The Chronicle: Issue 2013-07, February 19, 2013


What's Going Through The Intersection of Insurance and Technology?

Analytics and Insurance: What One Question Can Do For The Shoemaker's Son
It's the shoemaker's son conundrum: I have always found it ironic that insurers, whose whole business is based on the management of information, have struggled so much in understanding and utilizing the information they have. Could one question give the child some decent shoes?

Is Gen Y Dead? Marketing in a Post-Generational World
Is Gen Y nothing more than a product of a not-so-imaginative imagination? Some social media experts are suggesting just that. In the new marketing world, traditional ‘generational’ segmentation is losing its value relative to other factors. And marketing strategies are morphing as well. We'd like to know: Do you feel ready to market in a post-generation environment?

The Intersection: Insurance-Canada.ca Blog
The Intersection

an Insurance-Canada.ca Blog


Technology

Information Builders: Five Hot Trends shaping the future of business analytics
Join us for lunch at one of our executive seminars to learn how five mega-technology waves – big data, cloud, social media, predictive analytics, and mobile – are converging to transform the way critical business decisions are made, and opening opportunities for new services, new revenue, and new positioning.

Pitney Bowes Software assists insurers with catastrophe modeling and risk management during extreme weather events
Hurricane Sandy, severe windstorms, Nor'easters, and unusually warm spells during mid-Winter are leading experts to new discussions on catastrophe modeling and risk management. Real-time analysis of these conditions – and the ability to act quickly on this insight – is the new norm in the insurance sector.

Gartner: Actionable Analytics will be driven by Mobile, Social and Big Data
Business intelligence (BI) and analytics continues to be a top CIO investment priority, and yet user surveys by Gartner, Inc. show that only 30 percent of potential users in an organization adopt CIO-sponsored analytics tools. This appears to be changing as organizations invest in making analytics "invisible," and more consumable and accessible, to the nontraditional analytics user.

Telematics

Analytics and the Telematics Information Overload, by Stuart Rose, Global Insurance Marketing Director, SAS
Telematics is set to revolutionize the insurance industry, making it possible to develop more accurate pricing, improve risk management and better assess claims and therefore reduce losses. But is the industry prepared for it?

Claims

FINEOS releases update to landmark claims management software
FINEOS Corporation, the market leading provider of best-in-class claims management software, announced today that it acquired six new customers in the second half of 2012. The six insurance organizations, three in North America and three in Australia, will use FINEOS Claims to streamline their disability, life, and supplemental health claims processes, helping achieve more efficient, effective and competitive claims management.

Business of Insurance

ICLR urban flooding study examines building code interpretation
The Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) today released a study on urban flooding in Canada which looks at, among other topics, interpretation of building and plumbing code wordings that relate to installation of backwater valves to protect homes from sewer backup. While a significant amount of research by ICLR and others has concluded that resolution of building code enforcement issues may result in reduced vulnerability to extreme natural hazards, issues surrounding code interpretation have not previously been studied.

Applied Systems: eight Canadian insurance carriers certified for leading electronic document standard
Applied Systems announced today that it has certified eight Canadian insurance carriers for the Centre for Study of Insurance Operations (CSIO) eDoc XML standard for the transmission of electronic documents between insurance carriers and brokerages. The CSIO XML eDoc standard creates operational and cost efficiencies for brokerages and improves customer service and retention through enhanced data exchange.

DKC launches new education sessions
Disaster Kleenup Canada is launching an exciting new series of education sessions aimed to help restoration and insurance professionals gain relevant and up-to-date information about the property industry and its new challenges. The Western Education Roadshow will focus on two new but complimentary education sessions on “Hoarding” and “The Mystery of Contents.”

IBC holds UBI symposium to explore pay-as-you-drive insurance
Insurance Bureau of Canada today brought together key stakeholders from both the U.S. and Canada for an educational, non-partisan symposium in Toronto about Usage-Based Insurance (UBI). Usage-based insurance is a "pay-as-you-drive" insurance option being implemented in many jurisdictions in the U.S. In Canada, provincial governments, insurers and other stakeholders have expressed interest.

State Farm offers 40 game-changing grants through Neighbourhood Assist program
Do you have an idea that would make your community a better place to live, and would $25,000 be a game-changer? State Farm is here with the assist. From February 13 through March 6, people from Canada and the U.S. can submit a cause for a chance to win a State Farm Neighbourhood Assist™ grant.

CGI: Foresters extends long-term managed IT services contract
CGI today announced the signing of a $54 million extension to an existing long-term agreement that will see CGI continue to provide end-to-end managed IT services to Foresters

Consumer Information

RBC Insurance expands alliance with Shoppers Drug Mart
RBC Insurance and Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation today announced the launch of co-branded travel insurance product offerings to be sold exclusively online through the Shoppers Drug Mart website. Canadians can now also purchase RBC Insurance Travel Insurance through the Shoppers Drug Mart website and earn Shoppers Optimum Points.

Distribution

Western Financial Group expands to Melfort, Saskatchewan
Western Financial Group is proud to announce that Melfort Agencies Ltd. has joined its family of insurance brokerages effective February 1. The addition of the Melfort branch will mark Western Financial Group's 23rd location in Saskatchewan.


Subscribe here or view past issues.