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Innovation, Impact & ICTA – Part Two: Creative Connectivity

Emboldened by our success (or perhaps the lack of outright derision) from a recent post,  where we tried to look inside the minds of the  Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Awards jurists as they determined finalists for the 2012 Awards, we are taking another shot.  This time, our crystal ball sees trails of creativity leading to broker connectivity.

In our first attempt, we noted that 3 of the 9 ICTA finalists shared  a common trait:  each had an initially inward looking focus on effectiveness and efficiency which ultimately resulted in innovation and positively impacted overall business functions.  In our second group we see solid business and technology drivers leading to some elegant, innovative solutions which are easily understood and marketable.  The finalists here are:

  • Unica Insurance (formerly York Fire & Casualty) for their project to directly connect Broker transactions from the Keal BMS to Unica’s systems, supported by iter8’s technology.
  • SGI Canada for the pioneering work implementing standards for downloading of broker copy of policy declaration pages and broker memos as part of their daily EDI download transactions.
  • Zycomp + MASTERCOM for the technology development and integration allowing downloading of broker copy of policy declaration pages and broker memos as part of their daily EDI download transactions. These are automatically filed at the broker without intervention.

The concepts of broker connectivity have been around for over 3 decades in Canada, so what’s the big deal?  We see two important elements:

  1. Measurement.  We have all heard the claims that connectivity will improve competitiveness and productivity, but there has been a dearth of hard data.  Part of the Unica implementation was clear measurement of the time saved and the reduction in friction using a direct connection versus using 3rd party intermediaries.
  2. Demonstrating real value in simple terms.  The ability for CSIO data transactions to also carry documents (policy dec pages, e.g.) which can be filed electronically (and automatically) in the brokers office and sent directly to customers electronically.  This is a direct benefit of the SGI/Mastercomm-Zycomp solution.

The organizations involved in these projects went public with details, and there is fresh ‘buzz’ around Broker Connectivity.  And while marketing alone will not make Standards based connectivity a solution, it is fool-hardy to ignore the importance of success stories, well told, to influence decision makers.

Interested in learning more about these implementations and other developments in Broker Connectivity?  Then the 2012 Insurance-Canada Technology Conference is the place to be.  There are numerous sessions of interest.  For example:

So was it the sizzle or the steak that finally sold our honourable jurists to make one of these finalists a category winner?  That secret will be revealed on March 5th at the ICTA Awards Luncheon, held in connection with the ICT  Conference.  Be there to find out.  Register today!