Issue 2006-06: February 7, 2006
eBusiness and Technology
Royal & SunAlliance Canada Selects CGI For Seven-Year IT Services Contract.
Toronto, Ontario, January 31, 2006 - Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Company of Canada, one of Canada's leading home, auto and business insurers, selected CGI Group Inc. (CGI), one of the largest information technology and business process services firms in the world, for a seven-year information technology (IT) services contract valued at $90 million. The contract is expected to be signed later this week.
KANA Response Named Best in its Category in SearchCRM.com "Products of the Year" Awards.
Menlo Park, Calif., January 24, 2006 - KANA Software, Inc. (Pinksheets: KANA.PK), a leading provider of Service Resolution Management (SRM) solutions, today announced that KANA Response 8.0 was judged as one of the three best e-mail response management products released in 2005, in TechTarget's SearchCRM.com 2005 "Products of the Year" awards.
Distribution
Royal & SunAlliance launch WARP® Data Bridging making it easier for brokers to use WebBusiness™.
January 30, 2006 - Royal & SunAlliance is making it easier for brokers across the country to process auto and property policies by launching WARP® Data Bridging. This new functionality is now available to Royal & SunAlliance and Western Assurance brokers using the latest version of The Agency Manager® (TAM) broker management system.
kasina Names Top 10 Financial Intermediary Websites, Identifies Best Practices, Emerging Trends.
NEW YORK, January 19 - Podcasts, Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds, and Weblogs are among the new and emerging communications tools that forward-looking asset managers are considering to support their advisors, according to a report released today by kasina, a leading consultant to the asset management industry.
New Eastbridge Study Looks at Future Predictions for Worksite/Voluntary Market.
AVON, CONNECTICUT, USA (January 18, 2006)-Eastbridge Consulting Group Inc. has published a new Frontline Report entitled, The Worksite/Voluntary Industry Confidence Index. This annual report, which includes responses from 63 different organizations involved in this market (carriers, third-party administrators, and brokers), examines each participant's opinions on the worksite/voluntary industry's outlook for 2006. Future editions of the report will also look at trends and patterns in the results over prior surveys.
Consumer Information
Life-Quotes.ca announces the launch of its Life Insurance Blog.
Toronto ON 29 January 2006 - Life-Quotes.ca is pleased to announce the launch of its Canadian Life Insurance Blog . We will be writing blog articles that focus on various issues of life insurance, and we also take suggestions for new topics from the Canadian public.
Rising claims costs drive auto insurance rate increase application: Insurance Corporation of British Columbia.
As a result of significantly increased costs for injury claims, ICBC has applied for a 6.5-per-cent increase in 2006 basic insurance rates with the BC Utilities Commission.
J.D. Power and Associates Reports: Sales of Hybrid-Electric Vehicles Expected to Grow 268 Percent by 2012.
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.: 4 January 2006 - U.S. hybrid-electric vehicle sales volumes are anticipated to grow by 268 percent between 2005 and 2012, according to the most recent update of the J.D. Power and Associates Automotive Forecasting Services Hybrid-Electric Vehicle OutlookSM
Policy and Product Management
Camilion Solutions to Host Web Seminar on Online Sales and Underwriting.
TORONTO, ON - February 7th, 2005 - Camilion Solutions, the leading provider of product management, online sales and underwriting solutions for the insurance industry, will be hosting a Web Seminar entitled, "Online Sales and Underwriting as a Competitive Weapon in P&C". The Web Seminar will take place on Wednesday March 1st, 2005, 12:00 p.m. EST and outline how adopting best practices in underwriting and deploying them in an enterprise-wide online sales and underwriting system helps P&C companies to write more and better business, improve the efficiency of distribution channels, and create lasting market advantage.
Claims
CROMS from Accident Support Services Wins Two Awards from Microsoft!
We are extremely proud to announce that our Collision Reporting and Occurrence Management System (CROMS) has won two prestigious awards from Microsoft, taking top honours both globally and nationally!
Education and Training
ICLR Friday Forum: Private Saferooms and Disaster Mitigation Feb 17, 2006.
The Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) is pleased to invite you to participate in a workshop with Matthew Jaremski and Dr. Kevin Simmons from Austin College in Texas. Mathew will focus his presentation on a two-part study based on a state of Oklahoma subsidy incentive for the construction of private saferooms.
Survey: Canadians Trust CLU Designation.
January 31, 2006, Toronto, ON - Financial advisors holding the CLU (Chartered Life Underwriter) designation continue to enjoy strong trust among consumers according to a survey released today by the CLU Institute.
Reference and Statistics
December's North American Life Insurance Activity Off 5.5% 2005 Yearly Applications Decline 3.3% : MIB.
(Westwood, Mass. – January 26, 2006) Applications for individually underwritten life insurance in North America were off -5.5% in December, year-over-year, according to the MIB Life IndexSM. This marks the eleventh consecutive month of year-over-year decline in 2005. In total for all of 2005, North American applications were off -3.3%, all ages combined compared to 2004.
Business of Insurance
LOMA's Resource Survey: Flat to Modest Growth Expected for Life Insurance Industry in 2006.
ATLANTA, GA, January 11, 2006 - The outlook for the life insurance industry for 2006 is for flat to modest growth, according to the annual forecast by the LOMA Board of Directors. The LOMA Board of Directors is composed of chairmen, presidents, CEOs and other top executives of leading insurance and financial services companies in the U.S., Canada and internationally.
Lloyd's calls for end to trade barriers post Katrina.
11/01/2006 - Barriers to trade must be removed to permit foreign reinsurers to lend more support in the event of another mega-disaster such as Hurricane Katrina, Lloyd's Chairman Lord Levene told New York business leaders today.
from Doug:
After nearly a month without, we have a layer of white snow welcoming us this morning. This after a call from our Carleton U. son asking questions about moving from one apartment to another at the end of April - but New Year's was just yesterday, wasn't it?
Time to think about chocolate, or at least a special card - Valentine's is just around the corner.