Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Awards – “The 2011 ICTAs”

As computer and communications technologies evolve at increasingly faster rates, so too do the innovative uses of these technologies by participants in the insurance industry.

To highlight and celebrate technologies that have a significant business impact, Insurance-Canada.ca is sponsoring the Insurance Canada Technology Awards – "the ICTAs." These were first awarded at the P&C Technology Conference on February 22, 2010. To review the winners, the event and the details, go here.

Purpose

To celebrate organizations whose implementations of technology in the Canadian Property and Casualty Insurance and Canadian Life Insurance industry show the greatest positive impact on the business of Insurance in Canada.

Announcements

The 2011 ICTAs will be presented on Monday Feb. 28, 2011, at an awards dinner at the conclusion of the 2011 Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Conference, at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto.

Categories

Eight ICTAs may be awarded, one in each of the following four categories and for each of the P&C and the Life & Health sectors:

1. Practitioners: Insurers – companies licensed to underwrite business in Canada
2. Practitioners: Distributors – companies licensed in Canada to distribute insurance underwritten by one or more insurers in Canada
3. Suppliers: Technology – companies that supply specific technology solutions, hardware, software or services to practitioners and/or Service Providers in Canada, and who do not typicaly use this technology in their own operations.
4. Suppliers: Services – companies that supply services to the above practitioners and use technology to do so.

General Requirements

1. Awards will be given to organizations that do business in Canada
2. Supplier organizations must do business with organizations involved in one of the Practitioner categories in Canada
3. Organizations may nominate themselves or others. All nominees will be contacted to confirm willingness to receive an award.
4. All award nominations must be supported by an application (to be available here before Sept 30, 2010).
5. Nominations may include additional material in support of the application
6. All information provided in support of the application will become the property of Insurance-Canada.ca. This information may be used by Insurance-Canada.ca on its website, in print, or elsewhere.

Award Criteria

The primary criterion for all awards is the positive impact that a specific technology or application of technology has had on business. Examples include

• Introduction of new technology that enhances customer satisfaction
• Utilization of technology to reduce costs or improve service
• Development of technology that serves a need not previously served by technology within the industry
• Innovative integration of technologies to reduce costs, improve service, or streamline processes
• Leadership within the industry or a subset on the development of standards or practices for the utilization of technologies (industry associations, user groups, etc.)

The application or technology must be in production in a live environment, supporting actual production activities in Canada. Evidence of the positive impact must be real as well, and could be supported by:

• Return on investment
• Increased revenue (overall, per client, per segment, etc.)
• Decreased costs (overall, by department, by function, etc.)
• Business agility – time to market, entry to new market segments
• Improved service levels, evidenced by improved satisfaction, increased revenue per client; improved retention, higher premium volume per client
• Improved customer satisfaction (evidenced by customer feedback, surveys, etc.)

Nominated organizations will not be asked to release proprietary information; however, references will be sought to validate evidence of the impact.

Application form

The application form will be available here before the end of September 2010.

Award Presentations

Awards will be announced and presented at the ICTA dinner at the conclusion of the 2011 Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Conference to be held Monday 28 February 2011 at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto.

Award Deadline and Submissions

Nominations must be submitted to icta@Insurance-Canada.ca; the submission deadline is December 31, 2010. The winners will be formally announced at the dinner, but will be notified in advance.

ICTA Questions?

Send questions etc. to icta@Insurance-Canada.ca.