Insurance brokers in Canada are facing an unprecedented two-pronged threat: competition from new distribution models is coming just as a stubborn soft market reduces profitability of business that can be retained. Technology offers one of the few avenues to address both of these threats: to allow competitive marketing against direct marketers while improving profitability through efficiency.
But the broker technology environment is crowded, and brokers have limited time and resources to explore solutions Where can a broker turn? The 2012 Insurance-Canada Technology Conference (ICTC), being held in Toronto on March 5, 2012, is a great near-term option.
The theme of the conference – “The New Landscape: Social Business, Mobile, Analytics, Modern Technology” – reflects a number of industry issues we hear brokers discussing today. The conference will feature industry analysts and practitioners bringing new research (including original Canadian research) to discuss such topics as 2012: The Age of Digitalization for Insurance (Kimberly Harris-Ferrante, Gartner) and Creative Disruption in Insurance (Craig Weber, Celent). There are also several sessions addressing social media, mobile, modern technology and analytics.
The conference has a number of elements of interest to brokers specifically. Leading management system suppliers are sponsoring and will be exhibiting. Also, several suppliers and practitioners will be presenting on topics of interest to broker principals and operations managers. Topics will include Measurement of Transaction Costs vs. Revenue, Challenges and Directions in Commercial Lines Processing, and Paperless Processing for Brokers.
In addition, IBAO, CSIO, and a number of broker companies (including Unica Insurance, The Economical, Intact, RSA, and The Dominion) are supporting the conference and will be sending delegates to interact with brokers.
A focal point of the conference will the the presentation of the third annual Insurance-Canada Technology Awards (ICTAs) at a special luncheon. Several of the award finalists are brokers and several others are either carriers or suppliers implementing applications supporting broker distribution.
Insurance-Canada has applied for RIBO credits in the Management category. Registration information is available on-line. Sponsoring organizations have arranged for special pricing for their brokers.
So, a cost-effective and efficient use of a day that includes an ‘award winning’ lunch with your carriers and colleagues … Why wait? Register Now.
Is that a pun or typo?…”Lanscape”?
Thanks to Marta for reading and noticing the headline. We’re not that clever, it was a typo. Was … we’ve buried our mistake.
– Editor