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A policy as a representation of a certain set of risks may represent the basic administrative unit of the insurance business. In terms of business management married to technology, policy management and document management systems are integral to administering customer relationships, claims, distribution channels and so on. This seminar focuses on the current trends in dealing with the policy and document management components, and their relationship with other systems.

Seminar Topics

8:00 – 8:30: Registration and Coffee

8:30	Welcome; Electronic Document Production and Management: Overview of Developments and Trends: Patrick Vice, I/T Manager, Frank Cowan Company Ltd.
Going paperless has been a vision of insurers for over 30 years. There have been some notable successes, but many more frustrating, expensive failures. However, there is increasing promise with emerging digital imaging and electronic records management, and XML Standards for a wide variety of previously non-standard forms. This presentation will summarize the current status and make projections on the future. Special emphasis will be given to non-standardized forms and commercial lines policies.
	How easy can Insurance integration be? James Barber, Client Executive, Information Builders Inc.
Many projects such as CRM, new policy system, corporate financial system, data warehousing, portals, trading partner communication have an integration component. Sometimes significant funds are spent on an application, only to discover that the integration work to fit the new application into an Insurer's existing environment is the largest risk, effort and occasionally cost. The traditional approaches to integration 1) using internal development or 2) using an integration broker have had mixed success. James will overview some of the emerging criteria and expectations that insurers are currently using to make integration simple. Real examples with timeframes and ROI will be included.
	Time is Money: Implementing Business Process Improvements and Electronic Document Management. Mark Fowler, Principal, Xerox Global Services - Insurance & Financial Services
Time is money, with driving and accelerating revenue being the key triggers of New Business in any insurance company. Much focus is placed upon improving areas of this business process bogged down by manual processes, resulting from information requirements from several sources, affecting the pace and accuracy of underwriting, issuance and delivery. Not unlike the claims process, documents are required to gather relevant decision-making information, often in a variety of formats and accessibility. Breaking apart this process, simplifying the channel by which information is received, retrieved, and utilized is the gateway to recognizing areas of opportunity to better leverage existing technology and manage required changes securely, but also identify and measure steps in the process for ongoing improvement and return on your investment as your process continuously improves. These document-intensive business processes are the mainstay of your industry, and the methodology by which you implement and govern these processes is key.
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	Selecting, Implementing, and Integrating Document Systems Kris Betkowski, Development Team Leader, Frank Cowan Company Ltd.
The selection, implementation, and integration of a document production/management system involve business and technical steps that are crucial to the success of the project. The presentation will cover the business choices, the availability of technologies, and the implementation consequences. The presentation is intended for organizations which are embarking the requirements/selection process or are in the early stages of implementation of a document management system.
	Embrace Change: Agile Strategies for Managing Commercial Lines Kevin Campbell, President, Tec4 Systems Inc.
A commercial insurance policy embodies the insurer's underwriting, marketing, and business rules. What coverages do we offer? What restrictions do we place on those coverages? Which coverages are optional and which are required? What information do we require from the insured before determining the rate? These and the many other rules associated with a policy change continually, in response to market conditions and evolving industry practices. Automating such a complex and dynamic entity is a lot like changing the tire on a moving vehicle. Traditional software development practices are too expensive, slow, and error prone. You need to a way to automate these rules without programming them. We describe such an approach.
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	Document Integration and Delivery Using a Web Portal Todd D. Argall, Vice President, Information Systems, Rural Mutual Insurance Company, and Robert Symons, President, Tritech Financial Systems Inc.
"Document integration and delivery". Overview of the costs and benefits of migrating and integrating reports and documents to a Web Portal platform. How to datamine and create new value from your present reporting and document systems. Building agent secured integrated virtual folders. Developing a secure and flexible content respository, supporting 24 x 7 distribution via Fax, E-mail or Web Browser. Featuring Todd Argall MBA, Vice President of Rural Mutual who will share his experience in migrating insurance media from traditional delivery of paper based reports and documents, and how this enabled Rural to improve workflow and business processes. Todd will discuss his company's experience and the vision now being implemented to provide the right information to the proper recipients.
	Electronic Document Management - Current Applications Ken Clarke, President, PICTECH Peter Morris, Branch Director, CGI Insurance Business Services
The presentation will familiarize attendees with insurance industry applications enhanced with electronic document management, including the integration of third party system reports. These applications demonstrate operational database applications with workflow benefits to the industry of insurance. Practical examples from existing insurance operations will be used extensively to illustrate the key issues and opportunities for implementing an integrated electronic document filing system. These will include commercial inspections for the government buildings, including hospitals, schools and all office buildings. It will also cover the vehicle inspection system which has managed more than 1.7 million vehicle inspections including digital photos, scanned forms and data fields.
	Planning a Transition from Paper to Digital Peter James , IKON Office Solutions, and Franz Gangl , IKON Office Solutions.
Time-consuming document searches. Records security. Storage space costs. Regulatory compliance. Whether your concern is streamlining operations for a more robust bottom line or serving your clients more effectively, paper filing systems pose significant business challenges in the form of increased costs and lost productivity. This informative presentation focuses on educating and empowering you with new strategies for implementing a paperless solution. You'll learn how to work more effectively and how to: Speed retrieval time, reduce storage expenses and eliminate document loss of physical records Increase profitability by reducing time-consuming manual tasks Manage compliance with PIPEDA and other regulations Understand what's important in an imaging system Protect records integrity with audit trails and comprehensive security Unify management of imaged, physical, electronic and e-mail records
12:15	Close Patrick Vice

Seminar Sponsors:

Speaker Information

Todd D. Argall, Vice President, Information Systems, Rural Mutual Insurance Company.

Todd Argall is the Vice President of Information Systems with Rural Mutual Insurance Company. He has been with Rural since 1995. Over the last three years Todd has been heavily involved in the selection and implementation of a new policy administration and output management solution for Rural. In May, 2003 Rural implemented and converted to the GIMS and Picom solutions for its Personal Auto, Homeowners and Business Auto lines of business. This May, Rural plans to convert its Farm, Country Estate and Business Owners lines of business into the systems. Todd's project discipline and experience applying technology solutions to improve processes and meet business needs has been instrumental in the success of this project to date.

Prior to joining Rural, Todd spent 2 years in south Florida working for Florida Power and Light Company (FPL) and 4 years with Andersen Consulting (now called Accenture) based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin working as a consultant at public utility companies throughout the Midwest and at a large financial institution in Ohio. During this period, Todd held significant leadership roles in the development and deployment of new technology solutions within the organizations he served.

In 1989, Todd earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Management and Economics from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. In 2002, he earned a Master of Business Administration executive degree from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

Kris Betkowski, Lead Developer, Frank Cowan Company Limited

Kris Betkowski currently serves as the development team leader at Frank Cowan Company Limited, a leader in public entity insurance. His primary responsibility is leading a multi year development and integration project to transform the core applications of the company in underwriting, claims, risk management, and administration. In this role, Kris has been responsible for developing and implementing new underwriter decision support tools, and selecting and implementing a package policy production system. He also led a development effort, which introduced Internet based claims tracking functionality for Cowan risk management customers. Over the last 5 years, Kris has also worked to rejuvenate mainframe functions with object-oriented, feature rich, graphical applications, while leveraging the mature data residing on the mainframe.

Kris is a graduate of Fanshawe College, holding a Business Information Systems diploma. Kris has also completed specialized technical courses provided by IBM and Algonquin College.

Kevin Campbell, President, Tec4 Systems Inc.

Kevin Campbell has been developing commercial software for over 20 years. Prior to co-founding Tec4 Systems Inc. in 1991, he contributed to the development of software for Calgary's Light Rail Transit system. In 1987, he joined Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Ltd. as a project leader, developing object-oriented software for real time systems.

Kevin has spent the last 12 years pioneering the development of commercial management systems. His dream, to bridge the communication gap between brokers and insurance companies with technology became reality with the creation of Policy Works, Tec 4's flagship product. With Policy Works, a broker can electronically deliver a submission to one or more insurers, complete a proposal, and bind the risk all within a matter of minutes. His visionary approach to amalgamating insurance with technology has set new standards for the way commercial insurance is sold.

Kevin is a graduate of the University of Calgary, holding a Masters degree in electrical engineering. In addition, he also holds a Professional Engineer (P.Eng.) designation.

Ken Clarke, President, PICTECH Inc.

Ken has more than 32 years of systems development and implementation experience within the industry of insurance. Experience includes IBM, Johnsons Ltd./Unifund, Kaysea Consultants, Teleglobe/CGI, PMSC and CANVID/Equifax. PICTECH INC. is a Canadian federally incorporated company founded in 1992. PICTECH INC. specializes in the development and integration of applications that include Workflow Optimization utilizing advanced imaging, database and communications technologies.

Mark Fowler, Principal, Xerox Global Services - Insurance & Financial Services

Much of Mark Fowler's expertise is based on transforming document-intensive business processes by improving the way insurance companies capture, utilize and share information enterprise-wide. His work with insurance companies include decreasing claims processing cycles, increasing the accuracy of collecting policy holder information from several sources, as well as the reduction of call center costs while increasing customer satisfaction. Mr. Fowler is a Principal within the Document Content & Imaging Services Practice for Xerox Global Services, Inc. He was recently published via the article "How To Bring Sanity to Insane RFP's", of which can be found in the March/April '04 issue of E-Doc, AIIM's trade publication.

Franz Gangl, IKON Office Solutions

Franz has 10+ years each of experience implementing document imaging and management solutions for financial service and government entities. For every phase of the document lifecycle - from input to archive - IKON offers best-in-class products and services to enhance efficiency. They use a consultative approach - first understanding customer needs, then applying the appropriate hardware, software and services to implement a streamlined document workflow.

Peter James, IKON Office Solutions

Peter has 10+ years each of experience implementing document imaging and management solutions for financial service and government entities. For every phase of the document lifecycle - from input to archive - IKON offers best-in-class products and services to enhance efficiency. They use a consultative approach - first understanding customer needs, then applying the appropriate hardware, software and services to implement a streamlined document workflow.

Peter Morris, Branch Director, CGI Insurance Business Services

Peter has direct management experience utilizing PICTECH's applications for Residential and Commercial Risk inspections. Peter will explain how the face of his now paperless office has changed with ½ the floor space, ease of operation and no misfiling. His operation's applications integrate customer ordering, tracking and accounts payable and receivables with workflow that accesses multiple types of electronic documents. CGI's Insurance Business Services division has instant access to millions of scanned pages. Workflow and follow-up functionality facilitate flexible management reporting and distribution of electronic documents to customers and independent contractors.

Robert Symons, President, Tritech Financial Systems Inc.

Robert has a life time of insurance exposure and 30+ years providing enterprise solutions for Agents, Brokers, MGAs, Insurers and Reinsurers. Robert is one of the founding owners of Tritech which began in 1992 and has clients in Canada, Bermuda, Puerto Rico and the USA. Tritech provides P&C enterprise solutions for in-house and outsourced clients.

Host and Moderator

Patrick Vice, I/T Manager, Frank Cowan Company Ltd.

Patrick has over 20 years experience enabling technology and electronic commerce in the risk management and insurance communities. For a more extensive biography.

Patrick will be host of the seminar and will welcome and set the stage, build the linkages between topics, and then provide conclusions and points to ponder at the end of the session.

(Examples will be used throughout)

Questions? call Doug Grant 416-921-7756 or email at doug.grant@insurance-canada.ca

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