Issue 2001-18: September 19, 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.
Insurance Distribution
The challenges, and successes, of linking points in the distribution chain continues on. Existing functions are being enabled, and new ones added. CSIO reports that Economical, Zurich and Markham General will be the lead companies for pilot testing of the CSIO Insurance Portal. The comparative quoting service being implemented will then allow, as an extension, these three to offer guaranteed quotes. More here and at the CSIO Insurance Portal Web site.
What has often been an asynchronous and disconnected process is moving into the e-business realm of instant and straight through processing. There has been and will continue to be significant effort to enable back office systems for this new environment - online real-time, easier to use, easier to learn and understand, simpler processes, and in many cases a lot of integration work. A new CSIO Vendor member - OARBIC - is focused on web-enabling and extending back-office legacy systems to meet these new requirements - at www.insurance-canada.ca/distribution/canada/CSIOOARBIC200109.php
Claims
The other, or even most important, customer touch point is at time of Claim. Many argue that the potential of e-business to impact insurance as a whole is even greater in the Claims space with the multitude of providers and processes. The challenges of enabling Claims back office systems, often today not as much computer-assisted as policy management and distribution, could be even greater. Castek announces their Insur(superscript: 3) Claims, a sister but not dependent product to Insur(superscript: 3) Policy, to bring the same characteristics to the claims processing environment. More at www.insurance-canada.ca/claims/announce/CastekCL200109.php
Between the Claims back office and the service provider and customer are a lot of communications and processes. InsuroCity was constructed as a tool to address many of the communications and simple processes which have so challenged, because of their sheer volume, Claims staff in providing excellent customer service. Castek announces the acquisition of InsuroCity from Vital Innovations Inc. More at www.insurance-canada.ca/claims/announce/CastekIC200109.php
Customer Perspective
Many companies have been challenged to attain a good understanding and view of their customers, for reasons spanning from product development to rating discounts. Today's drive to quality customer service has dramatically increased the operational view of a customer across an entire enterprise, while enabling access to that view from many channels - intermediary, call centre, web centre etc. - concurrently and in real-time. DWL Incorporated announces that MetLife will implement DWL Customer to enable this single view across a multitude of back office systems. More at www.insurance-canada.ca/ebusiness/announce/DWLMet200109.php
Internet and Insurance
Many studies and reports have provided conjecture about what the Internet means to insurance, and everyone today would agree that the impact will be significant. Few yet understand the nuances of how the industry will change - initially sales expectations have morphed into service improvements and greater efficiencies. Three recent articles and reports provide thoughts and statistics about the changes.
E-Insurance; is it working? is an article which was published in Your Virtual Insurance newsletter, published by SellingWithTechnology.com. It presents an overview of where and why we are heading in the e-business direction, and some general guidance. At www.insurance-canada.ca/ebusiness/other/SellTech200109.php
Booz-Allen & Hamilton's recent survey reveals the gap between Internet Insurance Offerings and Customer Needs. They compare insurance to some of the other financial services and note the differences. Some suggestions about positioning and partnering are made. The overview at www.insurance-canada.ca/ebusiness/other/BAH200109.php also presents a link to more detail.
The third item is an article reprinted from Insurance Networking Magazine entitled "Surviving The (Insurance) Dot-Com Shipwreck". What can the survivors -- and carriers -- glean from these mistakes? The primary example used is e-coverage, a very high profile entrant into insurance as an end-to-end provider which was to take the industry by storm, based on extreme efficiency and service levels. How then did they close their doors, after going through a very large sum of money. What can we learn from it, and an overview of may other Internet components and how they relate, at www.insurance-canada.ca/ebusiness/other/InsNet200109.php
Yes, the Internet is causing an evolution in many forms of communications, in most all industries - insurance is in no sense immune.
from Doug:
The enormity of the tragedy in New York a week ago is so apparent in the media. Our hearts and minds reach out to the many who have suffered loss - someone close, or more distant yet linked through friends or industry. It overpowers and compounds the grief that I feel when a young relative, two weeks into university, not a close, yet not a distant, relative, loses his life in a car accident. We all face risk daily - it does not make grief lighter, nor life less valuable. I hope the sun will shine more brightly on the remainder of our fall season.