Issue 2008-22 -- June 3, 2008

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.




Claims

New Analytics Portal from Accident Support Services.
Throughout the years, ASSI's Collision Reporting & Occurrence Management has been continually evolving to meet the needs of our partners. The collision statistical data is electronically entered in CROMS by ASSI staff, and is available to our partners through a Web Portal. Police Services gain a valuable resource, at no cost!

Xactware and Crawford & Company Announce Complete Contents Estimating Service.
May 28, 2008 - Orem, Utah & Atlanta Georgia— Xactware Solutions, Inc. and Crawford & Company announced an enhanced business partnership that will provide full-service contents estimation for property insurance carriers. Insurance carriers can use Xactware tools to send assignments to Crawford and track progress.

Guidewire's Market-leading property casualty claims system selected by Unitrin companies to standardize claims systems and processes across enterprise.
SAN MATEO, California, May 29, 2008 - Guidewire Software®, Inc., a leading global provider of solutions to property and casualty insurers, today announced that Unitrin, Inc. (NYSE:UTR), a $3 billion financial services company, has selected Guidewire ClaimCenter® to improve their end-to-end claims adjusting processes, reduce claims costs and enhance customer service.

Policy and Product Management

MSB Premiers French Language Web-based Commercial Valuation Tool.
BRAMPTON, ONTARIO, CANADA MAY 28, 2008 - MSB, a MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) company and the leading worldwide provider of building cost data and estimating technology to the property insurance industry, announces the premier of a French-language version of BVS Express(TM), MSB's Web-based commercial and agricultural building replacement-cost estimating application.

Distribution

Applied Systems celebrates 15th annual ACORD award as top download vendor.
Las Vegas, Nevada -- May 21, 2008 -- For the 15th consecutive year, Applied Systems is Download Vendor of the Year for Total Implementations, an achievement recognized recently by ACORD, the nonprofit insurance standards association.

kasina study: Tech-Savvy Advisors are Ready for Higher Level of Online Service.
New York, (May 8, 2008) - Advisors are far more tech-savvy than asset managers believe, according to kasina, a leading asset management consultancy. Their latest study, "What Advisors Do Online," identifies and dispels common e-Business beliefs about financial advisors' online behavior.

eBusiness and Technology

ACORD Receives Donation to Enhance Insurance Capability Model from Deloitte
LAS VEGAS, NV - May 13, 2008 - Extending its current Capability Model of the Standards Framework, ACORD, the insurance industry standards setting body, received a donation of capabilities, processes and metrics from Deloitte, LLP. The announcement was made during the 2008 ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum.

Insurance Networking News, Celent Announce INN's 2008 Vanguards in Insurance Practices.
May 14, 2008 - Chicago and Boston - Insurance Networking News (INN) and Celent released INN's second annual technology solution provider ranking for the insurance industry today at a black-tie awards event held at the ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum in Las Vegas.

Business of Insurance

Remarks by Superintendent Julie Dickson OSFI to the Langdon Hall Property and Casualty Insurance Industry Forum.
At the Forum held on Thursday May 22, 2008, OSFI Superintendent Julie Dickson reviewed OSFI's views on what they consider to be the important issues, and provided some insight into the areas in which they are concentrating their efforts.

ERM Identified as Critical Issue for Life Insurance CFOs, But Many Crucial Elements Not Yet Implemented, According to Towers Perrin Survey.
STAMFORD, CT, May 13, 2008 - Chief financial officers (CFOs) of life insurance companies continue to recognize enterprise risk management (ERM) as a critical management issue, as demonstrated both through the prominence they give ERM within the organization and the resources they devote to building ERM capabilities, according to a recent survey on "Embedding Enterprise Risk Management," the latest in a series of Towers Perrin surveys aimed at life insurance CFOs.

Risk Managers, Insurers Should Prepare for Active 2008 Hurricane Season, Says Aon Corporation.
CHICAGO, May 26, 2008 -- Risk managers and insurance companies should consistently employ robust enterprise risk management strategies and business continuity programs, particularly important as the start of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season approaches and leading forecasters expect this year will be an active one for hurricane and tropical storm formation, Aon Corp. said today.

Consumer Information

Insurance Bureau of Canada offers free home-inventory software.
Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) wants all Canadians to have a complete inventory of their possessions, and is encouraging consumers to visit the IBC website to download, free of charge, Know Your Stuff home-inventory software.

Manitobans have fondness for speeding: MPI Provincial SpeedWatch data.
May 16, 2008 - Community-minded volunteers, in partnership with local police agencies and Manitoba Public Insurance, will be out in full force this week with the launch of SpeedWatch 2008. SpeedWatch is an education program in which community volunteers use speed display boards to monitor traffic in their community.

Businesses must face up to liability challenge warns Lloyd's.
13/05/2008 - Businesses could be facing a future liability crisis if they do not face up to growing litigation issues Lloyd's warned today. In a new report 'Directors in the Dock - is business facing a liability crisis?' published by the world's leading specialist insurance market, businesses are urged to anticipate and prepare for future liability risks.

Marketing and the Market Place

eMarketer: What Is the Future of E-Mail?
MAY 27, 2008 - An old digital format still has plenty of life left. Compared with today's virtual worlds, e-mail is solidly Web 1.0-an almost archaic communication channel. Yet e-mail works, and marketers and advertisers keep putting it to new uses. Moreover, consumers-whose opinions are the ones that matter-genuinely like e-mail.

Self employment: the force behind Canada's job creation record - Report by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
May 22, 2008 - Toronto - Canada has an enviable job creation record, and, one of the main reasons for the country's success is a massive increase in the number of self-employed people running incorporated businesses. A Nation of Entrepreneurs, the latest report by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, found the number of self employed increased by 18.6 per cent between 2001 and 2006 - more than double the rate of total employment growth.

from Doug:

We have a student from Quebec City billetted with us for two weeks while attending the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute. The Institute is led by some of the world's finest musicians in the field of baroque performance. The Institute is held at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto. Students attend from across Canada and other countries and can be students or professionals.
Saturday we attended a pre-wedding reception pig roast at a relative's home near Woodstock, in southern Ontario farm country. It was great to see many we had not seen for a while and to celebrate the next generation.
Being farm-raised myself, I was interested in the equipment and had a ride in a new tractor, equipped with GPS and all of the other bells and whistles. The GPS drives the tractor so the driver can focus on the equipment. The normal satellite array is supplemented with a local radio beam enabling the GPS to drive with about 1 inch accuracy. A far cry from the self-driving tractor prototypes of my farming era that depended on buried wires in the field. Amazing.


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