After careful deliberation, the 2013 Jury has selected nine finalists for the coveted Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Awards (ICTAs). The award-winners will be announced at the 2013 Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Conference, However, there is one clear winner already: the insurance technology user.
The Process
For the fourth year in a row, Insurance-Canada.ca has received nominations for insurers, insurance distributors, and suppliers to receive awards for innovative use of technology to support the Canadian insurance community. And for the second year, we have been honored to have participation by distinguished members of the insurance community to act as jurors to help select finalists and, ultimately, winners.
Insurance-Canada.ca received a number of nominations in three categories: Insurer, Distributor, and Supplier. After reviewing these at a meeting two weeks ago,the jurors agreed on one thing: all of the nominees had demonstrated characteristics of quality, impact, and innovation, and that the decision was not going to be straight forward. However, the jurors did take up the challenge, and debated the merits of the nominees. At the end, each juror submitted a ballot.
And the results are testimony to the value that technology is bringing to Canadian insurance practitioners and, ultimately, to the Canadian insurance consumer. Canadian Insurance Top Broker Magazine will be publishing profiles of the finalist organizations and the applications in its February edition. Meantime, here are the Coles Notes on each. (Details on all the nominees, including the finalists, can be found on the Insurance-Canada.ca website in the ICTA section.)
Distributor Finalists
Ingle International has launched a new, integrated, on-line solution which allows group benefit plan members to purchase additional travel days or supplemental benefits to fill gaps in embedded travel insurance coverage in a seamless, secure, custom-branded environment.
Square One Insurance Services developed an integrated CRM, policy management, billing, and claims management system that allows real time quoting of its unique à-la-carte home insurance product The system now handles 70% of overall quoting activity.
The Shepherd Group created a brand that incorporated leading edge technology and took full advantage of all of the available tools of social media, resulting in a user experience for quoting and fulfillment that combines the features of a direct writer with the value proposition of a broker.
Insurer Finalists
CAA Insurance developed its On-line property Quoter to integrate with iClarify and Kanetix SaaS offerings to simplify the customer’s on-line experience and expedite the quotation process, which resulted in lower abandonment rates by prospects.
Ontario Farm Mutuals, with MCCG, developed an integrated admin and BI system that is flexible enough to be used by 30 unique Mutuals across multiple provinces, with of a diverse size, ranging from 4 to 100 staff members. The Mutual users consistently report high satisfaction rates.
State Farm Insurance introduced State Farm Driver Feedback, a mobile application (iOS and Android) which scores individuals and gives tips to improve driving behaviour. The application uses research-based algorithms which interpret data to provide a relative score, log event types, severity, etc. Its use doe not impact insurance rates.
Unica Insurance, a subsidiary of La Capitale General Insurance implemented technology by Keal Technology and iter8 which enables full real-time policy change that starts and ends in the broker management system. This represents a first live solution for the Canadian market that uses CSIO standards, and adheres to IBAC guiding principles.
Supplier finalists
FirstOnSite Restoration developed propriety software to allow restoration project managers to gather data, generate comprehensive site reports, communicate with adjusters and crews, and produce estimates quickly and easily which increases efficiency and allows FirstOnSite to meet or exceed the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) of the insurance industry.
Accident Support Services International introduced CROMS, a multi-functional collision management application developed specifically for the administration and collection of collision reports, photos, documentation. CROMS improves the speed of delivery of collision reports, and acts as a fully functional fraud detection and records management tool.
Next Steps
The jury meets again in early January to review the finalists, after which there will be a final vote. The results will be tabulated, awards prepared, and stages set for the presentation on March 18, 2013, at the end of the first day of the 2013 ICTC.
In the meantime, the finalists will be profiled in Canadian Insurance Top Broker Magazine. We will also introduce our Jurists in this blog after its members casts their final ballots.
We congratulate all of the nominees. We will be highlighting their achievements in the new year.
