Issue 2006-20: May 16, 2006
Policy and Product Management
Web technology from MSB Integrates Hazard Data into Underwriting Workflow.
LOS ANGELES May 8, 2006 - MSB, an MDA company and the leading worldwide provider of building cost data and estimating technology to the property insurance industry, announces the integration of MSB Hazard Express (TM), MSB's comprehensive exposure look-up and mapping application, into MSB's Web-hosted "total component" home valuation tool, MSB Express(TM) with RCT (Residential Component Technology)
eBusiness and Technology
Information Builders Introduces Process-Driven Business Intelligence.
New York, NY and Orlando, FL - April 25, 2006 - Information Builders, the enterprise business intelligence (BI) standard of choice for organizations around the world, today announced a powerful solution to meet the burgeoning demand for process-driven BI. As business operations become increasingly more complex in the global environment, enterprises require intelligent, end-to-end processes that can not only monitor business activities, but provide actionable results.
eMarketer: The World Wide Web may finally be living up to its name.
MAY 5, 2006 - According to the sixth annual "E-readiness Rankings" of the world's largest economies, published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), using a model developed together with the IBM Institute for Business Value, with over 1 billion Internet users and 2 billion mobile-phone users worldwide, the world is more e-ready than ever.
Leading Organizations Increase Customer Satisfaction and Foster Business Success with KANA's Multi-Channel Customer Service Solutions.
MENLO PARK, Calif. - May 8, 2006 - KANA Software, Inc. a world leader in multi-channel customer service, today announced that CIOs and other IT executives seeking to bolster their organizations' customer strategies and top-line business objectives are turning to its multi-channel customer service solutions. With customer satisfaction increasingly becoming a measure of corporate viability, leading organizations, such as Priceline.com, have adopted KANA's solutions for email, self-service, and call centers in order to increase the quality and timeliness of service across all channels.
Distribution
The Principal Financial Group (Charles Weisbecker) to Speak at ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum: Global IQX.
Ottawa, Ontario, May 10, 2006 - The Principal Financial Group® (The Principal®) implemented a sales and service automation solution from Global IQX with the goals of accessing small case markets, increasing general agent quoting activity and improving agent/broker productivity and loyalty.
Custom Software Solutions Product, The Broker's Workstation, Now Integrated With ING's Point-of-Sale Tool Savers.
May 2006 - Custom Software Solutions Inc. (CSSI) is pleased to announce that ING Insurance brokers in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick now have the ability to quote and issue new business for Personal Property and Automobile using the link between the ING Savers technology and the suite of products available with CSSI.
Brovada Technologies Inc. Partnership with Nexisys to Improve Productivity for Power Broker Users
April 26, 2006 (Sooke, BC and Saint John, NB) Zycomp Systems Limited, a leading BMS provider in Canada, announced today they have formed a partnership with Brovada Technologies Inc. to make nexisys available to all Power Broker users.
LIMRA Taps TalentKeepers to Help Clients Further Improve Agent Retention.
Windsor, CT, May 08, 2006 - LIMRA International today announced a strategic partnership with employee-retention experts TalentKeepers to help companies improve agent retention.
Business of Insurance
Great-West Lifeco subsidiary acquires large payout annuity block in the United Kingdom.
WINNIPEG, MB, May 11, 2006 - Great-West Lifeco Inc. today announced that its wholly-owned United Kingdom subsidiary, Canada Life Limited (Canada Life), has reached an agreement with The Equitable Life Assurance Society (Equitable Life) in the UK to acquire the assets and liabilities associated with most of Equitable's not-for-profit pension annuity business.
Claims
AIR Worldwide Analysis Concludes That Significant Uncertainty Overshadows Projections of Near-term Hurricane Activity.
BOSTON, May 9, 2006 - AIR Worldwide Corporation (AIR) issued a white paper today titled "Understanding Climatological Influences on Hurricane Activity: The AIR Near-term Catalog." The white paper reviews the current state of research on climatological impacts on hurricane activity and explains the approach used to create AIR's near-term sensitivity catalog, which quantifies the influence of sea surface temperature (SST) forecasts on insured losses for the next five years.
Auto Injury Claimants in New York City Vastly Different From Claimants in the Rest of New York State, IRC Study Finds.
10 May 2006, MALVERN, Pa.-A recent Insurance Research Council (IRC) study of auto injury insurance claims in the state of New York finds that claimants from the New York City metropolitan area exhibit very different claiming behaviors than claimants from the rest of the state. Despite the fact that New York City area claimants are not more seriously injured than other claimants, they receive significantly more medical treatment and report much higher economic losses, pushing up costs in the auto injury system.
Insurance in the Community
Olympic Athlete Bruny Surin Spokesperson for Standard Life's Step Up for the Children.
MONTREAL, May 5, 2006 - Olympic Gold Medalist, motivational speaker and thriving entrepreneur Bruny Surin will Step Up for the Children with Standard Life on Saturday, May 27, at Parc Jean-Drapeau, île Ste-Hélène. Standard Life and the Foundation for research into children's diseases invite Montreal runners, walkers, families and companies to do the same.
Consumer Information
ICLR retrofits an Ottawa home to protect against earthquake and winter storms.
On May 10, the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) unveiled its latest home retrofit project. As part of the insurance industry's ongoing commitment to educate Canadian homeowners about disaster safety, ICLR has once again chosen Emergency Preparedness Week (May 7-13) to unveil its latest home retrofit project, this time in Ottawa, Ontario.
Driving tired potentially as risky as driving drunk: Highway Safety Roundtable.
If you are over-tired, you are impaired and shouldn't drive. That's the message from the Highway Safety Roundtable as it launches Canada's first national Fatigue Impairment Awareness Day and its new Web site, www.fatigueimpairment.ca.
Michelin Spring Driving Survey: Ipsos-Reid.
May 2, 2006 Toronto, ON - The 2006 Spring Driving survey conducted by Ipsos Reid for Michelin Tires reveals that Canadian drivers may not be as courteous as they think they are. While two in three (66%) drivers say they become more relaxed behind the wheel and are more courteous to fellow motorists when the weather gets warmer in the Spring, only 10% of drivers say they've observed such behaviour in fellow motorists during Spring!
Marketing and the Market Place
The Co-operators Group Membership Expanded and Strengthened.
GUELPH, ON, May 5, 2006 - Today The Co-operators Group Limited announced the addition of the Fédération des coopératives d'alimentation du Québec (FCAQ) to its membership group. The Co-operators is now owned by a total of 33 Canadian co-operatives and like-minded organizations.
from Doug:
I feel a little guilty, as a son and husband, for not doing as much as I probably should have on Mother's Day last week, but I did do a bit in both cases.
Our hearts reached out to a fellow worker, our technology support person, whose mother passed away on Saturday. A sad time. A reminder to us all of life's tenuous bonds, and that we must take the time to make the memories, while we can.