Insurance-Canada.ca Newsletter Archive

Issue 2004-33:   Sept 7, 2004

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.




Seminar

Join us on Tuesday Sept 14 for our next Insurance-Canada.ca seminar "Technology Speeds Life Distribution". Harv Luthra, Associate Partner, IBM Business Consulting Services will review "Distribution Trends in the Canadian Marketplace". Register now to hear our expert speakers discuss current issues in Canadian Life Insurance Distribution.

Distribution

Welcome a new Breed of Insurance Consumer - the Internet Shopper: Lee Romanov, Insurance Hotline.

Everyone's shopping, looking for a lower insurance rate, especially with the 10% discount promised by McGuinty.
InsuranceHotline.com deals with these "shoppers," taking the "quoting load" off the brokers. When a "qualified" lead is found, InsuranceHotline delivers the completed quote and all of its underwriting details to both the broker and consumer. When contact is made, both parties are working from the same rating and underwriting information.

Ascot is latest to sign up for Kinnect Platform.

Ascot, the Lloyd's managing agency, has become the latest company to sign up with Kinnect, the Lloyd's-sponsored initiative that captures and transfers risk data across a secure electronic platform.

CSIO Insurance Portal Status Update

Week ending September 3: : Everyone is struggling through workload caused by the number of people on vacation.
There are now 84 brokers signed up and technically integrated to the portal.

Claims

Crawford Adjusters Canada Implements VTechTM to Streamline Appraisal Process.

Crawford Adjusters Canada is now using VTechTM to assign vehicle appraisals to Crawford offices in the United States. Vtech is Crawford's state-of-the-art, web-based application that fully automates the vehicle appraisal process from intake through work product distribution.,/p>

Marketing

SAS claims top spot in analyst firm Marketing Automation Software report: IDC.

Analyst firm IDC has recognized SAS as the revenue leader in marketing automation software. The IDC report (“Worldwide Marketing and Sales Automation Applications 2003 Vendor Shares: Mixed News for Vendors,” IDC #31585, July 2004) examines the marketing and sales automation applications market for 2001-2003. It features a competitive analysis of vendors, including 2003 revenue and market share, as well as profiles of the leading vendors. The report also identifies the keys to future success for these leading vendors.

Eastbridge announces availability of new research report – "The 21st Century Employer�Redefining the Benefits Business."

The benefits world is changing. Employers have been juggling the demands (and inconvenience) of three different enrollment and servicing systems�employer-paid, voluntary, and retirement products�for years.

Policy and Product Management

Offshoring will help U.S. Mortgage Lenders Lower Total Origination Costs per Loan 6% by 2008: TowerGroup.

Outsourcing in India has become a political football, making it difficult for mortgage firms and their IT providers to distinguish offshore myth from reality. New research from TowerGroup predicts tangible savings for lenders offshoring portions of their loan origination or servicing processes. In addition, the research seeks to clarify claims linking offshoring to double-digit percentage cost reductions.

eBusiness and Technology

Information Technology Spending in United States Expected to Increase: Accenture Survey.

The majority of business and information technology (IT) executives in the United States anticipate increases in IT expenditures over the next three years, according to results of a survey released today by Accenture. The study found that more than half (55 percent) of all respondents expect their organizations to increase their IT expenditures over the next three years, with only 10 percent expecting their organizations to decrease IT spending.

Hawk Corporation Chooses Hyland Software for Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance.

Hyland Software, Inc., developer of OnBase enterprise content management (ECM) software, has been chosen by Hawk Corporation (AMEX: HWK), a manufacturer and supplier of specialized components, to implement its OnBase Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) solution, designed specifically to assist companies in complying with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

Conference and Education

Society of Accredited Marine Surveyors' Symposia to be Held in Toronto Oct 27-30.

The Society of Accredited Marine Surveyors is holding its annual general meeting and educational symposia in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from the 27-30 October 2004 at the Delta Chelsea Hotel. This meeting is open to all marine surveyors, marine underwriters, adjustors, marine and insurance professionals.

Business of Insurance

Minimum Capital Test (MCT) Year-End 2003 Results: OSFI.

The purpose of this letter is to update you on the impact of the implementation of the Minimum Capital Test (MCT) in 2003, compared to the former Minimum Asset Test (MAT). This comparison was conducted to fulfil OSFI's commitment to the industry to review the industry aggregate capital impact of the MCT after the first year of implementation.

Conning Research: PC Mutual Companies Grow to Meet Need, While PC Stock Companies Need to Grow.

Growth strategies and actual performance differ greatly between mutual and stock companies, according to a new study by Conning Research and Consulting, Inc. "We found that the company structure and size was influential in a number of performance factors," said Geri Riley, Analyst at Conning. "These factors included growth as well as risk tolerance, among others.

Customer Service and Relationships

Major Corporations Not Handling E-Customer Relations Well: eMarketer.

An eGain study finds that nearly one-half of the companies in the US and Canada are failing to capture critical online revenue opportunities. Amazingly � at a time when corporations are spending more than ever to develop their online channels � BenchmarkPortal, in a benchmark study conducted for eGain Communications, found that 41% of even the largest companies in the US and Canada are not responding to e-mails with high-value purchase intent.

Insurance in the Community

Two outstanding students win scholarship< to study groundbreaking program: Transamerica Life.

Ontario March of Dimes has selected two candidates to receive training in England to help people with physical disabilities lead more active and independent lifestyles. Beth Brydon, from Kings County, Nova Scotia, and Vishali Malhotra, from Toronto, Ontario, are the recipients of this year's Transamerica Life Canada Conductive Education(R) Award.

Consumer Information

Residential neighborhoods targeted by auto thieves: Manitoba Public Insurance.

Most auto crimes in the province are taking place right outside our homes, according to statistics released by Manitoba Public Insurance on the first day of Auto Theft Awareness Week.

from Doug:

Saturday we moved our son to Ottawa's Carleton University. This week is Frosh or Orientation week. Somehow we don't expect to hear much for a while. Sunday we brought our other son home after the end of his last co-op work term at U of Waterloo. He has a week off to tend to things before school starts. I guess we can now in one sense claim to be "empty nesters", although I suppose that isn't official until after they have really moved on to homes of their own.