companies, and receiving a Schneider Electric Sustainability Impact Award for excellence in strategy, digitization, and decarbonization. This recognition builds on TELUS’ exceptional track record of sustainability leadership, including being listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index’s North American Index for 24 consecutive years, a feat unmatched by any other North American telecommunications company and inclusion in Corporate Knights’ Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations. TELUS’ commitment to transparency and accountability is further demonstrated through its 25th annual Sustainability Report, reflecting a quarter-century of comprehensive environmental and social reporting that underscores TELUS’ enduring dedication to sustainable business practices.

Driven by its leadership in social capitalism, TELUS has committed to ambitious science-based greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and is continuing to implement sustainable practices across its business including:

  • Sourcing 100 per cent of electricity requirements from renewable or low-emitting sources by the end of 2025, building on our climate commitment.
  • Enabling reforestation and nature restoration by planting, with our partners, over 20 million trees over the past 20 years — covering an area larger than the City of Vancouver. In 2024 alone, on behalf of our partners, we planted over eight million trees across Canada, supporting the restoration of more than 5,300 hectares of terrestrial ecosystems.
  • Diverting 15 million devices from landfills, including the upcycling and recycling of 4 million mobile devices since 2005.
  • Advancing sustainable network infrastructure through our copper retirement program, migrating 99% of our eligible internet customers from copper to TELUS PureFibre Internet. TELUS PureFibre uses Canada’s most sustainable internet technology — 85% more energy efficient than traditional networks. 
  • Supporting the circular economy through copper reclamation and recycling, enabling a reduction of 9,300 tonnes of GHG emissions — equal to removing nearly 2,000 cars from roads for a year. 
  • Becoming the first company in Canada to issue a Sustainability-Linked Bond (SLB) formally linking TELUS financing to our environmental performance. Since our inaugural offering, we have issued five more SLBs (two in 2022, two in 2023, and one in 2024) totalling $3.7 billion CAD and $900 million USD.

To learn more about TELUS’ commitment to social capitalism and sustainability, visit telus.com/sustainability. 

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Sun Life equips advisors with GenAI-powered notes assistant tool

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 26, 2025 by itnerd

As an early adopter of GenAI, Sun Life first launched their note-taking tool as a pilot in 2024 with a subset of advisors. Some of the key features include summarized Client meetings, a list of action items from the meeting, and draft Client emails that include next steps. In the pilot program, 100 per cent of advisors saved more than 15 minutes per meeting, and 65 per cent saved more than 30 minutes per meeting. The cumulative impact over a single day or week is significant. Notes Assistant also includes an action-items feature that results in improved speed and consistency in sending Client communications.

The pilot enabled the team to test for benefit while still upholding GenAI ethics and privacy principles. As with any new technology, Sun Life takes a thoughtful and responsible approach, balancing digital innovation with a long-held commitment to keep Client data safe and secure. Clients need to provide verbal consent before the tool is used, and data is not allowed to pass outside of Sun Life’s safe and secure technology ecosystem.

Sun Life’s Notes Assistant is just one of many initiatives being explored and launched by Sun Life to make it easier for Clients to connect and partner with advisors. Finding ways to streamline the day-to-day, enhances advisors’ abilities to help Clients to more easily reach their goal of achieving lifetime financial security. This innovation is part of Sun Life’s broader digital leadership journey, which is focused on delivering seamless, personalized and intuitive experiences across every touchpoint.

Sun Life has a history of being recognized as an industry leader, leveraging innovative solutions to empower colleagues, advisors and Clients. Sun Life was named a 2024 CIO Awards Canada winner for their Sun Life Asks GenAI chatbot, and continues to invest in technologies that enable ease and convenience. The Notes Assistant tool is just one more example of embracing digital innovation to meet the needs of Canadians, and further deliver on our Purpose, to help Clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives.

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Forterro Strengthens Business Intelligence Capabilities with Acquisition of Danish Software Firm TARGIT

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 26, 2025 by itnerd

European industrial software provider Forterro has entered into a binding agreement to acquire TARGIT, a Denmark-headquartered business intelligence (BI) and analytics software company that serves more than 1,000 SME customers across Europe and North America.

LtoR:  David Coste, President, Forterro, with Jakob H. Kraglund, CEO, TARGIT and Claire-Marie Nasr, VP M&A, Forterro.

Forterro provides software solutions tailored to the industrial midmarket, helping businesses strengthen operations and accelerate growth. This deal – Forterro’s first BI acquisition – adds analytics and data intelligence to its offering, enhancing the value it can deliver to customers alongside its core ERP solutions.

Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Aalborg, Denmark, TARGIT is known for its cloud and on-premises-based TARGIT Decision Suite – an end-to-end BI platform that automates reporting and enables data-driven decision making. The solution is highly configurable and has a strong footprint in the manufacturing, retail, dealership and public sectors.

Jakob H. Kraglund will remain in his role as CEO of TARGIT during the transition to Forterro, after which he will be leaving the company.

Forterro is acquiring TARGIT from GRO Capital, a Northern European private equity firm with an exclusive focus on B2B software companies. The transaction is expected to complete on 08 July 2025.

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GuidePoint Security and FAIR Institute Release 2025 State of Cyber Risk Management Report

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 26, 2025 by itnerd

GuidePoint Security released a 2025 State of Cyber Risk Management (CRM) Report, revealing that CRM has evolved from a siloed compliance function into a strategic discipline that informs executive decision-making.

Key findings include:

  • Quantification has gone mainstream. Factor Analysis of Information Risk (FAIR) and cyber risk quantification (CRQ) are gaining momentum. Nearly 45% of organizations use or plan to use FAIR. Among adopters, 90% report success. 
  • Automation, AI, and data are foundational. 72% of organizations have mostly or completely automated their CRM systems, and 48% are utilizing AI for CRM. Both CRM automation and the use of AI are strongly correlated with maturity and improved outcomes.
  • Demand for CRM is growing, especially for those with mature programs. Nearly all (95%) respondents said internal demand for CRM is growing. Among those reporting high or very high CRM maturity, 23% indicate that demand will increase significantly. 

You can get more details here:  guidepointsecurity.com/resources/2025-state-of-cyber-risk-management-report. 

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Landmark report spotlights Switzerland’s rise as a global leader in Deep Tech where startups are driving $100B in value

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 26, 2025 by itnerd

While global attention has often centered on innovation hubs such as Silicon Valley, Berlin, or Paris, today, fresh data from Dealroom.co and Startupticker in a new report spotlights how Switzerland has quietly become one of the world’s most advanced and efficient Deep Tech ecosystems. 

The Swiss Deep Tech Report 2025, a Deep Tech Nation Switzerland initiative, offers a comprehensive new dataset and analysis on the Swiss Deep Tech ecosystem. It was curated in close collaboration with Dealroom.co, Startupticker and venture capital firms Founderful and Kickfund. The report is the first of its kind to map the full scope of Switzerland’s Deep Tech performance – from research institutions and patents to venture activity and late-stage outcomes. 

The report’s findings are striking: 

  • Swiss Deep Tech companies have created more than $100 billion in combined enterprise value.
  • From 2019 to 2025, Switzerland allocated 60% of its total venture capital into Deep Tech – more than any other country globally. 
  • Over the same period, Switzerland ranked first in Europe and third worldwide for Deep Tech VC funding per capita, backed by both a strong domestic research base and increasing levels of international capital. 
  • Nearly 96% of late-stage Deep Tech rounds in Switzerland were led by global investors, with US and EU firms now accounting for the majority of capital inflow. 
  • Behind Oxford and Cambridge, 2 of the top 4 universities creating Deep Tech spinouts in Europe are Swiss: ETH Zurich and  EPFL 

The report establishes a definitive benchmark for the ecosystem’s strength and signals its global potential. With over 1500 Swiss Deep Tech startups analyzed and data spanning more than five years, the report positions Switzerland not just as a center of academic excellence, but as a global-scale producer of science-based innovation and venture outcomes.

The report also highlights a new generation of Swiss startups driving that shift. AI/ML already accounts for 23 percent of companies founded since 2021, almost double its previous share. Climate & Energy, Robotics and TechBio have each expanded at speed.. The strength of this cohort reflects a deeper pipeline forming at the intersection of academic excellence, local entrepreneurial talent, and increasing support from sector-focused investors.

The international visibility of these startups is growing rapidly, but local capital – particularly at the later stages – remains limited, creating both a challenge and an investment opportunity.

Investors are reallocating capital toward the next wave of AI-powered verticals. In 2024 almost one-third of all Swiss deep-tech funding went to AI-first startups, from generative protein design and industrial autonomy to foundation-model safety, tripling the share recorded in 2020. This funding surge is matched by a rising cohort of growth-stage companies such as Scandit, Distalmotion and Climeworks, underscoring Switzerland’s ability to turn lab breakthroughs into mission-critical products for Fortune 500 customers.

As Switzerland’s Deep Tech ecosystem matures, the report authors plan to deepen the dataset and track sector performance across key hubs including Zurich, Lausanne, Geneva, and Basel. As more Swiss Deep Tech startups reach scale, the goal is to give founders, investors, and policymakers a reliable view of progress – and a strong case for the country’s leadership in Deep Tech.

The full report is available for download here: https://deeptechnation.ch/resources/swiss-deep-tech-report-2025 

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Bonfy.AI Launches from Stealth to Guard Against GenAI Risks with Adaptive Content Security Platform

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 26, 2025 by itnerd

Bonfy.AI, the pioneer in adaptive content security, announced today its emergence from stealth mode with its Bonfy Adaptive Content Security™ (Bonfy ACS™) unified platform. Founded by security industry veterans Gidi Cohen and Danny Kibel, Bonfy secured $9.5 million in 2024 in seed funding led by TLV Partners, with participation by Saban Capital Group, and is set to optimize how AI and human-generated content is monitored and protected, differentiating itself by using AI-powered business context and business logic to accurately prevent exposures such as oversharing, IP leakage, privacy violations, and non-compliant communications.

Customers use Bonfy’s proprietary AI-powered technology to analyze and manage content risks associated with AI tools such as ChatGPT and Microsoft 365 Copilot, documents, emails, and communications such as Slack, while eliminating the overwhelming volume of false positives and enormous blind spots (false negatives) associated with traditional data loss prevention (DLP) tools.

According to the Gartner 2025 Market Guide for Data Loss Prevention, Gartner emphasizes that today’s Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solutions must move beyond traditional content inspection to effectively address the complexities of modern data security. In fact, “70% of CISOs in larger enterprises will adopt a consolidated approach to address both insider risk and data exfiltration use cases.” This means understanding the full context of data interactions or data creation, generation, and sharing to ensure the safe use of AI technologies.

Bonfy meets these evolving demands head-on, offering a next-generation DLP alternative that delivers the contextual intelligence, behavioral analytics, and adaptive remediation capabilities identified by Gartner as essential. Designed for the detection and prevention of content risks at rest, in use, and in motion, Bonfy ACS is agnostic to any sort of human readable content or unstructured data, generation techniques, underlying models, and human edits, making it versatile for various applications, including SaaS (e.g., Microsoft 365 Copilot), Shadow AI, and custom applications.

Bonfy ACS is purpose built to keep AI-generated content safe and compliant, enabling organizations to build trust and confidence with their customers and team members. Acting as a guardian AI, Bonfy ACS enforces communication and sharing policies and mitigates risks related to cybersecurity, privacy, compliance, IP protection, and reputation in a faster, streamlined, and more accurate way than legacy data security and compliance technologies can handle by using business context, derived from information contained in CRMs, IAMs, and business applications, and business logic, derived from out-of-the box policies such as GDPR, PCI, HIPAA, CCPR, and user-defined polices,as inputs. It is an ideal solution for any organization implementing GenAI initiatives, especially regulated and security-conscious verticals such as healthcare, insurance, finance, legal, media, and technology.

Bonfy ACS leverages patent-pending, AI-enabled technology that uses business context and logic to accurately detect risks in any content or unstructured data without relying on error-prone pattern matching or generic classifiers.

Bonfy ACS supports various use cases, such as:

  • Analyzing emails, including attachments, and other communications for confidential or sensitive data—such as trade secrets, intellectual property, employee login credentials or customer account information that could lead to a data leakage—before they are sent externally.
  • Monitoring content output from Microsoft 365 Copilot and other GenAI and SaaS applications to ensure it meets data security policies.
  • Providing the necessary data security controls to implement AI governance requirements to address risks such as bias, privacy infringement, and misuse.

Key Capabilities of Bonfy ACS:

  • Detects and prevents content risks at rest, in motion, and in use.
  • Supports various SaaS applications and communication platforms such as HubSpot, Google Mail, Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Slack, and SMTP.
  • Uses auto-learning for business context creation and entity-aware analysis.
  • Provides out-of-the-box policies for best practices and regulations.
  • Integrates with incident response platforms and notification systems.
  • Offers executive visibility through customizable dashboards.
  • Delivery: SaaS; Flexible hosting options.

Learn more about Bonfy at bonfy.ai.

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