Issue 2002-46: November 19, 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
Practising People Power: Knowledge Management.
Our Knowledge Management seminar on Tues.Dec.3 in the morning, downtown Toronto, is shaping up well. Although several speakers are Life insurance related, this topic and the speakers are quite appropriate to P&C practitioners as well.
Deb Wallace from Sun Life will provide an overview of the discipline - Knowledge Management 101. Paul Power from IBM Lotus brings some information of tools to be used in the area. Andrea McGrory, BearingPoint comments on the use of the approach to improve underwriting and cycle time, and will be supported by Gail Johnson Morris, VP Underwriting and New Business, Transamerica Life. And Deb Wallace again will conclude by reviewing the strateey and experiences thus far at Clarica.
Register today - details at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/seminars/seminar20021203.php or just send me an e-mail.
Claims
Castek Licenses ClaimsPath to Kingsway Financial Services.
Castek Inc. announces that it has signed a letter of intent with Kingsway Financial Services for use of its ClaimsPath (formerly known as InsuroCity) communication platform. Kingsway examiners will access ClaimsPath via the Internet to manage auto physical damage and property claims for the company's Kingsway General Insurance and York Fire and Casualty subsidiaries. A hosted system, ClaimsPath is customized to Kingsway's claims workflow process and integrated with its existing policy processing system to eliminate duplicate entry and increase efficiency. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/claims/announce/CastekKingsway200211.php
Reference and Statistics
North American Life Insurance Activity Declines 1.9% in October (Canada increases): MIB.
October applications for life insurance in North America decreased 1.9% as compared to the same period last year. U.S. application activity was off 2.6% with Canadian application activity increasing 5.2% compared to October 2001 levels. Details athttp://www.insurance-canada.ca/refstat/canada/MIBOct200211.php
Marketing
The 4 Ps of E-marketing: Permission, By Stefan Eyram.
If you have studied marketing or have read any basic marketing books you are undoubtedly aware of the four Ps of marketing Product, Place, Promotion & Price. As marketing paradigms change, the four Ps are also changing. Today we need to look at a new list the 4 Ps of e-marketing - Permission, Privacy, Profiling and Personalization! First of four parts, summarized from our marketing seminar Oct 18, at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/market/canada/SEyram200211.php
Liberty Health launches new and innovative Web site at www.coverme.com
Liberty Health officially re-launched its new and functionally rich corporate Web site at www.coverme.com. The redesigned site amalgamates the online self-service component of SecureServeTM/MC with all of the sales, product, service, corporate and contact information under one comprehensive and integrated enterprise-wide Web site. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/market/canada/LibertyWeb200211.php
Stone & Cox Ltd Announce Exclusive Sponsorship Agreement with CAIFA.
Stone & Cox Ltd. and CAIFA formed an exclusive sponsorship agreement effective Sept 5th, 2002, allowing both companies to promote their products and services through each organization. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/market/canada/SandCCAIFA200211.php
Measuring Marketing: Why Doesn’t Everyone Do It? by David Hallerman, eMarketer.
To measure marketing’s effectiveness, a company needs first to become acquainted with the who’s and the wants. Who is the company trying to reach, and what does the company want from them? Furthermore, who are these customers -- and what do they want, both from the company and, in general, as consumers? Article at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/market/other/eMarketerMail200211.php
Business, eBusiness and Technology
Sun Life Financial's Investor Day reviews strategic direction and prospects for solid earnings growth.
At a meeting with investors, senior management of Sun Life Financial Services of Canada Inc. today outlined the Company's growth strategy and reviewed its earnings prospects for 2003. The Company expressed confidence in its ability to achieve double digit earnings growth given stable capital markets. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/ebusiness/canada/SunLifeStrat200211.php
Canada Life Acquires German Operation of Prudential UK.
Canada Life Financial Corporation announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire the Irish based German life operations of Prudential UK plc. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/ebusiness/other/CanadaLPru200211.php
Distribution
Consumer's Guide - Building Brokers Books of Business.
Consumers are having a hard time finding the brokers with the right markets to insure them, while brokers are wasting their valuable time dealing with an overwhelming number of shoppers. "Brokers are spending too much time talking on the phone and not enough time writing policies," says Lee Romanov, President of The Consumer's Guide to Insurance, which provides a pre-qualified, unique referral system for brokers. Are you looking for more P&C or Life leads? More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/distribution/announce/ConsGuide200211.php
Hub International Signs Letter of Intent to Purchase Sun Life Financial Advisory Services Inc.
Hub International Limited, a leading North American insurance brokerage headquartered in Chicago, IL, announced that it has signed a letter of intent to acquire Sun Life Financial Advisory Services Inc., a Canadian mutual fund dealer, in order to merge it's operations with Hub Capital Inc., Hub International's existing mutual fund dealer in Canada. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/distribution/canada/HUBSunLife200211.php
CSIO Insurance Portal Status Update
Week ending November 15: Three more brokers were registered and went into production this week; total now 6. Dominion's ON Property rates continue in Systems Test, and ING's have been loaded. Many others have been received - see details through link above. Auto and Property rates for NS and NB have been received from CGU.
The technical problems with L'Union Canadienne's direct connection to the portal have been resolved.
CIM-Data is now testing for Facility rates.
Policy Management
Iter8 Announces the First Issue of their Newsletter.
Iter8 brings online and back office business solutions to the insurance industry. With a growing number of customers, and an increasing set of solutions, iter8 has initiated a section of its Web site and now a newsletter to share this information more widely. Announcement and newsletter at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/poladmin/announce/iter8NL200211.php
Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company Goes Live with Sherwood International's Group Administration Insurance Solution.
Sherwood International has completed the implementation of a group administration version of its FrontTier application, a processing and workflow management solution, at Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company (RSL), a leading provider of group employee benefits insurance products headquartered in Philadelphia. RSL is the first group insurance provider to implement FrontTier. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/poladmin/other/SherwoodRSL200211.php
Careers, Skills and Community
Clarica Scholars seeks applications for teacher-student summer 2003 program.
The Clarica Scholars Program, a joint partnership with Acadia University, University of Waterloo and Clarica that connects teachers, students and experts in a dynamic and collaborative technology environment, is now accepting applications for the summer 2003 program. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/humanres/canada/ClaricaSch200211.php
Managing Relationships and Customer Service
Gómez Penetrates The Small Business Banking Mindset.
Gómez Inc., the Internet Quality Measurement firm, revealed findings from research into what small business owners want from Web banking and its inaugural SOHO/Micro Banker Scorecard, which examines how the largest banks in the U.S. are serving the particular needs of owners of those small businesses with under $1 million in revenues. More at http://www.insurance-canada.ca/ebusiness/other/ConningPC200211.php
from Doug:
I suppose no part of the country is immune from winter's arrival. Toronto traffic, drivers and snow are not a good mix - long lineups for tow trucks and drivers at the central drive-in claims reporting centre when our first dump arrived last weekend. I am not anticipating the annual "cold-hands" exercise of finishing the fall yard work! ....soon - I promise.