Issue 2001-16:   August 27, 2001

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.

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This issue is brought to you by our sponsor:

National Claim Services at www.nationalclaims.ca

"YESTERDAY'S SERVICE.....TODAY'S KNOWLEDGE"

E-Business and Technology

The International Insurance Society, which recently met in Vienna, conducts a survey each year of participants at its meetings to ascertain the issues that are concerning insurance executives around the world. The newest top issues are Meeting Customer Demands and Managing Capital and Risk. The most notable change since last year was that technology and e-commerce were not among the leading concerns. Perhaps this means that the nature of e-business is now part of everyday tactics and operations, and the "strategic" nature of missing the opportunity is less significant. More...

On August 1, the Consumers Federation of America released a comparative study of 25 web-based Internet sites offering comparative term life information. The results show tremendous differences in the quality and reliability of these sites in finding the most economical term life insurance. 40% (10 out of 25) of the sites analyzed are so inadequate and potentially misleading that they are not recommended by CFA - more...

At the same time, leading reassurer GE Frankona Re's most recent survey of the UK stand alone term assurance market has shown Internet sales beginning to make some headway. With overall term assurance sales up by 8% in 2000, Internet sales accounted for over 30,000 policies, or 3% of sales. Peter Elliott, Head of Sales at GE Frankona Re, commented, "It comes as no surprise that Internet sales are beginning to make an inroad into term distribution. The product is simple to understand, and is keenly priced, both of which make it ideal for distribution over the Internet." See more...

How to reconcile "not recommended" and "growing sales" for term life? The American study focused on sites which seem to hype "lowest premium or price", which promise it appears they often missed. At the same time Internet sales across industries are growing and the consumer is not buying solely on price - think brand recognition, relationships, advice, quality, ease of access, ....

Here at home, another company, Certas Direct, is offering its prices through the kanetix on-line quote comparison service - more...   - for the Ontario marketplace. This should help build a relatively new brand.

Insurance Systems Inc., a Toronto insurance development shop has brought out a new release of WebWriter. A version of this was implemented earlier this year by CNA/Maritime offices in England and France to support their distribution and service of yacht insurance through brokers, More recently CNA has commited to further rollout of additional function.

Another Toronto developer, DWL Incorporated continues inroads into the American marketplace. DWL will provide The ERIE with industry-specific portals and a transactional CRM application to create a common view of the customer across the organization and enhance business transactions with agents and policyholders. The solution will allow ERIE agents and policyholders access to sales, product and policy information directly from The ERIE's back-end business administration systems through personalized user interfaces in real-time, more...

In each of the announcements above, we see the Internet being leveraged by more and more industry firms to provide both deeper and broader functions. Perhaps we are really moving into that phase of Internet usage where it becomes the normal infrastructure tool, and less of an innovation.

Policy Management

Underwriting in the USA is becoming increasingly dependent upon Credit Scores, indicates a recent Conning & Company study.

Claims

Accident Support Services International welcomes Chieftain Insurance as a new member company in their Police Reporting Centres. While this focuses on efficiency and effectiveness in after loss reporting,

Jack Burke, an insurance marketing thinker, poses his thoughts about " claims service" by a broker or agent in his local community, and how on-your-head thinking could create a marketing and competitive advantage.

General

IBC has now published the 2001 "FACTS of the General Insurance Industry of Canada" which is available in English hardcopy, or on-line for download, with French download to be soon available. More details.

from Doug:

I bought my son's uniform clothes for school this morning. The other son is working at the CNE. Both signs that summer draws to a close and fall is not far away. Where did the summer go?

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