Following on the heels of other recent announcements of prepaid debit and credit cards, Scotiabank has collaborated with Berkeley Payment Solutions to launch a new suite of corporate prepaid Visa cards. Hugely popular in the United States, prepaid Visa card payment solutions benefit companies seeking proven cost-effective payment solutions that extend their company’s brand and resonate with employees, customers, and partners.
 
This new suite of payment solutions features branded, re-loadable prepaid Visa cards that provide the ease-of-use of a credit card with the universal appeal of cash and the satisfaction of a personal reward. By allowing cardholders to redeem their reward any way and anywhere they want, prepaid Visa cards can be seen as the ultimate win-win solution: employees, customers and partners want to receive meaningful and convenient reward and incentive options (based on choice and flexibility) while companies want to eliminate the time, cost and hassle associated with the disbursement of checks and/or merchandise.
 
Scotiabank and Berkeley' believe that using the prepaid Visa platform (featuring all the security and flexibility associated with the Visa brand) and providing timely, useful and accurate reporting metrics to measure the success of each payment program, can both increase program participation and motivate participants to exceed program goals. Other important results could include increased marketing return on investment, significant lifts in sales, enhanced employee motivation and enhanced employee retention.
 
Nissan Canada selected Scotiabank and Berkeley to spearhead two recent reward programs. In October 2007, the "Nissan Rogue Test Drive Direct-mail" program invited customers to test drive the all-new Nissan Rogue and gave them the option of being rewarded with a Nissan prepaid Visa card. In addition, and among the first programs of its kind in Canada, Nissan launched its "Bonus Days" program in December 2007 which provided customers with the choice of receiving either a Nissan-branded prepaid Visa gift card or a rebate upon the purchase of one of four Nissan vehicles (Rogue, Altima, Sentra or Versa).
 
Scotiabank and Berkeley also worked closely with LG Electronics Canada to launch its LG Shine cell phone in October 2007. As part of its "Born to Shine" campaign, an LG-branded re-loadable prepaid Visa card was issued to more than 1,500 retail sales associates at cellular dealerships across Canada. The reward structure was clearly communicated by LG’s national sales team at the launch of the campaign and funds were regularly loaded onto each person’s card based on the volume of all LG cell phones sold.
 
"The LG Shine prepaid Visa campaign is seen as a tremendous success on every level by both our Canadian management team and our head office in Korea," explained Beverley Battram, director of national accounts, LG Canada. "Not only was our lift in sales much higher than anticipated, it was one of the easiest incentive programs for our national sales team to both implement and communicate to dealer sales associates. This program delivered such outstanding results and such a win-win proposition for everyone involved ? both internally and externally ? that we intend to re-launch a similar program in May," concluded Battram.

For more information, visit www.berkeleypayment.com.

This holiday season, harried Secret Santas around the office can rediscover the joy of giving – with some much-needed help from their very own stable of elves-on-call. Elfster, a free online service and community that gives gifting a Web 2.0 upgrade, offers an easy-to-use online portal for group gift exchanges.

According to its developers, Elfster can handle everything from mailing and management tools to wish lists and shopping guides. The online service lets participants connect quickly and easily via a dedicated sign-up link, e-mailing list, or Facebook account. (For non web-savvy users or families who share an email address, flexible setup options let everyone join in the fun.) The site offers a variety of options for both traditional and charitable gift-giving, allowing users to connect with a variety of online stores and philanthropic organizations from one place.

Elfster’s suite of online tools include:

• One-click URL signup for a large-scale gift exchange
• Facebook-compatible application for easy invitations to online friends
• Fully-automated system for organization and inter-group communications, so even the organizer can be surprised
• Custom settings for privacy and flexible coordination of your gift exchange
• Anonymous communication options, wish lists, and a Q&A feature that make it easy to give (and receive!) the perfect gift
• Gift guides with direct links to online shops and great options for any budget
• Facebook, Twitter, and Elfster blog updated frequently with gift suggestions, news, and more

To date, Elfster claims it has one-million registered members, 1.7 million unique visitors, over 250 000 visitors on Cyber Monday, and 1.2 million gifts swapped.

The 12 Days of Christmas
To kick off the 2009 holiday season and help the harried shopper, Elfster will present its annual 12 Days of Christmas gift guide, an editorial selection of 88 of the most unique gifts this holiday season and featuring one-click ways to buy, wish list, or recommend a gift for someone else. The 12 Days of Christmas gift guide includes everything from electronics and home goods to books and beauty products, for a one-stop shop that lets users stuff the stocking of everyone on their list, and even better, win these gifts big entering a daily raffle.

For more information, visit www.elfster.com. 

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then effectively displaying key information is worth at least as many memos. Magnatag Visible Systems is an innovative company that provides information sharing solutions to industries as varied as the Yellow Pages. In business for 41 years, Magnatag has designed and developed an array of magnetic whiteboards and information display products that help a wide variety of customers clearly display information effectively and efficiently.

One of Magnatag’s most popular display systems is their RotoCube Rotating Bulletin Tower. The RotoCube Big Island Tower offers 42 square feet of display without taking up an inch of wall space. The side panel options offered on the tower make a variety of information display methods available right at the center of the action, in high traffic areas, manufacturing settings, churches, schools, healthcare facilities, and anywhere people pass by or gather.

With the touch of a finger, the tower turns quietly in either direction, so several people can view and share information at the same time. The system was developed for customization and a variety of uses, offering over 25 different panel styles such as calendars, photos, charts, grids, columns, cork, fabric and plain or custom printed whiteboards. Logos or ads can be printed as attention-getting marquees, and printable headers on each panel are offered for multi-purpose display potential.

For more information on the RotoCube product line or any of Magnatag’s visible systems marketed factory-direct by catalogue and website; call 1-800-624-4154 or visit the company’s web site at www.magnatag.com/rotocube. 

Pay Linx Corp. has developed an affordable, accessible and contemporary payment-processing service that integrates seamlessly into the Interac and MasterCard financial networks in North America. The company has initiated a number of pilot projects in which the service has showed success as a method of paying out benefits.

Pay Linx instant issuing services allow corporations to issue and fund a prepaid Interac or MasterCard in real time, allowing the beneficiary to select their own PIN number using a Pay Linx PIN and cardactivation terminal. This allows the beneficiary to have instant access to funds that can be reloaded by the corporation.

Pay Linx recently signed an agreement with the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) to provide prepaid debit card services through an electronic benefit payment card. The RBC QuickLinx Prepaid Benefit Card is designed for government agencies as an alternative to issuing paper cheques.

Pay Linx, which is 25 per cent owned by RBC, has been working with RBC to develop and deliver a benefit-payment card and related services. RBC enlisted Pay Linx to provide back-end services, processing, and customer support for ts QuickLinx cardholders as it implements a prepaid platform for consumers.

"Governments have been trying to move away from paper to electronic payments for years, because it costs them about $80 to issue a [paper] cheque," says Ian McNeill, president and CEO of Pay Linx. "The QuickLinx card provides them with an alternative, for fraction of the cost.

"We’ve been running a very successful pilot project since March of 2006 with the Alberta Employment, Immigration and Industry Department, which enabled us to secure our agreement with RBC. Our benefit-payment card is unique: it provides cost benefits to RBC and allows them to provide better service to their customers."

The department, he adds, has been waiting for this solution to walk through its doors for a decade, because prepaid debit cards offer a level of control not available with a cheque. "Prepaid debit cards," he says, "can be configured to allow for authorization or restriction, at either a point-of-sale terminal, such as at a store, or at an ATM machine."

Prepaid debit cards can be issued by any type of organization that wans to convert paper cheques, vouchers, and even cash transactions to real-time secure electronic payments.

Insurance companies can, for example, allocate funds for specific purposes. "The card," McNeill says, "can be configured to pay for dental work, eyeglasses, chiropractors, and other paramedical services." It can also, he says, be used to set limits for services.

The system itself is very sophisticated, but the prepaid debit card is not a chip-based smart card. All the processing is done on the back end, using existing financial networks such as Interac or MasterCard.

The Pay Linx system, McNeill adds, complies with all the industry security regulations, including privacy and anti-money laundering. "It even monitors for unusual activity," he says.

"The beauty is that merchants do not need to add any additional equipment to accept a prepaid debit card. It runs on the same network as Interac and Visa."

Pay Linx has also reached an agreement with a Canadian insurer to pilot a payment card to manage the real-time payment of health benefits provided under what is commonly known by insurance companies as a health-care spending account (HCSA).

An HCSA can form part of a group benefit plan an  allows plan members to be reimbursed for health-related expenses using pre-federal tax dollars. It can operate like a bank account: plan members start each plan year with a certain number of dollar credits in their HCSA; throughout the year, those credits may be used to pay for certain medical, vision, and dental expenses. The credits can be used, for example, to top up existing group coverage by covering residual amounts on prescription drugs, eyeglasses, and hearing aids, or to pay for medical, vision, and dental expenses that otherwise may not be covered under the group benefit plan.

The pilot project will involve the use of payment cards to be provided to pilot participants in the processing and payment of their health claims. Pay Linx will provide its payment card, issued by a sponsor bank, as a solution for the issuance, loading, and authorization of payment cards using existing financial networks, including support services. During the pilot, Pay Linx will issue a maximum of 100 cards to participants  nd the insurer will enrol a minimum of 1000 health-care providers located in three Canadian cities. Under the pilot agreement, the insurer will pay half the development costs up to a specified limit.

"Health-care spending accounts hold excellent potential for the application of our payment-processing solution," says McNeill. "The pilot is intended to enable the integration of real-time payments of benefits for health-care organizations. This could lead to additional program offerings to streamline the payments of health-care benefits, providing better services to the consumer."

For more information, visit www.paylinx.ca.

Earlier this summer, Desjardins Financial Security expanded its retirement plan sponsor services with the launch of TRACE Lifecycle Environment. TRACE solution will both assist your employees in making the right investment decisions for retirement and help you fulfill your responsibilities under the Capital Accumulation Plan (CAP) Guidelines.

Desjardin’s Targeted Retirement Asset Construction Environment, or TRACE, investment program, is based on the lifecycle of participants, and helps plan sponsors fulfill their governance responsibilities while greatly simplifying the investment process of their participants as well. It introduces a unique approach by automatically assigning participants a starting point on a risk tolerance path in accordance with their age.

As participants draw nearer to retirement, the risk level of their portfolio is gradually decreased to become more conservative.

"For plan sponsors, plan participant communication and education responsibilities, particularly in terms of investments, represent major challenges," explains Éric Filion, senior director, product development and marketing, savings for groups and businesses at Desjardins Financial Security. "TRACE allows them to meet these challenges with confidence."

TRACE offers a dynamic environment designed to adapt and evolve according to participants' needs. It takes into consideration the participants' risk level and age and provides them with the necessary tools to guide them along the path to financial security at retirement. Desjardins Financial Security, a subsidiary of Desjardins Group, the largest integrated cooperative financial group in Canada, specializes in individual and group life and health insurance, as well as retirement savings products and services.

The group has offices in several cities across the country including Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Levis, Halifax and St-John’s.

For more information, visit
www.dsf-dfs.com

ADP, a leading provider of HR, payroll and benefits administration services, now offers its first app, RUN Powered by ADP mobile payroll, on the App Store.

First introduced in 2008 and hailed by PC Magazine as "exceedingly simple to understand and use," RUN has been continually enhanced with direct client feedback, bringing it to the point where business owners can now run payroll in just three seconds. The RUN App is available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and allows business owners to take the ease and functionality of RUN wherever they go.

 "Within the next two years, we're going to see businesses spending 35 per cent of their IT budgets on mobile," says Gary Butler, ADP president and CEO. "The fact is, the definition of 'the office' is changing. With smarter devices and faster networks on our side, ADP continues to invest heavily in bringing our trusted solutions to clients wherever they choose to work."

A recent ADP Research Institute survey of small business owners nationwide indicates that small businesses are leading the way in this trend toward increased mobility. In fact, nearly all small business executives surveyed (90 per cent) indicated that they spend at least some time outside of the office for business, averaging nine hours a week or 23 per cent of a 40-hour work week. Of that 90 per cent, nearly 30 per cent indicated that time "on the go" is increasing.

With RUN, clients can:

•         Enter and review payroll information for employees and contractors.
•         Pay via checks or direct deposits.
•         Calculate earnings and deductions as well as federal, state and local taxes.
•         Review hours and earnings to confirm accuracy before payroll is processed.
•         Preview payroll liability and cash required, and confirm funds to be withdrawn.
•         Review reports from the current and previous periods in real time.

The RUN Powered by ADP® mobile payroll App is available for free from the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.

For more information or to purchase RUN Powered by ADP® mobile payroll, visit www.adp.com/mobilepayroll or call 1.800.CALL.ADP (1.800.225.5237).

For more information about ADP, visit www.ADP.com.

A Waterford, Michigan company has debuted a unique product initially designed for people with hearing problems, as well as people who are Deaf and Deaf Blind. This product has broad and powerful applications for hotels, universities, senior living centers, cruise lines, and children of hard of hearing parents as well.
 
The Sidekick II â„¢ Signature Series, by Silent Call Communications monitors doorbells, telephones, smoke detectors, and fire alarms within 2,000 feet and alerts people with hearing problems that there is a visitor, phone call, or danger.
 
The Sidekick’s bright, flashing strobe and front indicator panel alerts users quickly to visitors, calls, and emergencies. If a fire or smoke alarm has a low battery, blocked path or malfunction Sidekick II notifies the user so corrective action can be taken. The monitor has a night dimming backlight display so it doesn’t interfere with sleep at night and provides alerts 24/7. Some devices even warn the deaf resident when someone is trying to gain access to their home.
 
All of Silent Call’s products carry a five year warranty. The photo cell smoke detectors are powered by a lithium battery that will last up to 10 years.
 
For more information visit www.silentcall.com, call (800) 572 5227 (voice/tty), or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
 

LifeSpeak Inc., a company bringing Canada’s acclaimed parenting, eldercare, health and well–being experts to Canadian workplaces, launches LifeSpeak On Demand, an online program giving employees anywhere, anytime, access to LifeSpeak workshops presented by some of Canada’s leading experts.

"Our clients wanted to reach a broader spectrum of employees with the high quality, comprehensive programming that only a portion of employees were experiencing  - whether they worked from home or were located outside of a major city," says Aimée Israel, CEO of LifeSpeak. "LifeSpeak On Demand gives employees the option to access information at times and locations that are most convenient to them or as their specific needs arise."

Supported by their employer, employees across the country can access the virtual video library that builds on the success of the workplace workshop series that LifeSpeak has been providing for its clients since 2004. Workshops from acclaimed experts such as mental health expert Dr. David Goldbloom; Hospital for Sick Children Chief of Paediatric Medicine, Dr. Jeremy Friedman; parenting expert Alyson Schafer; or eldercare expert Caroline Tapp-McDougall, cover everything from depression and a child’s medical concerns to parenting issues or the stress of elder care.

"Our employees have benefited from the information and common experiences shared at LifeSpeak workshops in our Toronto Head Office," says Rajesh Uttamchandani, senior vice president, human resources at CIBC Mellon. "Now our branches across the country, as well as immediate family members of all of our employees, can share in the experience by logging onto LifeSpeak On Demand."

"LifeSpeak On Demand is a great idea," says Bruce Sellery, host of workopolis tv on BNN. "There is an increasing need for this type of content, given the pressures employees are under these days, both at work and at home."  

From health, wellness and family experts, topics addressed in the initial 13 bilingual volumes (78 clips) are drawn from LifeSpeak’s three programs Vitality At Work, Parents At Work, and Generations At Work. Each volume includes six high-definition quality segments that are approximately 8-10 minutes each and include titles such as Caring, Coping and Not Collapsing, Common Childhood Medical Concerns101, and Understanding Mental Illness.

To preview please go to www.lifespeak.ca/onDemand/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fonDemand%2fDefault.aspx
(to login: user name: guest password: letmein).

Through the delivery of a series f premium workshops, LifeSpeak (www.lifespeak.ca) is dedicated to bringing Canada’s acclaimed parenting, eldercare and health and well–being experts to Canadian workplaces to provide strategies and meaningful tools to enhance an employee’s professional and personal life.

Limeade, Inc., an online software-as-a-service company focused on health, wellness, and productivity, recently launched Limeade Employee Vitality, a unique online wellness platform. The service helps employers create high-performance workplaces through improved employee physical health, emotional well-being, and professional growth.
 
Current wellness products typically focus on changing the behaviour of a small segment of the employee base - usually only high-risk employees (diabetics, those who are obese, smokers, etc.), in an effort to help employers control spiraling health costs. This narrow approach leaves major predictors of personal and organizational health out of the equation. Limeade’s evidence-based "whole person, whole population" approach addresses these high-cost cases, but also recognizes that even low and medium-risk employees can improve health habits and become happier and more productive. In fact, engaging an entire employee population in behaviour change optimizes health and productivity.
 
"The path to an engaged, healthy workplace starts with people. The best employers understand this already, and want to measure and improve what matters most," says Henry Albrecht, Limeade’s founder and CEO. "Current wellness approaches can belittle employees by treating them as bundles of health risks, rather than as human beings with untapped potential. Our service builds on strengths, helps identify areas for improvement and gives employees the tools, techniques and peer support to achieve their goals. It’s not a feel-good exercise; it’s a commitment to productivity and competitiveness."
 
Among the key features of Limeade Employee Vitality are: a 360-degree clinical health, productivity and well-being assessment, goal tracking (online, via phone, email, and other tracking gadgets), incentive management, journaling/blog, community forums, and personalized connections to more wellness resources when called for (e.g., smoking cessation, health coaching, or disease management). It also includes dashboards to show executives and HR professionals a view of the overall health of an employee base. (Limeade never shares personally identifiable employee information with employers). With such a view, employers can make targeted decisions to manage risk, lower health costs and drive higher productivity and performance.
 
"This is a revolutionary approach with wide deployment potential," says Dr. Michael Parkinson, president of the American College of Preventive Medicine and an advisor to Limeade. "Limeade is the only company I've seen that combines health, self-efficacy and work-life assessments with tailored information, peer support and positive reinforcement systems. Limeade has an evidence-based, incentive-driven system that can help a company perform at their best."
 
Several employers have been using Limeade Employee Vitality, and are impressed with the results.
 
"Limeade’s dashboards show us how our health, emotional and workplace issues - including productivity - are connected," says Naomi Lombard, senior human resources manager at Aditi Technologies. "Our employees said Limeade felt more like a social networking site than a wellness application. That’s probably why we have had such a positive response to using it."
 
A true platform, Limeade cohesively integrates with other employer-sponsored health and wellness programs, including health coaching, biometric screening and disease management. Unlike other wellness products, Limeade is a modular and open system, meaning employers are not locked into a limited or exclusive set of service providers. With the explosion of the wellness industry, new solutions and services are being launched every day. Limeade’s open approach means employers can continually offer best-of-breed solutions from a range of partners. This format also enables small and medium-sized businesses to access wellness without the high upfront costs of other options.
 
Limeade Employee Vitality is available to companies in Canada and is offered through a network of resellers as well as directly from the company. Employer costs are billed on a per-employee-per-month basis, and vary based on volume.

More information is available at www.limeade.com.

 Unless your workforce is very unusual, its members likely come in a variety of shapes and heights, and generally perform a variety of tasks at their desks. How many times have you watched workers fiddling with chair heights, reorganizing desks, or standing up to perform tasks! Not to mention complaining that they just can’t get things to feel right.

Instead of forcing them to adapt to the equipment, how about providing equipment that adjusts both to them and the work that needs to be done. That’s the idea behind a new desk system called "Emotion."

Emotion is the latest ergonomic, height-adjustable table system from BRC. It is ruggedly built, with legs and top frame made of steel, and easily complies with ANSI/BIFMA specifications. Emotion uses low-energy-consuming electric motors that provide a silent and smooth operation. Programmable controls can allow for multi-user situations. Emotion products are BIFMA tested. With its rugged construction, and colour choices that match both BRC product and industry standards, Emotion is uniquely positioned to be the most flexible and best-valued height-adjustable product line in North America.

Why a height-adjustable table?

• It helps reduce the effects of repetitive activities.
• Dynamic posture is the healthiest way to work.
• It increases circulation, decreases fatigue, and improves breathing
• When standing, you reduce intra-discal pressure by 50 per cent.

To get more information on this innovative product, visit www.dyedurham.ca or contact Andrew Jackson by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or phone 1-888-393-3874, ext. 4551.