Insurance-Canada.ca Chronicle Newsletter Archive

Issue 2001-17:   September 5, 2001

This newsletter is for members of the Canadian Insurance Industry, and those who serve it. The newsletter is published weekly, and notes information mostly about the use of the Internet and related technologies in the industry. Some is international, where we feel it is relevant to Canada.




Policy Management

Insurance-Canada.ca announces a new section, and two new sponsors, on our Web site. "Policy Management", part of Professional Information and Resources, and at www.insurance-canada.ca/poladmin/poladmin.php is sponsored by Insurance Systems Inc. of Toronto and by Sherwood International with an office in MIssissauga. As in each of our topical spaces, we will note vendors who choose to be listed in this policy management directory, and will list their pertinent announcements. We will be watching for articles and commentary for this topic from both the Canadian insurance scene, as well as from insurance in other parts of the world and relevant information from other industries too. Our domain here centres on the core functions of policy management. These extend from front-end data capture wherever that may be, to back-end reporting, for management or statistical purposes, and in recently emphasized data warehouse and data mart based applications for Customer Relationship Management implementations. In between, the processes include edits, underwriting, rating, issue and all aspects of policy change and renewal. Proper integration of these functions with outside data enables straight through processing. All of this together creates a new level of competitive edge in sales and customer service, as we strive to compete in an e-business world, where many other industries seem more advanced, and customers expect more.

Insurance Systems Inc.'s featured product is WebWriter which can help extend existing policy management systems to the web, for broker, agent or customer access. In the vendor announcements space, you will see that CNA implemented WebWriter for a niche marine yacht application in Europe and now is extending it geographically.

Sherwood International out of England has a growing North American presence. The acquisition of Canadian firm Concise Technologies Inc. (detail) earlier this year has added the FrontTier piece to their product set. FrontTier is being used by companies inside Canada (Markham General) and beyond, including the USA.

Also in our vendor directory as we begin is Castek, another Toronto company. They too have been growing their presence in North America. Two announcements indicate new American customers, COUNTRY Insurance & Financial Services and National Grange Mutual.

There is an article about the " Lessons Learned Through Six Years of Component-Based Development", by Michael Sparling, Castek as printed originally in "Communications of the ACM".

From a different underwriting perspective, a Conning & Company Study in the USA indicates that Auto Insurers are Paying Closer Attention to Credit Scores, more...

We welcome articles and commentary of a generic nature from parties about any and all aspects of policy management, and additional vendors and their products and announcements for the topical directory.

Customer Relationship Management Implementation Experiences: "Creating and Maintaining a 360 Degree View of Your Customers"

One of the real challenges in executing a CRM business strategy is for the Insurer to create and then maintain a 360 degree view of a customer. Often the depth of this challenge is not understood until a second attempt at executing this strategy is made. Join Information Builders on the morning of Thurs. September 13th, 2001, at the Toronto Board of Trade, Downtown Centre to hear senior insurance practitioners describe their experiences and the lessons learned in building and maintaining an accurate 360 degree view of their customers.

Designed for insurance sponsors, project managers and architects responsible for CRM success within their organization, this roundtable is an excellent opportunity to see how others in the insurance industry are addressing the challenges around CRM. Arranged and hosted by Information Builders (Canada) Inc., this insurer-experiences panel discussion is a must-attend for anyone working on a CRM project, or contemplating one, and who is in the Toronto area. There is a small fee to cover expenses. Full details at http://www.informationbuilders.com/ins-crm

Leveraging Relationships

Insurance-Canada.ca's next seminar/conference, Toronto Sheraton centre, Thursday Nov. 1 will build further on the topic of Relationships, in the broader context. This session is being sponsored by InSystems who provide e-business software which enables financial services organizations to deliver personalized, web-based sales, fulfillment, and service capabilities across all relationships, reducing inefficiency, decreasing costs, improving service, and increasing revenues. The agenda and speakers are pretty much set. An announcement flyer is being printed. Another e-mail announcement will be sent about mid-Sept and more details can be seen now, and as they are added.

P&C Insurance Industry Performance. The P&C Industry in Canada is not doing well, but one might not realize the true situation if one relied upon Stats Can numbers,according to the announcement of IBC. A review of IBC's analysis of 2nd Quarter results can be seen in the current Perspective

Insurance and Internet Trends and Directions

Reading insight from elsewhere, especially when Canada is a smaller market and provides limited opportunity for extensive studies and surveys, allows one to collect ideas about how insurance in Canada may be impacted by technology.

U.S. Insurance & The Web: An Overview based on a survey, published by Celent August 10, 2001 -- Boston -- Celent Communications presents an overview of the ways U.S. insurers are embracing the Web to reduce administrative costs and increase communications with shoppers, policy holders, and agents.

Booz-Allen & Hamilton looks at ways health care can be funded in future and sees possible tax-advantaged health savings plans unfolding. This could well be a trillion dollar opportunity for US financial services providers by 2010. With the state of our own health care system, consumers' concerns with longevity and quality of life, might there be a similar opportunity here. More...

Cochran, Caronia Securities LLC's report "Distribution: The Next Battleground" sees a further differentiation between distributors and manufacturers, and positions distributors with a growing presence. They believe agents and brokers will take on more of that role, and are starting to make better use of the web as the transition commences. More, including a 36 page report.

And a bit closer to home, and less formal, my column from the latest issue of Alberta Broker: " A Good Hub Helps the World Go Round". Similar to a portal but not obvious, and perhaps even hidden from view, (and not a piece of hardware) a hub nevertheless provides the connectivity among many parties, such as those providing an insurance service in handling a claim or processing an application.

from Doug:

I guess in one sense the fall season has arrived - evenings are cooler and shorter, #1 son has started his co-op work term and #2 started back to school yesterday. We are only two weeks from the autumnal equinox as well - the days get shorter too quickly. Enjoy!