Issue 2002-47:   November 26, 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.

Seminar

Attend our seminar "Practising People Power: Knowledge Management" Tues. Dec. 3 in the morning, downtown Toronto.

Information + Experience + Collaboration = Knowledge.

We all have a personal and corporate array of assets, centred around our people and their skills and knowledge. Bringing an approach to managing these is part of Knowledge Management. Is KM old wine in a new bottle, a repackaging of management consulting opportunities, or the corner stone of creating a sustainable competitive advantage in our business or organization?

Join us as we explore the field in Canadian Insurance: What is KM? Some tools which are being deployed in the trade. Can KM techniques make a difference in the Underwriting cycle - a panel discussion with representatives from Transamerica, Canada Life and Clarica Sunlife, moderated by Andrea McGrory of BearingPoint. An overview of the components of Clarica's Knowledge and Learning strategy and illustration of how communities of practice play a key role in leveraging the wealth of individual and organizational capabilities at Clarica.

A great group of experienced speakers. Join us and draw from their knowledge. Details and registration at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/seminars/seminar20021203.php Register today, and please forward this to others in your company who may not be aware of it.

Consumer Information

IBC launches three-year national road safety awareness campaign: headrests.

Taking time to properly adjust the headrest in your vehicle can help prevent injury. That's the message from the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) in its national safety awareness campaign, Rest up! Save your neck. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/consinfoauto/IBCHeadRest200211.php

Does your teen know what to do in the event of a car crash? Do you?

Given the number of teens involved in car crashes, it is imperative that they know what to do in the event of a crash. To this end, the I Promise Program - teen safe driving initiative (www.ipromiseprogram.com), requested input from law enforcement agencies and officers to develop a list of just what teens (and all other motorists) should do in the event of a collision. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/consinfoauto/IPromCrash200211.php

Marketing

The 4 Ps of E-marketing: Privacy, By Stefan Eyram.

Historically marketers have bundled the issue of privacy together with permission. While both are related, they are in fact very different. Permission is an invitation to collect and use personal information and to market to an individual. Privacy, on the other hand, is all about what information you collect, what you do with that personal information and how you ensure its integrity and security. Article at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/market/canada/SEyramPriv200211.php

Insurance Products

Liberty Health offers new insurance choices for individuals leaving their group benefit plan.

"Liberty Health has introduced an improved Conversion Plus (TM/MD) plan that gives consumers leaving group plans more flexibility when looking to obtain benefits which will provide a similar type of health and dental coverage to what employees had in their group benefit plan," Liberty Health Senior Vice-President of Consumer Markets David McFarlane announced. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/consinfohealth/LibertyCP200211.php

Business, eBusiness and Technology

BC Government slams brakes on auto insurance competition: IBC.

The BC government remains stuck in neutral on the issue of implementing true competition and choice for BC drivers. Today's announcement means the Campbell Government has essentially slammed the brakes on competition and choice in the province, sending a message that the government knows what's best for consumers and their auto insurance needs. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/ebusiness/canada/IBCandBC200211.php

British Columbia Government keeps insurance rates low for B.C. drivers.

The B.C. government made two decisions today to set the future course for the province’s automobile insurance market. The decisions on ICBC’s core services review and rates for 2003 were made during an open cabinet session at the legislature. First, cabinet approved ICBC’s recommended rate adjustments, continuing the process begun last year to address rating inequities resulting from the six-year rate freeze. Second, ICBC’s core services review examined a range of options from the status quo to full privatization and the government decided to maintain ICBC as the sole provider of basic auto insurance, distributed through independent brokers. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/ebusiness/canada/ICBC200211.php

CGI Acquires UAB Strengthening Its BPO and Insurance Industry Expertise.

CGI Group Inc. today announced the signing of a binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the acquisition of the Underwriters Adjustment Bureau Ltd. (UAB) with an annualized revenue run rate of approximately CDN$100 million. The acquisition is expected to close on January 1, 2003 when the terms and conditions will be finalized. The purchase price is CDN$53 million and the transaction is expected to be accretive to CGI's fiscal 2003 earnings. The acquisition of UAB significantly expands CGI's capabilities of its insurance and business process services units. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/ebusiness/announce/CGIUAB.php

TowerGroup Announces New Research -- Web Services in Insurance.

The use of Web services within the financial services industry has received a lot of attention recently, but it should not be regarded as another Web fad or attempt by vendors to repackage existing technology. Web services technology is an emerging information technology mechanism that can provide the communications standards and reusable tools needed to create connections between information system platforms. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/ebusiness/other/TowerGrp200211.php

Distribution

InSystems Launches New Business eXterity (NBX) Offering Insurance-specific Portal Efficiencies for Agents & Brokers.

InSystems, the premier provider of insurance portal solutions, announces InSystems New Business eXterity (NBX), insurance e-application software enabling the automation of traditionally paper-based manual processes for creating and submitting new insurance applications. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/distribution/announce/InSystemsNBX200211.php

Ranking the Vendors of Wealth Management Technology 2002: Reports by Celent.

In a four-part series on wealth management technology, Celent Communications evaluates the leading vendors in each of four areas:
- Wealth Management Platforms
- Client Prospecting & Sales
- Financial Planning & Advice
- Data Consolidation
More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/distribution/other/CelentWM200211.php

Progressive Provides a “Missing Link” to Help Independent Insurance Agents Offer More Efficient Customer Service.

Progressive, USA's largest writer of auto insurance through independent agents, has worked with AMS to develop technology that allows agents to link directly from a customer’s policy in their AMS software to the Policy Access page for that policy on Progressive’s agent-dedicated Web site, ForAgentsOnly.com (FAO). More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/distribution/other/ProgressiveFAO200211.php

CSIO Insurance Portal Status Update

Week ending November 22: Again this week, three more brokers were registered and went into production, total is now 9. So far CSIO has gone on-site to do the registration and get-started activities, but intend to do this remotely soon.

Lombard's system is now connected to the Production version of the Portal, but they will continue testing for a while yet. Pilot's ON Property rates have been received - see companies' status on our web page.

Auto and Property rates for NS and NB have now been received from ING.

CIM-Data is now sending and receiving transactions for the Facility rates, testing continues.

Signassure(TM) and The Portal: Keal Technology – www.keal.com

Keal Technology has been working very closely with CSIO to iron out any problems with the transmission of EDI data to and from the portal. With the latest changes made to the Portal we have now been able to successfully upload, quote and download policy information.

Claims

Accident Support Services Ltd. Receives Approval to Open a Collision Reporting Center in Partnership with the Brantford Police Service.

Accident Support Services Ltd., Facilitators of Collision Reporting to the Insurance Industry, is pleased to announce that on December 9, 2002 we will open a Collision Reporting Centre with the Brantford Police Service. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/claims/announce/AccSuppBrant200211.php

Policy Management

Life Closed Books: An Opportunity to Increase Profits; by Raj Vaswani, Sapiens.

The hardware and application maintenance costs for the systems that run the life closed books are high because they are often run on antiquated systems that have been starved of new investments based on these systems not being strategic to the direction of the carrier moving forward. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/poladmin/canada/RVaswaniCB200218.php

from Doug:

Well, I did manage some of that yard-work I promised last week - still a couple of eaves to go. Were it not for the grey cup game, I might have finished. Forecast predicts warmer weather on Friday; should I be so lucky as to avoid frozen fingers on the weekend?
I have been cleaning out the email errors from our distribution list for this newsletter - only a couple of questionables remaining - ten more subscriptions will take it over 1900. Site traffic looks like it will set another record this month too.
We always welcome suggestions and constructive criticism for both site and newsletter.