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Insurance-Canada.ca - Where insurance and technology meet

JUNE 18, 2019

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INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

Insurego Launches Compare & Buy Online
Insurego Inc., an Ottawa-based InsurTech start-up, has launched its first AI-driven “compare and buy online” insurance product for a new generation of Canadian consumers, powered by proprietary made-in-Canada technology, driven by Big Data and artificial intelligence. Read more.

Trisura Launches On Apollo Exchange
Trisura Guarantee Insurance Company has partnered with Apollo Insurance to offer several bind online insurance products through the Apollo Exchange. The products cover many small business packages that brokers are able to purchase on behalf of their clients directly from the Exchange. Read more.

FRISS, omni:us Supercharge Insurance With A.I.
FRISS has announced a partnership with omni:us, a provider of AI-based cognitive claims management service. The digitization of unstructured documents proves to be an excellent entry point in the risk assessment of policy documents and claims statements by FRISS. Data extracted by omni:us can be used for fraud detection in claims and risk assessment in the underwriting process. Read more.

ACORD Launches Solution To Digitize Lifecycle
ACORD has announced the launch of iConductor, a comprehensive global data exchange service which operationalizes the industry-backed ACORD Standards to transform, orchestrate, and validate all messaging data using APIs and next-generation digital technology. Read more.

CansureTech Fuels Brokers’ Online Sales
Cansure is pleased to announce the national launch of their digital transactional business strategy – CansureTech. With a proven track record as one of Canada's leading MGAs for brokers, Cansure are now making their transactional products and expertise even more accessible by going digital for brokers and their customers. Read more.

Verisk Launches Cyber Underwriting Report
Verisk, a leading data analytics provider, has announced the launch of its Cyber Underwriting Report, a new InsurTech solution that can help insurers underwrite a wide variety of risks in the growing cyber market with increased speed and precision. Read more.

Journey To A Zero-Based Mindset: Accenture
With sustainable growth increasingly difficult to achieve and cost-cutting efforts not enough to spur it, organizations need a new approach to meet their business goals. A new book from Accenture, The Big Zero, highlights how instilling a “zero-based mindset” (ZBx) can help companies release funds that can drive innovation, growth and competitiveness. Read more.

ASSI Opens Sarnia Collision Reporting Centre
Sarnia Police Services has approved an agreement with Accident Support Services International to open a Collision Reporting Centre in Sarnia on June 11th. The hours of operation will be 10 am to 6 pm, Monday through Friday. Read more.

Mistakes To Avoid In Blockchain Projects
Interest in blockchain remains high, but there is still a significant gap between the hype and market reality. Only 11% of CIOs indicated they have deployed or are in short-term planning with blockchain, according to Gartner's 2019 CIO Agenda Survey. This may be because the majority of projects fail to get beyond the initial experimentation phase. Read more.

BMS, BitSight Partner On Cyber Risk Analysis
BMS Group, the independent specialist (re)insurance broker, has announced a partnership with BitSight, the Standard in Security Ratings, to provide cyber risk analysis services to BMS clients across all lines of business as part of BMS's consultancy offering. Read more.

Annuity Writers Focus Technology Strategy On CX
Individual annuity carriers are looking to deepen existing distribution relationships, expand new channels, and improve transparency to differentiate themselves in a competitive marketplace. In a new report, Novarica provides an overview of individual annuity carriers' business and technology issues and trends, data about the marketplace, and examples of recent technology investments by annuity carriers. Read more.

Duck Creek Launches P&C Reinsurance Solution
Duck Creek Technologies has announced it has launched a complete, SaaS-based reinsurance management solution for P&C, adding comprehensive reinsurance management functionality to the already robust capabilities of the Duck Creek Suite. Duck Creek Reinsurance Management allows primary insurance carriers to manage reinsurance partners, contracts, bills, recoveries and payables. Read more.

Innovation in Life Insurance: Market Assessment
Despite new analytics being used to help target prospects and personalize offers, policy sales have seen no growth over the past few years. Due to saturation, group life insurance carriers within the U.S. are stealing market share from one another rather than building new market share. Aite Group's latest report has found that the most potential carriers have in gaining new business is in the small-business space, in which scale and low cost of acquisition are essential. Read more.

CX Technology Investments Increasing: Gartner
Three-quarters of organizations surveyed by Gartner increased their customer experience (CX) technology investments in 2018. Customer analytics continues to be one of the biggest investments, with increased funding in 2019 focusing on customer journey analysis, customer needs analysis, voice of the customer (VoC) and digital marketing. Read more.

Technology Spending Outside IT Creates Risks
Almost two-thirds (63%) of organizations now allow technology to be managed outside the IT department, a shift that brings both significant business advantages and increased privacy and security risks, reveals a new survey of CIOs by Harvey Nash and KPMG. When IT spending is managed away from the direct control of the chief information officer, companies are more likely to become victims of a major cyber-attack. Read more.

La Capitale And LEDOR Join Forces
La Capitale General Insurance and LEDOR Assurances have embarked on an initiative to amalgamate the two companies by the beginning of next year. Read more.

Lussier Dale Parizeau Acquires Assets Of Petrela, Murray, LeBlanc Inc.
Lussier Dale Parizeau is pleased to announce the acquisition of the assets of Petrela, Murray, LeBlanc Inc., in line with Lussier Dale Parizeau’s growth and development strategy. The company now has more than 800 employees in 29 branches and serves more than 160,000 customers. Read more.

Lussier Dale Parizeau, Genius FG Consolidate
Lussier Dale Parizeau is pleased to announce the combination of activities of Genius Financial Group and Lussier Dale Parizeau. As a result of this consolidation, Lussier Dale Parizeau will have more than 800 employees in 29 branches serving more than 160,000 clients. Read more.

Hub International Acquires Porchlight Financial
Hub International Limited has announced it has acquired Porchlight Financial, a full-service group retirement plan consulting firm in Vancouver. Porchlight specializes in group retirement plan member advisory services, financial wellness programs, retirement lifestyle and income planning. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Read more.

Aon, METACO Launch Crypto Insurance For Banks
Swiss fintech METACO has announced that a panel of London insurers, arranged by Aon, will offer a crime insurance product to clients using METACO's integrated wallet management solution for financial institutions to protect their digital assets. Read more.

Lemonade Announces Germany Launch
Lemonade has launched in its first European country. Consumers in Germany can now get contents and liability insurance instantly, anytime, from any device – and they can get claims paid in seconds. Read more.

SURA To Leverage FRISS Guidewire Accelerator
FRISS and Guidewire Software have announced that SURA Colombia has successfully deployed its integrated claims fraud detection programme for motor personal lines with the FRISS accelerator for Guidewire ClaimCenter™. Read more.

KPMG, IBM, Merck & Walmart Piloting Blockchain For Medicine Distribution
IBM, KPMG, Merck and Walmart have been selected by the FDA for a blockchain pilot project to identify, track and trace prescription medicines and vaccines within the United States in support of the U.S. Drug Supply Chain Security Act. Read more.

Path To A Resilient, Low-Carbon Economy
From wildfires and windstorms to widespread flooding, climate change is already costing us. The Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance has shared recommendations that provide Canada with a road map to future competitiveness through a transition to a resilient and low-carbon economy. Read more.

U.S. Auto Insurance Satisfaction Surges
Roughly one quarter of U.S. auto insurance customers have adopted direct distribution models that bypass agents in favor of do-it-yourself tools, boosting overall customer satisfaction with auto insurance providers to its highest level ever, according to the J.D. Power 2019 U.S. Auto Insurance Study. Read more.

Renters Are Overspending On Housing
Canadians are devoting hefty chunks of their income to housing, according to a new RateSupermarket.ca survey. Among renters, 44 percent of Canadians spend more than one third of their income on rent, while 15 percent hand over at least half of their income to a landlord each month. Read more.

SGI Introduces Seatbelt Safety Ambassador
SGI is excited to introduce Bucklebot, the newest addition to the SGI Safety Squad. Standing just under a metre tall, Bucklebot is a remote-controlled, animatronic robot that will teach seatbelt safety to children and their parents. Read more.

Apollo Offers First-Ever Gluten-Free Insurance
Apollo is pleased to announce that it now offers the world's first insurance policy that is completely free of gluten. This was achieved through a complete digitization of the entire insurance purchasing process. Read more.


The Intersection: Insurance-Canada.ca Blog

What's going through the Intersection
of insurance and technology?

InsurTech Is Moving Forward, But Is Privacy Catching Up?
By Chris Jones, TurnOnVPN
With technology disrupting so many aspects of insurance, insurers are under increasing pressure to update their business model. On one hand, InsurTech startups are attracting young customers and investors with innovation and newness; on the other, tech giants like Amazon are entering the field with immense resources and digital expertise. Established players need to catch up, and they need to do it fast. But is this race towards innovation forcing them to leave privacy concerns behind? In the information age, where do insurers stand when it comes to data privacy and security? Read more.


Insurance Works

Featured job opportunities:

Account Executive
Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada
Toronto, ON

Senior Underwriter
Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada
Toronto, ON


ICEF2019: “Insurance in the Platform Economy” – 7th annual Insurance-Canada.ca Executive Forum – Wednesday, August 28, 2019

“Insurance In The Platform Economy”

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

The InsurTech revolution has turned on its head the insurance industry's longstanding tradition of time-consuming analysis and painstaking development.

At ICEF2019, learn from early adopters of the InsurTech philosophy, in rather different areas of the insurance industry, about “Taking The Leap – And The Risk – Of Innovation.”

Hear from:
Jeff McCann, Co-Founder & CEO, Apollo Exchange
Sachin Rustagi, Director - Digital Innovation, Gore Mutual
Neil Mitchell, Co-Founder & President, Player's Health Cover
(Moderator:) Doug Grant, Partner, Insurance-Canada.ca

This discussion will illustrate, through their journeys, the challenges overcome, lessons learned, and success stories.

REGISTER NOW!

Register now, or for more details, visit
insurance-canada.ca/icef.


InsurTech Spotlight

The InsurTech Spotlight features insurance practitioners and InsurTech(nology) providers which are – or are becoming – InsurTechs. In the spotlight this week are:

PolicyAdvisor
PolicyAdvisor.com is an innovative insurance marketplace that allows consumers to digitally access life insurance, critical illness insurance, and mortgage protection products from 16 of the largest insurance carriers in Canada. We use modern technology, intuitive design, and real-world advisory capabilities to make it simple, straightforward and stress-free for consumers to buy life insurance and related insurance products. Learn more.

Calling all InsurTechs! Click here to participate.


ICEF2019: “Insurance in the Platform Economy” — 7th annual Insurance-Canada.ca Executive Forum — Wednesday, August 28, 2019, at the St. James Cathedral Centre, Toronto


From Doug

My initial sense of a marketing plan is that it spans:

  • marketplace analysis through product opportunity;
  • all of the product implementation, promotion, and servicing;
  • customer departure; and
  • product sunset.

This is a major subset of a corporate strategic plan.

At a finer level, marketing includes the activities to create awareness of products and services through the sales and service cycle, including cross- and up-selling, retention and eventual departure.

At a third level, “marketing” is just the advertising, promotion and lead capture process which leads into sales and subsequent activities.

Data is of course at the heart of marketing – giving us the axiom “data is the new gold.” It would be easy to think that good data appears as if by magic, but on the other hand, many have noted that we all have more data than we realize and that we could probably make better use of it.

I am looking forward to the webinar “Breaking Down Marketing Automation For Brokers” by Goose Digital this Thursday. And I wonder where many of the innovators are in their marketing journey – see the items in this issue about Insurego, Apollo Exchange and CansureTech, for example.

How does your marketing stack up?

Doug Grant, CIP
Partner
Insurance-Canada.ca

Doug Grant

The Chronicle weekly newsletter features news, events, and general information relating to technology and innovation in the Canadian insurance industry and marketplace. Subscribe here or view past issues.

If you would like to recommend an item for inclusion – with a focus on technology in insurance relevant to the Canadian Property & Casualty insurance industry, please contact [email protected].

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