Insurance-Canada.ca - Where Insurance & Technology Meet

Innovation in Analytics and Customer Service are the Hallmarks of the 2015 ICTAs

This year, Insurance-Canada.ca received direction for our annual technology awards from two sources: from the jury and from you, the people. One thing is clear from both sources:  customer-focused innovation and effective technology implementation is alive and well in Canada.

The Nominees had some commonalities …

We had a record twenty-seven nominations for the awards this year.  There were a couple of themes that carried through:

  • Customer-centricity: Whether it was adding new front end tools, or replacing back-end systems, the vast majority of nominations had the customer as a target for the investment.
  • Analytics: In order to set plans correctly and execute programs correctly, insurers and brokers are increasingly relying on analytics to inform decisions at the strategic and operating level.

And the jury had tough decisions …

Several of our jurors have been with us for a few years, others are relatively new.  Regardless of the tenure, these industry leaders are owed a debt of gratitude for arguing, cajoling, negotiating, and petitioning in order to reach consensus.  At the end, to a person, there was admiration for the quality of the work and the results.

We’ll feature the jury in a forthcoming post.  But let’s cut to the chase.

The ICTAs go to …

  • Intact Financial Corporation – overall winner for its work with DMTI Spatial to roll out a new visual interface to enable 1,200 underwriters make faster and better decisions and improve efficiency (a reduction of 15% in processing time).
  • Independent Broker Resources Inc. (IBRI) took the first runner up prize for the web based fleet management application which helps reduce claims and improve safety.  Quindell Solutions was recognized for the technology provided.
  • Demonstrating how tough the decisions were, the jury was deadlocked for the second runner-up award:
    • Johnson Inc. with technology from Opta Information Intelligence was recognized for the application of data driven geo-coding to improve risk selection.
    • RSA implemented a ‘LiveChat’ solution from Live Person Inc., allowing brokers to faster and better, and raising the profile of RSA in brokers offices.

PICTA this …

Insurance-Canada took the awards out to the people by introducing the People’s Choice ICTA Awards (PICTAs).  Just under 1,000 of you cast a ballot and gave the awards to:

  • Winner:  Industrial Alliance Auto and Home Insurance (IAAH) for the implementation of new core systems from EIS Group. The project was completed in under 2 years and, most importantly, maintained a ‘customer first’ approach.
  • First Runner Up: Intact Financial Corporation with DMTI Spatial (see above).  The only overlap.
  • Second Runner Up: Cornerstone Insurance Brokers Limited, which implemented technology from Keal Technology and Navicom Inc. to provide frictionless acquisition of customer engagement data to improve service and profitability.

Our congratulations …

Awards were presented at the 2015 Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Conference today.  But the real winners are the insurance professionals and their clients who benefit from the work of all the nominees and others who look to technology to support intelligent, effective service and product.