Telus 2011 Annual Report Download - page 15

TELUS 2011 ANNUAL REPORT . 11
will benefit from a care co-ordination solution, which improves
the
monitoring of more than 10,000 chronically ill patients in
Quebec’s Lower St. Laurent region.
In 2010, we launched TELUS Health Space®, powered
by Microsoft HealthVault. This innovative electronic consumer
health platform enables people to manage and share their
personal health information using various devices – from
computer to tablet to smartphone. We made progress in 2011,
signing con tracts with three leading electronic medical record
providers operating in B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Quebec
to connect their solutions to the TELUS Health Space platform.
The momentum continued in late 2011 with a contract to
provide Alberta Health Services with TELUS Health Space for
the development of a personal health record solution for the
province’s citizens.
Partnering, acquiring and divesting
In early 2012, TELUS acquired Wolf Medical Systems, Canada’s
largest and fastest-growing electronic medical record provider.
The acquisition creates a new line of business called TELUS
Physician Solutions, which will help doctors co-ordinate and share
information – anywhere, anytime – with their extended health -
care teams, their patients and the patients’ families. Access to
electronic medical records will be further expanded by combining
Wolf’s hosted, cloud-based technology with TELUS’ secure,
wireless and wireline broadband telecommu nications networks.
Over the past year, your Company has made three acquisi-
tions to secure more than 60 independent dealer locations doing
busi ness under the TELUS name. These investments were made
to enhance our ability to improve the customer experience,
reduce selling costs and expand our distribution of wireless and
wireline products across Western Canada. In addition, we have
enhanced the client experience with offerings such as Smart Fit,
an inno vative online tool designed to help customers pick the
right phone, and the TELUS Learning Centre, which helps cus-
tomers get the most from their wireless device.
Finally, your Company announced a partnership with Westbank,
a leading real estate developer, for the TELUS Garden redevel-
opment project in downtown Vancouver. Over the next three years,
this project will transform a city block that currently houses the
Company’s national headquarters and provide an opportunity for
TELUS to monetize a portion of its real estate holdings. The com-
mercial and residential buildings will be built to LEED platinum
and gold standards, respectively.
Investing in internal capabilities
A new five-year collective agreement that balances the needs
of our customers, team members and investors was successfully
negotiated and ratified in 2011, covering more than 11,000
unionized team members. The agreement had a positive effect
on employee engagement and our focus on customer service.
Late in the year, the TELUS team achieved overall employee
engagement results of 70 per cent, up from 57 per cent the
previous year. This increase elevates our Company’s results into
the highest level of engagement and the best employer result
for a company of our size and diverse makeup. This is truly an
exceptional achievement that will underpin our future economic
success and client experience goals.
Our people practices have earned TELUS many global
and national external awards for excellence in corporate
culture, diversity, training and development. Please refer to
telus.com/awards for more details. Notably, in 2011, Recognition
Professionals International named TELUS as having the best
overall employee recognition program globally.
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