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.
Consumer Information
Seminar on "Business Privacy - Preventing a Privacy Breach", by Insurers Financial Group.
It's no secret: how to prevent a privacy breach. The seminar will be held Tuesday November 27th 2007
Canadians not checking in for check-ups: RBC Insurance.
Half (51 per cent) of all adult Canadians do not go for regular medical examinations but of those who do, women are by far more likely than men to check in for a check-up. This is according to an RBC Insurance/Ipsos-Reid survey that shows 59 per cent of women regularly go for complete physicals, compared to 39 per cent of men.
Large variations in how long admitted patients wait in emergency rooms for hospital beds: CIHI.
October 18, 2007 - Most patients admitted to an acute care hospital for reasons other than childbirth come through Canada's emergency departments (60% outside Quebec), and the length of time these patients wait for hospital beds varies greatly, according to a new report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).
Claims
ISO, Xactware, and AIR Worldwide Announce 360Value, the Next-Generation Replacement-Cost Estimation Solution for the Property Insurance Industry.
OREM, Utah, and BOSTON, October 29, 2007 ISO, Xactware, and AIR Worldwide Corporation (AIR) today announced 360Value™, the next-generation property-valuation solution for insurers.
Distribution
Applied Systems adds third data center to accommodate growth.
ASCnet TENCon Special—Orlando, Florida, October 17, 2007- Insurance technology company Applied Systems, Inc., has partnered with VeriCenter, a SunGard unit, to co-locate a new data center at VeriCenter's Denver-area facility.
Policy and Product Management
Automating Commercial Underwriting: Overview, Best Practices, and Case Studies Report Published by Celent.
San Francisco, CA, USA - October 29, 2007 - In a new report, Automating Commercial Underwriting: Overview, Best Practices, and Case Studies, Celent examines what underwriting automation means in commercial lines, how insurers are doing it, and what benefits they are receiving.
Business of Insurance
New Casualty Reserve Index to Pave Way for More Effective Hedge against "Systemic" and Unexpected Risks: Guy Carpenter.
New York, October 30, 2007 - Guy Carpenter & Company, LLC, the leading global risk and reinsurance specialist and a part of the Marsh & McLennan Companies (NYSE: MMC), today published Guy Carpenter Casualty Reserve Index: Managing the Unknown, a briefing that examines the challenges that insurers face from hard-to-manage "systemic" risks and inadequate reserves.
Swiss Re sigma: Bancassurance: emerging trends, opportunities and challenges.
18 Oct 2007 - According to a recent sigma study, bancassurance is on the rise, particularly in emerging markets. Worldwide, insurers have been successfully leveraging bancassurance to gain a foothold in markets with low insurance penetration and a limited variety of distribution channels.
Towers Perrin to Offer RiskAgility, a Sophisticated Risk Management Software Framework.
Stamford, CT., October 23, 2007- Towers Perrin is introducing RiskAgilityT, an advanced financial modeling software framework that allows insurance companies to manage risks across their organizations. With RiskAgilityT, companies will be able to carry out pricing, financial reporting and capital management work faster, and with greater confidence in the accuracy of the results.
Marketing and the Market Place
PricewaterhouseCoopers finds controls alone are not enough deterrent, corporate culture, ethics and risk management needed to effectively fight fraud.
NEW YORK and LONDON, 16 OCT 2007 - Despite heightened efforts at regulation and control, fraud remains a major threat to companies around the world. Nearly half of all organisations, about the same level as in 2005, reported they were victims of some form of economic crime in the past two years, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' 2007 Global Economic Crime Survey.
Our People
LOMA Conducts New Study of Virtual Workers.
ATLANTA, GA-OCTOBER 10, 2007-Virtual Workers - individuals who work remotely full-time in call centers, claims, underwriting, IT operations, and other business areas - are widely emerging as a prominent sector within the insurance and financial services industry. LOMA, the leading trade association to the insurance and financial services industry, is conducting a study of the unique personal characteristics that are necessary for success in the virtual environment.
Towers Perrin Study Demonstrates Connection between Employee Engagement and Financial Performance.
TORONTO, OCTOBER 22, 2007 - A survey of nearly 90,000 workers worldwide, including 5,000 people in Canada, reveals that employees do not believe their organizations or their senior management are doing enough to motivate them to go the extra mile at work and contribute to their companies' success.
Managing Relationships and Customer Service
Progressive Introduces Paperless Policies In USA.
MAYFIELD VILLAGE, Ohio - Oct. 10, 2007 - The Progressive Group of Insurance Companies today introduced Paperless Policies, a feature that will allow customers who buy a policy directly from the company or through one of the more than 30,000 independent insurance agencies that represent it the ability to drastically reduce the amount of policy-related paper documents they receive.
eBusiness and Technology
Gartner Says IT Leaders Must Consider Alternative
Delivery Models or Risk Being Bypassed By the Business Units.
STAMFORD, Conn., October 29, 2007 - Gartner, Inc. has identified 14 alternative delivery models that will completely transform the IT market in the next five years. Advancements in technical areas are presenting a scenario that offers new ways to deliver, package and procure IT, and these alternative delivery models have the potential to dramatically change how IT is accounted for.
Advanced Analytics Transforming Insurance with Profound Implications for Competitive Dynamics, ISO's Chief Says.
NEW ORLEANS, October 29, 2007 - The application of advanced analytics is transforming insurers' operations and processes, with profound implications for competitive dynamics in the future. These new advances will enable the best of the best to wring even more actionable information out of available data and to tap previously unusable data. But even today's leading-edge insurers risk falling behind one day if they don't master both the art and science of predictive technology and apply it all along the value creation chain, according to an industry leader.
SAS unveils plans to provide deeper integration of SAS® Analytics and Solutions within database engines.
LAS VEGAS, NV (Oct. 8, 2007) - SAS, the leader in business intelligence and analytical software and services, plans to directly integrate SAS analytics, data integration capabilities and solutions into leading relational database management systems (RDBMS).
from Doug:
Hallowe'en is gone. I was a party-pooper, a non-participant, either as a visitor or a house to be visited. But I kind of wish now that I had found the time and ambition to make a contribution. A non-Hallowe'en visitor arrived shortly after 7:00 pm. The "trick or treaters" were just a steady stream on the sidewalks on both sides of the street in front of our place. Although we are in a reasonably high-density but low-rise housing area, there are not enough children to make up those numbers. There must have been considerable inflow from the apartment areas to the north and south. Maybe next year I can again get into the spirit of the day – anyone for a ghost?