Insurance-Canada.ca Newsletter: Issue 2002-08; February 26, 2002

Issue 2002-08: February 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.

Marketing

Compete, Inc., an advisory services firm that delivers customer and competitive intelligence based on the industry's foremost pool of consumer behavior data, has found that consumers are increasingly emphasizing price over brand attributes when selecting an insurance carrier. Compete shows that although traditional insurance carriers have succeeded at attracting consumers to research and manage their insurance policies online, insurance distribution sites have encouraged a significant portion of consumers to select their insurance policies based almost exclusively on price. More at www.insurance-canada.ca/market/other/Compete200202.php

Here are some New Year's resolutions that are vastly better than those you've made for yourself. They're resolutions for improving the usefulness of your corporate Web site. And unlike your oaths to learn the oboe or stop playing the ponies, these are 10 resolutions that you can easily and quickly act on. From Your Virtual Insurance, by SellingWithTechnology.com - more at www.insurance-canada.ca/market/other/VIwebsite200202.php

e-Business & Technology

According to a survey released by Ernst & Young LLP, many Canadian businesses admit that the time it would take them to restore their systems and Web-based business processes is longer than they estimate their businesses can function without them. More at www.insurance-canada.ca/ebusiness/canada/EYRisk200202.php

In recent years, most organizations have made major investments in enterprise-wide applications, such as CRM, ERP, SCM, MRP and Data Warehousing. And yet comparatively few have been able to capitalize on their true potential. A white paper "Data Reliability: The Foundation for Successful Enterprise Applications" by Delos Technology. Details at www.insurance-canada.ca/ebusiness/canada/Delos200202.php

Apply for the Insurance Internet Innovation Award, sponsored by InSystems. This will showcase insurance industry online successes and present best practices from which all kinds of insurance companies can benefit. Details at www.insurance-canada.ca/ebusiness/canada/InnovAward200202.php

Managing Relationships

Five financial services sector associations - The Canadian Bankers (CBA), the Canadian Life and Health (CLHIA), the Insurance Bureau (IBC), the Investment Dealers Association (IDA) and The Investment Funds Institute (IFIC) - have agreed to form the Financial Services Council of Canada to better coordinate their efforts on legislative, regulatory and policy issues in which they have a common interest. More details at www.insurance-canada.ca/ebusiness/canada/FSCouncil200202.php

Distribution

Where are we now? by Doug Grant CIP from Alberta Broker Although the Internet is just another way of communicating, its impact is just starting to be felt. At the end of the day people have trust in and will do business with those with whom they have a relationship. Article at www.insurance-canada.ca/distribution/canada/DWGAlberta200202.php

CSIO Insurance Portal

Lombard has begun testing with the Portal. Sherwood has contributed a short status of their project. Bill Wallace notes the development and testing work with each function bundle continues well.

Apology to Keal Technology, and lesson learned. In last week's newsletter, I wrote "Keal Technology describes their project to support the CSIO Insurance Portal from their Signassure? BMS". As text-based e-mails wend their way through the Internet email gateways and computer translation tables, unusual characters sometimes change. The phrase "Signassure? BMS" should read "Signassure(TM) BMS" but I included the "TM" as a superscript TM, which in some cases was translated to a "?". This obviously presents a puzzling or questionable meaning to you the reader. One solution is to move to an html newsletter, but that too presents a difficulty to many of you, I know. We are working on it though.

Policy Management

Sherwood International Strengthens Its Position in the Caribbean With Co-Operators General Insurance (Barbados) Contract Under the contract Sherwood will supply FrontTier, it's business processing and workflow management application for the P & C market. More at www.insurance-canada.ca/poladmin/announce/SherwoodCarib200202.php

Claims

A little more than a week since our Claims seminar. You can find a short summary of the entire seminar at www.insurance-canada.ca/claims/canada/SeminarSum200202.php

We hope to add a longer description of each of the sessions; here are two: - Claims Technology Issues 2002: by Patrick Vice, UniExchange Corporation at www.insurance-canada.ca/claims/canada/ViceIssues200202.php - Lets Get Together- The Need for Collaborative Claims HUBS! by Scott Knight, Correlation Technologies at www.insurance-canada.ca/claims/canada/CorrelHub200202.php

from Doug:

We will be sending out a "Marketing Newsletter" edition to you in the next few days. We hope that it will help better explain our services for you, and lead to you considering us more as you reach out to your insurance industry or insurance consumer customers and prospects. The letter will be sent periodically, probably monthly. We will try to present some of the lessons we have learned, and are learning, in using the Internet as a marketing tool.

Yesterday was a late spring day here - sunny, warm, pleasant. Tomorrow promises a return by old man winter. Someone said that the daffodils are out in Victoria. Whatever your state, enjoy!