Issue 2002-37: September 17, 2002
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.
Distribution
Allstate Canada, HLC expand loan program
Allstate Insurance Company of Canada and HLC Home Loans Canada (HLC), a brokerage unit of CIBC Mortgages Inc., are bringing more human contact to their co-operative mortgage program to meet a consumer demand for more personal service in financing home purchases. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/distribution/canada/AllstateHLC200209.php
Amica Life Insurance Company Chooses Fipsco Life Portraits ES System.
Fipsco, a unit of Fiserv, Inc. (Nasdaq: FISV) and a leading developer of life insurance marketing software and solutions, announced that Amica Life Insurance Company has selected Life PortraitsTM Enterprise Solution (formerly Life PortraitsTM 2000) to support its life insurance telemarketing programs. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/distribution/announce/Fipsco200209.php
CSIO Insurance Portal Status Update
Week ending September 13: The production environment is now completed and set up. One broker has now been defined to the system using the admin functions, just waiting for things to do. Economical is also set and ready to go. Several companies have pretty much completed their User Acceptance Testing of the Ontario Auto Rates in the ISI rating engine in the staging environment. Once a company signs off, its rates will be moved to the production copy of the ISI rating engine. French user interfaces for the transactions have been moved from development to the staging environment for more testing. Keal Technology is able to send and receive transactions, and testing continues.
Policy Management
Gore Completes First Phase of Underwriting Automation Project: iter8.
Gore Mutual Insurance Company has successfully completed the first phase of a comprehensive business improvement and technology project. iter8 Incorporated was a key technology contributor to the project. “In just nine months, we have been able to integrate a number of technologies and get the pieces to run together,” says Richard Meertens, Vice President of Information Services for Gore Mutual. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/poladmin/announce/iter8Gore200209.php
Marketing
Advanced Marketing Automation: Maximizing Campaign Returns through Customer Intelligence: An SAS White Paper
How can you consistently beat your profitability goals — and your competitors? On the surface, it’s not that complicated. Just understand your customers better and faster than anyone else, and use that knowledge to target them more effectively than anyone else. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/market/canada/SASMA200209.php
Claims
Helicopter leads Boomerang Tracking Inc. team to rare piece of equipment.
Boomerang Tracking Inc. successfully located a rare and extremely valuable piece of construction equipment as part of a recent tracking operation in Ontario. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/claims/announce/Boomerang200209.php
Consumer Info
Insuring a new teen driver? Consider this: You don't have to be a millionaire to be sued for millions.
Every year some 4 million teenagers take to the streets across North America and require auto insurance. A parent almost always makes the call to the insurance agent or broker asks, “How do I get the lowest rate for my new teen driver and what coverage does he or she need?” More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/consinfoauto/ipromillions200209.php
Technology and e-Business
Telesat testing high-speed Internet service with Rural Property and Casualty Broker and CSIO Portal.
Since the launch of its new two-way satellite High Speed Internet (HSi) service earlier this year, Telesat has been working with the CSIO on the new insurance portal that will be operational soon. Recently, Telesat provided their HSi service to an insurance broker whose business is located in rural Ontario and does not have access to high speed Internet. The broker is using the HSi service for testing the CSIO portal and other web-based business applications in an insurance broker environment. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/ebusiness/announce/Telesat200209.php
Canada to Rise from Mobile Doldrums: eMarketer
The Canadian wireless sector is something of a curiosity. Canada is one of the most technically advanced countries in the world, there is a very high penetration of PCs and internet access, and the country has a broadband penetration rate double that of the United States.Yet, Chile, Malta and Croatia, along with every developed country in the world, has a higher cellphone penetration than Canada, according to the International Telecommunication Union. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/ebusiness/canada/eMobile200209.php
Gómez Again Raises Bar On Web site Monitoring
Gómez, Inc., the Internet Quality Measurement firm, has released the latest version of its Gómez Performance Network (GPN) Web performance monitoring service that serves the complex data analysis needs of technical and business organizations. In its second major release of the year, Gómez continues to develop functionality based on open standards while making reporting easier and more flexible for enterprises. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/ebusiness/announce/Gomez200209.php
Managing Relationships and Customer Service
Aggregation Finding Its Place in Online Banking: eMarketer.
Next to online bill payment, account aggregation is the most ballyhooed service among internet banking’s offerings. Quick definition of aggregation: Giving customers information about all of their finances in one place online. Similar to the industry’s intent with electronic bill payment, banks hope to use aggregation to win new customers and retain existing ones. And, with new tools available from aggregation providers, banks will be able to segment out customer data from other institutions and use that data for targeted marketing. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/ebusiness/other/EmktrAggreg200209.php
from Doug:
Following our cloudy, indeed quite wet, trip here to the Mohawk Valley, the weather has again turned quite pleasant. That matches the enthusiasm and interest that our hosts, and the other members of the group, all have for family history and genealogical research.