The Chronicle: Issue 2015-01, January 6, 2015
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What's Going Through The Intersection of Insurance and Technology?
2015 Trends: A Year of Living Data-ly
Who is Driving the Digital Customer Experience? Business and Marketers |
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13th Annual Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Conference Welcome and thank-you to our 2015 conference sponsors:
Quindell as a Gold Sponsor. |
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Telematics
ICTA nomination: Kanetix.ca DriveSmart app helps drivers assess UBI
Kanetix.ca DriveSmart is the first hands-free smartphone application in Canada that helps drivers gauge if they would benefit from joining a usage-based insurance (UBI) program. The app educates users on what UBI is monitoring, gives them a sense of how their driving stacks up, and lets them know if they could qualify for discounts on their car insurance. It's completely hands-free and runs in the background to automatically detect when a person starts and stops driving. The app calculates a driving score based on all the same factors used in UBI programs and provides detailed information about how a person drove and ways they could improve. DriveSmart is available for download through the Apple and Android app stores.
Distribution
ICTA nomination: ABEX offers efficient and fast access to niche products for brokers
ABEX Affiliated Brokers Exchange Inc. is an insurance wholesaler (MGA) providing niche products and insurance solutions to brokers across Canada. ABEX and Insurance Technology Solutions Inc. have developed a next-generation Policy Administration System, ABEXAccess.com™, that provides secure Real-Time Rating and Paperless Policy Issuance through the ITS BindEasy Solution.
ICTA nomination: ICBC implements new portal technology to help brokers
The redesign and migration of the ICBC broker portal to SharePoint 2013 was enacted to provide brokers with better access to resources, increase business agility, and – in time – provide brokers with individualized identification accounts. Increased sustainment provided by having all company portals (employee, broker, and customer) on a single enterprise-supported platform has also provided benefits in terms of IT support, shared benefits from portal enhancements, iterative development, and responsiveness to user and employee feedback. Success of the project and use of SharePoint 2013 is supported by analytics demonstrating that brokers are finding information faster and accessing the resources that they need in fewer clicks. Moving forward, the redesign puts us in an excellent position to incorporate additional portal functions as future needs arise.
Claims
ICTA nomination: SPLICE Improves Claims Communications
SPLICE Automotive Claims Status Updates create an enhanced customer experience and streamlined communication between an insurance company and their clients. This SPLICE solution utilizes software that revolutionizes automated voice messaging. For the insurer, SPLICE solutions result in a reduction in inbound call volume, reducing costs and increasing profit. We have also seen an increase in customer engagement.
Benchmark IME: Black Boxes, Smartphones, and Personal Injury Claims
We already know that insurance companies are beginning to embrace the idea of rewarding drivers with a reduction in premiums if they are willing to install a “black box” in their vehicles that monitors and records their driving habits. But sophisticated new smartphone apps can provide data far beyond the level of information the current black-box monitoring systems can provide, especially if they can be integrated and used in conjunction with the vehicle's black box. In combination, these tools provide a vast amount of information from which the data that can be extrapolated is almost unfathomable.
Technology
IBM and Apple deliver first IBM MobileFirst for iOS apps
Apple and IBM have delivered the first wave of IBM MobileFirst for iOS solutions in a new class of made-for-business apps and supporting cloud services that bring IBM's big data and analytics capabilities to iPhone and iPad users in the enterprise. IBM MobileFirst for iOS solutions are now available to enterprise customers in banking, retail, insurance, financial services, telecommunications and for governments and airlines, thanks to an unprecedented collaboration between Apple and IBM. IBM clients announcing support for IBM MobileFirst for iOS solutions include Citi, Air Canada, Sprint and Banorte.
Gartner: Internet of Things will soon drive device and user relationship requirements
The Internet of Things (IoT) will drive device and user relationship requirements in 20 percent of new identity and access management (IAM) implementations by year-end 2016, according to Gartner, Inc. The IoT has introduced new concepts for identity management, since every device interacting with users has an identity – and users and devices can have complex, yet defined, relationships.
eMarketer: Where's the interest in wearables?
It remains to be seen whether 2015 will be the year the wearables market really explodes. However, October 2014 polling by Ipsos found that wearable devices had a more promising year ahead of them compared with some other new technologies. According to a survey of internet users, nearly 20% plan to purchase wearables next year.
Insurance Frameworks offers Panorama 360 to consulting and technology industry
During the last 18 months, Insurance Frameworks Inc., the provider of possibly the most extensive suite of Insurance and Wealth Management Capability Map, Enterprise Business Architecture Framework, Process and Data Reference Models and Methodologies, has licensed Panorama 360 on a global basis. After such keen interest in Panorama 360 by the financial industry, Insurance Frameworks has decided to offer Panorama 360 to consulting and technology platforms vendors that want to work with the financial industry by adding value to their products and services. Panorama 360 can now be licensed either as a set of documents or as part of various technology platforms.
Business of Insurance
Desjardins Group completes acquisition of State Farm's Canadian operations businesses
Desjardins Group, the leading cooperative financial group in Canada, announces that it has completed the purchase of State Farm Canada's businesses in property and casualty and life insurance, as well as its Canadian mutual fund, loan and living benefits companies as of January 1, 2015. As a result, Desjardins Group becomes the second largest P&C insurance provider in Canada. This transaction also increases the Group's geographic diversification of earnings and risk while providing an advantage of scale and strengthens its position among life and health insurers in Canada.
Policy Management
ISI Enterprise Software passes SSAE 16 examination, meets SOC 1 criteria
Insurance Systems Inc. (ISI), a global IT software provider for the Property and Casualty insurance industry, has announced that it has successfully completed a Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagement No. 16 (SSAE 16) Type I examination for their ISI Enterprise Software as a Service System. Insurance Systems retained international business advisory firm Skoda Minotti for its SSAE 16 audit work. Insurance Systems selected Skoda Minotti after an intensive search based on Skoda Minotti's reputation as a leading assurance solutions and compliance company.
Consumer Information
Aviva Canada: Hamilton police lay charges in alleged fraudulent automobile claim
Charges of fraud and obstructing justice have been laid by Hamilton police in the case of a woman who lied about details of a collision in order to cover for her uninsured daughter. Aviva Canada has zero tolerance for anyone who is found to be committing fraud.
IBC rings in the new year with tips to protect your possessions
If gifts of new jewellery, electronics or an expensive keepsake came your way over the holidays, Insurance Bureau of Canada is encouraging Canadians to update their home inventories and review their home insurance policies. “A home inventory is an important document in case you face a theft or damage to your home's contents,” says Ralph Palumbo, Vice-President, Ontario, IBC.