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With the continuing challenge to inprove efficiency and customer service, ever more of the underwriting process is being automated or at least computer assisted. More risks are being quoted and bound without manual intervention, and when exceptions require professional underwriter review, the tools being used are becoming richer. Join us to review progress and directions in this fundamental underwriting component of the insurance business.

Seminar Topics

8:00 – 8:30: Registration and Coffee

8:30	Welcome and introduction: Doug Grant, Principal, Insurance-Canada.ca
	Disciplined Flexibility: Today’s Underwriting Systems Imperative - Bill Meighen , Acting Vice President, and Kris Betkowski Applications Manager, Frank Cowan Company Limited
Underwriters are under increased pressure to quickly make the best possible decisions on risk selection and pricing in a competitive market. At the same time, insurers, re-insurers, and other capital providers are demanding more and higher quality information in support of the risks underwritten. To respond to today’s pressures, professional underwriters require the flexibility in applying appropriate knowledge based on a wide variety of information, methods to capture and analyze risk data, and systems to summarize and distribute information to the market for placement. In short, there needs to be disciplined flexibility. This presentation will include an overview of the demands that underwriters face in today’s climate, including the softening market, entrance of new competitors, more knowledgeable and demanding customers, and rigorous capital market requirements for profitability. Frank Cowan Company, which is a market leader in public entity insurance, has embarked on a strategic project to provide decision support tools for its underwriters. The presentation will draw from the experience of this project to outline the significant elements needed to supply technology tools to underwriters in the current climate.
	Decision Support and Business Intelligence Best Practices in Insurance - Nick Trendov , Analytics, Business Intelligence and Competitive Intelligence Solutions, SHEA Business Solutions
Nick will provide an overview of specific Business and Competitive Intelligence practices which provide business visibility by answering the questions: Where is the business today? Why are we here? How will we reach our objective? Nick will also address Decision support and Value Chain Metrics -- personal, group (direct and channel), corporate and customer. Underwriters use Business Intelligence on a daily basis to watch and analyze metrics like: Number of Policies Written in the last day, week, month, quarter, year. Number of Policies that have been canceled, declined, delivered etc.
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	Document Management for Underwriters in the Enterprise - Ruth Fisk , Insurance Specialist, CDIA+, Hyland Software, Inc.
Today’s insurance industry is a highly regulated, extremely competitive market. The keys to success are to control operating expenses, increase efficiency and improve customer service at all levels of the organization. By leveraging the full capabilities of an integrated document management system you will increase productivity and reduce cost, even beyond underwriting and claims. Learn how to approach, evaluate and plan for a solution that can be applied departmentally and scaled to the enterprise.
	Delivering on Full Access to Relevant Underwriting Information - James Barber , North American P&C Solution Manager, Information Builders
Importance of underwriting access to full information for : Underwriting profitability Risk management Management of ceded business Starting situation for typical P&C Conceptual solution design Challenges/key success factors One practical solution design, including examples Expectations of a good solution
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	Taking the Underwriting Process to a New Level - Terry Neilson, President and CEO, Insurance Systems Inc.
“Underwriting discipline” continues to be the dogma of the property and casualty insurance industry. The fear of another cyclical turn towards soft market conditions and relaxed pricing is widespread amongst insurance companies, who don’t want the tough gains of risk management frittered away by a heedless pursuit of “cash flow” underwriting. To that end, insurance companies are relying heavily on the risk assessment aspect of the underwriting process. And a big part of that is access to information, especially inspection reports. Loss control and inspection, which may have been devalued in the prolonged soft market of the 1990s, are now essential components of insurance company underwriting practices. This applies to all aspects of insurance, but particularly commercial and personal property. Some insurers have taken steps toward automating the loss control and inspection process in order to enable faster and better underwriting decision-making. This access to loss control information, when coupled with an effective integration tool has proven to be a powerful, competitive tool for today’s underwriters. If information really is power, why aren’t more insurance companies realizing the advantage of automating inspection reports to support the goal of “underwriting discipline?” This session will underline some of the challenges and benefits of automating the loss control process in order to bring underwriting to a new level.
	Harnessing the Potential for Underwriting with Today's Tools - Elaine Collier, Vice President, Underwriting Consulting Services, CGI
Underwriting plays an important role in the financial success of a property & casualty insurer. At its most elemental, it is a unique combination of business processes, working in tandem with the personal risk selection and decision making skills of an individual underwriter. The session will begin with an overview of the role of the underwriter – past, present and future. We will explore the mind and actions of an underwriter to determine what characteristics may be automated or at least process improved, beyond those already evident in the marketplace. From there, we will take a closer look at the role of automated underwriting tools and where they fit best. Finally, we will review some of the industry and marketplace trends which will drive continuous improvement in underwriting decision support systems and tools over the next 5 years.
	Straight Through Processing in Commercial Insurance Underwriting - Patrick Vice, I/T Manager, Frank Cowan Company Ltd.
High friction costs, persistent errors, and delayed issuance are consistent issues for commercial underwriters. These provide a strong business case for applying some standards in the commercial insurance arena. Unfortunately, the complexities of commercial insurance underwriting and processing have been strong arguments against standardized processing and linkages between carriers and brokers. The flexibility of today’s technology is now allowing standardized handling for non-standard data. The Lloyds market is a classic example. ACORD has expanded its influence into the London market and offers opportunities for brokers and carriers engaged in large commercial underwriting to achieve Straight Through Processing. This presentation will cover the developments to date for standardizing data in large commercial underwriting and the implications for brokers, carriers and customers in the Canadian market.
	Conclusions & Close - Patrick Vice, I/T Manager, Frank Cowan Company Ltd.

Seminar Sponsors:

Speaker Information

Kris Betkowski, Applications Manager, 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.

James Barber, North American P&C Solution Manager, Information Builders

James is the North American P&C Solution Manager for Information Builders. He is responsible for data warehousing and information delivery solutions for the North American insurance market. Prior to this role, James was the Canadian Insurance Account Represenative. Before joining Information Builders, James held several sales, marketing and channel management positions in his 10 years at IBM. James holds an MBA from Sir Wilfred Laurier University.

Elaine Collier, Vice President, Underwriting Consulting Services, CGI

With over 25 years of broad based Commercial and Personal Lines experience behind her, Elaine joined the Insurance Business Services unit of CGI Information Systems & Management Consulting Inc. in July, 2003. As Vice President, Underwriting Consulting Services, she gets involved with all facets of property and casualty underwriting, including automated systems, business process improvements, data integrity and management information initiatives, change management, and new products geared at enabling underwriters to make decisions more knowledgeably and easily. She also acts as a “Subject Matter Expert” within the CGI organization, a challenging role she truly enjoys. It provides her with the opportunity to build bridges between underwriting operations and information technology, to the benefit of both industries.

Elaine has underwritten everything “from shoe stores to nuclear power plants.” She is a Fellow, Chartered Insurance Professional of the Insurance Institute of Canada, and a graduate of the Kellogg Business School executive program. Always a proponent of continuous improvement, she will complete her Canadian Risk Manager designation by July of this year.

Ruth Fisk, Insurance Specialist, CDIA+, Hyland Software, Inc.

Ruth Fisk is the Insurance Specialist at Hyland Software, Inc. Is Hyland Software’s foremost expert on the practical application of EDMS technology within the insurance industry. Previously employed by Hastings Mutual Insurance for 14+ years, managed all facets of Support Services, including Imaging, Mail Services, Inserter Operations and Office Supply. Other duties entailed OnBase system administrator and Project manager for various corporate projects. Completion of IIA Associates in General Insurance.

Bill Meighen, Acting Vice President, Frank Cowan Company Limited

Bill joined the Frank Cowan Company in April, 2003 as Senior Business Analyst, Underwriting. Since joining Cowan, Bill has been responsible for reinsurance and the development of a number of programs specific to our non-profit book of business. In his current role, Bill is also responsible for all Underwriting operations.

Bill has 30 years insurance experience, including claims, reinsurance, risk management and underwriting. Most recently, Bill was the Risk Manager for a major Canadian Insurance group, including responsibility for Risk Management, financial analysis of reinsurers and business continuity planning. Bill has been very active in the area of earthquake and other natural peril exposure modeling, and was involved in the introduction of the first earthquake exposure assessment software used by Canadian insurers.

Bill has received the Fellow, Chartered Insurance Professional designation from the Insurance Institute of Canada and has completed FCIP majors in Claims, Management, Risk Management and Underwriting. Bill also received the Canadian Risk Management Diploma.

Bill is a Governor of The Insurance Institute of Canada and is the Chair of the IIC’s Conestoga Chapter. Bill has been on several Insurance Bureau of Canada earthquake committees, and was active in the development of the Earthquake Exposure Sound Practices Guideline adopted by the federal insurance regulator. Bill is currently on the IBC working group updating the earthquake zones used by Canadian insurers and reinsurers.

Terry Neilson, President and CEO, Insurance Systems Inc.

After having reached the pinnacle of world-class competitive sailing, competing on the Canadian Olympic team and bringing home a Bronze medal in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Terry applied his leadership skills to the business world managing an insurance brokerage in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. After beginning his insurance career in sales, Terry moved through the ranks to General Manager and finally bought the brokerage in 1993. Through a combination of acquisitions and organic growth, Terry was able to grow the sales of the firm from $4 million in 1993 to $14 million in 1997 when he sold the firm to a public Corporation.

Terry then leveraged his entrepreneurial talent, knowledge of the insurance industry and understanding of IT by founding Insurance Systems Inc (ISI) immediately after leaving the brokerage. ISI was established to develop and implement web enabled solutions for the insurance industry. Since inception, ISI has quickly become one of Canada's technology success stories and was recently ranked 17th amongst Profit Magazine's list of the country's fastest-growing companies.

Nick Trendov, Analytics, Business Intelligence and Competitive Intelligence Solutions, SHEA Business Solutions

Nick Trendov is a part of the Analytics, Business and Competitive Solutions practice at SHEA Business Solutions and his past experience includes insurance and financial services supporting customers on Durango (brokers) and IBM platforms (brokers+enterprise).

In this seminar Nick will address the value to underwriters, managers and executives of blending information from internal transactional systems (Accounting and CRM) with internal decision support systems (Business intelligence) and externally focused systems (Competitive Intelligence).

Nick can be reached at 416.823.2036 or nick.trendov@shea.ca

Hosts and Moderators

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.

Doug Grant MBA CIP, Consultant, Insurance-Canada.ca

As a keen analyst of computer and networking evolution for more than thirty years, and the opportunity and impact on the insurance industry, frequent industry speaker, columnist, and consultant. Doug is cognizant of the changes that are occurring in the Internet insurance world. As a principal in the Insurance-Canada.ca Web site, he brings a unique perspective to the session. For a more extensive biography.

Patrick and Doug will be hosts of the seminar and will welcome and set the stage, build the links 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

See a list of our Previous Seminars.

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