Issue 2006-40: October 3, 2006
Distribution
CompuOffice Announces Availability of Multi-language Support for WinQuote.
RICHMOND HILL, ON – September 26, 2006: WinQuote, is now enhanced for use in multiple languages. Currently available languages include English, French, Spanish and Italian. Work is progressing nicely toward the addition of other commonly used languages.
Novinsoft Announces New Illustration System Tools Roll-out.
25 September 2006 -- Novinsoft Inc., at their Annual Meeting in Montreal last week, announced the roll-out of new Illustration System Tools - opening up areas of the application to enable client companies to customize and maintain their own Illustration Systems. Some Novinsoft Illustration Framework Tools (NIFT) are currently available, while some are now under development – to be released in 2007.
Bar code addition boosts batch scanning efficiency in latest Applied Systems major product releases.
University Park , IL - September 18, 2006 - Applied Systems makes a CSR's work more efficient with bar coding to enhance the batch scanning document management function in the company's newest agency management system major releases issued today.
ASCOT Underwriting signs on with eReinsure - London underwriter embraces distribution technology.
LONDON, September 21st, 2006 - eReinsure.com, Inc., a provider of e-commerce technology to the insurance and reinsurance markets, today announced that Ascot Underwriting, a leading London insurer and reinsurer, has contracted to use the company's online platform for reinsurance negotiation.
Updated Eastbridge Report Examines the Worksite Market.
AVON, CONNECTICUT, USA (September 20, 2006)The worksite/voluntary market has grown significantly over the past five or so years. But the last three years have shown slower growth. In 2005, the market grew at just over three percent with sales of just over $4.366 billion. Despite this slow-down in growth, many companies in the market continue to grow at double-digit rates.
Consumer Information
Seminar: What's Your Business Really Worthe Unlocking Wealth Potential in Branding: by Insurers Financial Group.
Balance Sheets have been the typical financial instrument to determine the wealth of a company, depicting tangible assets and their ascribed values. The value of a company begins with the sum of all physical assets. In other words, we measure and value what we can see!
How Do You Feel About Life Insurance? Take the LIMRA Quiz.
Windsor, CT, September 11, 2006 - For most consumers, buying life insurance can be a tough decision - a combination of rational financial calculations and emotional attitudes.
CIHI: Differences in health for rural and urban Canadians.
September 19, 2006 - A new report released today shows that Canadians living in rural areas generally have higher mortality (or death) rates than those living in urban areas. How Healthy Are Rural Canadians? An Assessment of Their Health Status and Health Determinants is the result of a research partnership between the Canadian Population Health Initiative (CPHI)-a part of the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI)-as well as the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and the Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research (Laurentian University). This report provides a new pan-Canadian perspective on the health of rural Canadians.
Burnaby resident sentenced to four months in jail for attempting to defraud ICBC.
Alen Melki of Burnaby has been charged and convicted through trial of two counts of uttering forged documents, for providing faked tax documents to the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) in an attempt to receive exaggerated payments for lost wages.
IIHS: Teen drivers' crash rates go down significantly under provisions of California's graduated licensing law.
ARLINGTON, VA - August 31, 2006 - The main finding of a new evaluation of graduated licensing is a 23 percent overall reduction in the per-capita crash involvement rate of 16-year-old drivers in California. Crashes went down more in the high-risk situations specifically addressed by graduated licensing nighttime crash rates went down 27 percent, and crash rates with teen passengers decreased 38 percent. The study was conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Claims
Merastar Insurance Selected as Finalist for A.M. Best's E-Fusion Award Based on Guidewire Implementation.
SAN MATEO, CA, September 27, 2006 – Guidewire Software®, a leading provider of solutions to property and casualty and workers' compensation insurers, today announced that its client, Merastar Insurance Company, has been selected as a finalist for a 2006 A.M. Best E-Fusion Technology Award in the Claims Management category. The selection is based on Merastar's Guidewire ClaimCenter® implementation project. ClaimCenter supports the end-to-end claims process for Merastar's personal lines of business.
eBusiness and Technology
CSC Report: Welcome to the Connected World: How
Eight Trends are Radically Changing Work and Play.
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Sept. 26, 2006 -- An American business traveler awaiting a flight in Rome uses SlingBox to view last night's episode of CSI: Miami on her laptop. Wireless sensors inform workers of an equipment failure in a remote area of an oil refinery, saving the company thousands of dollars. Skype, an Internet company, shakes up the telecommunications industry by offering conferencing services for free.
The Urge to Converge: Applications that Unify Access to Information Will Fuel Growth in BI, Search, and Discovery Markets, IDC Finds.
FRAMINGHAM, Mass., September 20, 2006 - According to a recent IDC study, information access applications will drive growth for the business intelligence (BI), search, and discovery markets. The study finds that organizations have discovered wide gaps in their business intelligence, and increasingly require unified access to all of their information. The recent rise in demand for unified access to information has spawned the creation of new, innovative software applications that combine data and content from multiple sources.
Gartner Urges CIOs to Wake up to IT's Energy Crisis.
Egham, UK, September 28, 2006 Organisations are under mounting pressure to develop 'greener' approaches towards their information technology (IT) practices, and chief information officers (CIOs) need to wake up to the issues of spiralling energy consumption and environmental legislation, according to Gartner. Although technology can help reduce the impact of some environmental problems, its potential harmful effect is receiving increasing attention from environmentalists and policy makers alike.
Business of Insurance
CTA Advises Federal Government to Rationalize Driver Screening Requirements.
(Ottawa: September 15, 2006) -- Recent publication of proposed amendments to the Marine Transportation Security Regulations has once gain drawn attention to redundancy in the federal government's approach security screening of transportation workers, according to the Canadian Trucking Alliance.
Guy Carpenter and Mercer Oliver Wyman Publish Solvency II: Preparing for the Dawning of a New Day.
New York, September 10, 2006 -- Guy Carpenter & Company, Inc., the leading global risk and reinsurance specialist, and Mercer Oliver Wyman, the global financial services strategy and risk management consultancy, both part of the Marsh & McLennan Companies (NYSE: MMC), today announced the joint publication of Solvency II: Preparing for the Dawning of a New Day. The comprehensive report examines the current state of Solvency II, the European Union's wide-ranging review of current insurance directives, and its potential strategic impact on the non-life insurance industry.
from Doug:
We are currently at mid-point of a four-day heritage bus tour of the Mohawk Valley, north and west of Albany NY. It has been another good visit with people who share the same interests. A warm welcome from people here, who don't seem to mind at all that we represent those who were on the other side 225 years ago. From all the stories, war appears to have been as horrific then as now.