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APRIL 18, 2017

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INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

Blockchain in Insurance: A Vendor Overview
Blockchain is still an immature technology, with a range of blockchain platform options competing for pre-eminence. This report is meant to help insurance executives gain a firmer grasp of the ecosystem of vendors targeting property and casualty, life, or healthcare insurance with blockchain solutions or services. Read more.

Terrorism, Populism Compound Global Risks
Worldwide increases in terrorist attacks and populist nationalism are creating an increasingly volatile operating environment for international business, according to Aon's 2017 Risk Maps covering Political Risk and Terrorism and Political Violence, produced in conjunction with Roubini Global Economics and The Risk Advisory Group. Read more.

Insurance Agency Acquisitions “Explode” in Q1
Insurance agency mergers and acquisitions exploded during the first quarter of the year, with 178 reported transactions in the first three months of 2017, according to OPTIS Partners' M&A database. That far outstripped the 115 deals reported in the first quarter of 2016.
Read more.

SAS Launches Results-as-a-Service
SAS® Results, a cloud-based, results-as-a-service offering from the analytics leader, delivers both affordable analytical power and SAS expertise – customers provide the data, SAS delivers the answers. Read more.

Willis Towers Watson Launches New Cyber Product For Global Airlines
Willis Towers Watson has introduced CyFly, an innovative and flexible insurance solution specifically tailored to cover cyber exposure affecting the airline industry.
Read more.

Reading the Online Insurance Customer's Mind
Celent has released a new report, written by Luis Chipana, an Analyst with Celent's Insurance practice. The online consumer is not necessarily an insurance buyer or client, but many of them have an insurance policy, and they mostly use smartphones to connect to the Internet. Individuals are prone to share data if they're compensated in some way. Read more.

GMC Software Expands Reach with New Partner Advantage Program
GMC Software has announced the introduction of the GMC Software Partner Advantage Program, a newly-expanded program intended to engage, empower and enable all types of GMC Software business partners. Read more.

Logiciels Deltek Goes Live With Web Services
The Centre for Study of Insurance Operations is pleased to announce that Logiciels Deltek Inc. is the first broker management system (BMS) provider to go live with web services for broker interface with CSIOnet.
Read more.

C.J. Campbell Selects Policy Works
Policy Works Inc. is pleased to announce that C.J. Campbell Insurance has selected Policy Works as its platform for issuing Lloyd's policies.
Read more.

MPI Launches Virtual Reality Road Safety
With the help of leading edge technology, Manitoba Public Insurance is launching a new virtual reality (VR) experience to tackle three critical road safety issues facing young drivers in Manitoba.
Read more.


“Tales of Machine Learning,
Analytics at the Edge, and Deep Learning”

In this webinar on demand, Kelly Southall, Senior Analytics Solutions Architect & Data Scientist at SAS, will explore emerging areas of innovation within the insurance industry as a result of today's proliferation of data, affordable storage options and processing capabilities. Case studies will cover examples of:

  • Machine learning applications in P&C insurance via image recognition analytics;
  • Edge based analytics and the client experience;
  • Deep modeling and impacts on pricing.

Watch now.

SAS



The Intersection: Insurance-Canada.ca Blog

What's going through the Intersection
of insurance and technology?

Digital Insurance: What, Why, and How
Digital insurance is a hot topic within the P&C community. At a high level, consultants and practitioners can rapidly agree on the importance of ‘digitalization.’ However, when we start developing and implementing a business case, definitions of the strategies and tasks get a bit murky. Two recent articles help focus on critical criteria. Read more.


From Doug

Interesting media tidbits this morning:

PACICC: 161 different insurance companies exited the Canadian P&C market in the last 20 years.

OPTIS Partners: 178 insurance agency M&A transactions in the first three months of 2017, far surpassing Q1 2016.

There are undoubtedly many factors at play – competition, management skills, availability of staff, good offers, retirement looming, and more.

In two years, we have evolved from a mild interest in innovation to the dramatic rise of InsurTech as a threat. Is this a big factor?

One major stated reason for a sizeable Ontario brokerage merger last year was the scale needed in order to make the technology investments required to keep and win customers tomorrow.

Insurance is in catch-up mode with respect to customer experience. The M&A activity may reflect just that.

Doug Grant, CIP
Partner
Insurance-Canada.ca

Doug Grant

The Chronicle weekly newsletter features news, events, and general information relating to insurance, technology, and innovation in the Canadian insurance industry and the marketplace. Subscribe here or view past issues.

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