INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

New Entrants: Industry Transformation Accelerates
New entrants seem to be coming out of the woodwork in insurance, driven by a sense of opportunity to build successful businesses and make money. A few recent examples illustrate the new interest in insurance from those both inside and outside of the insurance industry.
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Microservices Key To Insurer Cloud Strategies?
The microservices approach was first envisioned to architect individual applications to take advantage of rapidly changing cloud environments. Now, it has extended beyond application design, gaining traction across the IT enterprise. In a new executive brief, Novarica discusses what microservices architecture is, where it came from, and how it differs from traditional SOA. In addition, the brief discusses benefits, drawbacks, and explains how adopting microservices architecture in isolation is a recipe for disappointment.
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Emerging Technologies In Commercial Lines
SMA's latest report covers eight emerging technologies that hold great promise for commercial lines organizations, including artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, blockchain, and drones.
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Cloud Migration: Key Issues, Best Practices
In the last two years ago, the prevalence of cloud computing by insurers has surged from below 20% to more than 70%. This rapid growth disguises the fact that a transition to cloud is no simple task – it can impact financials, technology and staff in several ways. In a new executive brief, Novarica explores approaches for insurers as they plan to migrate their infrastructure and applications to the cloud.
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Unica Insurance Expands CSIO eDocs
The Centre for Study of Insurance Operations is pleased to announce that Unica Insurance is now using CSIO eDocs to send both the insured and broker copies of policy documents directly to their partners' broker management system (BMS).
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Promutuel Obtains CSIO Certification For eDocs
The Centre for Study of Insurance Operations is pleased to announce that Promutuel Insurance has obtained CSIO Certification for Personal Lines eDocs. Promutuel Insurance began sending eDocs on October 15, extending the benefits and cost savings of paperless workflow to brokers across Quebec and New Brunswick.
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Sun Life, Rise People Parter On Benefits Solution
Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada has announced an investment and strategic relationship with Rise People Inc., Canada's first and only all-in-one HR, payroll and benefits administration solution.
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CSSI, SGI Announce Rating Integration Project
Custom Software Solutions Inc. and SGI CANADA are pleased to announce an online rating integration project. The project will connect CSSI's The Broker's Workstation (TBW) and IntelliQuote (IQ) with SGI CANADA's Externalized Online Rating Web Service to provide new business quotes for the Ontario market.
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FIRST, Applied Launch Payment Integration
FIRST Insurance Funding of Canada, the industry leader in insurance payment solutions, and Applied Systems are proud to announce that FIRST Canada is now an Applied Integration Partner. This allows Applied Epic users to provide broker-specific payment plans along with the policy proposal, directly from within Applied Epic.
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Foxquilt Secures Seed Investment
Foxquilt, a growing insurance financial technology company leveraging big data and AI to change the insurance landscape, today announced that the company has successfully raised CAD 1.2 million in a seed round of investment, led by Extreme Venture Partners.
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New Tool Prepares Small Businesses For Disasters
Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) is pleased to announce the launch a new, one-of-a-kind tool to help businesses prepare for natural disasters. Business owners can take a free diagnostic survey that will assess their level of preparedness and recommend improvements.
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Record-Setting B.C. ShakeOff
A record 913,000 British Columbians participated in the 2018 Great BC ShakeOut, as representatives from the BC Earthquake Alliance, Emergency Management BC, and Insurance Bureau of Canada joined Ocean Networks Canada to demonstrate a safety drill and celebrate the installation of earthquake early warning sensors off Canada's west coast.
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MGA Symposium
“Technology: The Heart of Your Enterprise”

Tuesday, November 27 — Malaparte, Toronto
Last week for early-bird savings!

Kevin Huang, CEO of Peer Circle Agency, will pose the question – Peer to Peer Insurance: What is the Hype About?

Review the current market trends in P2P insurance, looking at major players, key features, and case studies. What does the future hold? What does it mean for MGAs? And how can they prepare?

Earlybird rates end this Friday, October 26.

Register now or learn more.

From Doug One of the growing applications of technology – and a noteworthy trend – is micro-services. What does that mean? Here is what I think now; please do comment and help me out. (This is in the context of real-time, on-the-fly transaction processing.) It is requested by the central processing function of the transaction, be it a quote, a renewal underwriting, or in claims a FNOL, or a once-and-done. Although the micro-service could be one you provide, it is normally provided by another party. Increasingly (but not necessarily), it is cloud-based. An insurance micro-service, then, would be one which generally has the above characteristics and provides more value, precision or scope to a real-time transaction or process. Insurance micro-services have been in use for some time, but today's connected digital world is enabling the rapid increase. Would you agree? Doug Grant, CIP Partner Insurance-Canada.ca