TELUS (TSX:T)(NYSE:TU) has made some significant strides to grow the business over the last few years. Guided by the scientific, evidence-based advice of TELUS’s medical advisory council, TELUS Health quickly scaled, augmented, and deployed the company’s suite of virtual care offerings, enabling Canadians to receive personalized, quality physical and mental healthcare, and helping to alleviate the pressure on frontline care workers and health centres.
Access to virtual care visits
By way of example, TELUS offered access to virtual care visits between patients and the patient’s doctors through the company’s electronic medical record virtual visit solution. This enabled healthcare providers to virtually observe and support patients living with, or at risk of, COVID-19 through TELUS’s home health monitoring solution.
Empowering patients with access to video consultations
Further, this initiative also empowered patients with access to one-on-one video consultations with a locally licensed doctor at no cost and provided personal emergency support for elderly citizens living independently. TELUS also helped employers support the well-being of employees and offered to frontline workers access to mental health resources.
Improving access to a nutritious food supply
In fiscal 2020, TELUS also directed the company’s human and technological innovation toward improving access to a nutritious food supply that is safe, sustainable, expansive and connected. TELUS Agriculture, formed through the acquisition of eight trusted and experienced companies across North America and Europe, is supported by 1,200 skilled team members in 10 countries dedicated to digitally transforming, protecting, and improving the global food system for people around the world.
Protecting customers’ homes and businesses
Similarly, through TELUS SmartHome Security and TELUS Secure Business solutions, TELUS offers peace of mind by protecting customers’ homes and businesses during lockdown periods and beyond. In fiscal 2020, TELUS on-boarded nearly 100,000 security customers, expanding the company’s client base to over 700,000 clients in three years.
Digital support material for adults
In addition, as young people spent more time online and in virtual classrooms, TELUS amplified access to the company’s online digital safety and citizenship program, TELUS Wise, and introduced digital support material for adults. By the close of 2020, TELUS appears to have reached more than 90,000 Canadians through TELUS Wise online or virtual workshops.
Accelerating the digital transformation and strategic growth
Additionally, TELUS International (TI) finalized the acquisition of Lionbridge AI, a global provider of data annotation services used in the development of artificial intelligence algorithms to train machine learning models. Lionbridge AI should help accelerate the digital transformation and strategic growth of TI by adding key capabilities and diversity to the company’s suite of next-generation digital solutions.
Embarking on a national growth strategy
Importantly, in early 2021, TI undertook an initial public offering (IPO), establishing a market capitalization for TI of more than $10 billion and exceeding the $8 billion market cap of TELUS in 2000, when the company first embarked on a national growth strategy. With total aggregate proceeds of $1.4 billion and significant buyer demand, the TI IPO was the largest technology IPO in the history of the Toronto Stock Exchange and the fifth largest ever in Canadian capital markets.
