Issue 2009-38 -- September 22, 2009

This newsletter is for members of the Canadian Insurance Industry, and those who serve it. The newsletter is published weekly, and notes information mostly about the use of the Internet and related technologies in the industry. Some is international, where we feel it is relevant to Canada.




Claims

How cost-effective are fixed fees? – Allegient Systems.
In an effort to cut costs, many insurers are turning to alternative-fee arrangements for aspects of their independent-adjusting and legal-defence work. These agreements may include flat fee, fixed fee, bundled fees - whatever the terms, they are a departure from the traditional time-and-expense billing. Insurers maintain that these types of arrangements help them control their costs, but how do they really know if they are as cost-effective as if the work had been billed at an hourly rate? As the adage goes, "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it." In other words, if you don't know what was done by whom to resolve the claim, how will you know whether or not the alternative arrangement is better?

Wawanesa Insurance Selects Guidewire ClaimCenter.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba and SAN MATEO, California, September 15, 2009 - The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company, which provides coverage to 1.8 million policy holders in Canada and the United States, and Guidewire Software®, a leading provider of flexible core systems to property/casualty (general) insurers, today announced that Wawanesa has selected Guidewire ClaimCenter® as its new platform to manage claims for all lines of business: Home, Auto, Farm, and Commercial.

Damage Investigation Caused by August 20, 2009 Tornadoes in Vaughan Ontario: ICLR & UWO.
A team including Murray Morrison, Eri Iizumi, Craig Miller, Gregory Kopp, from the Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, ON conducted a damage investigation following the Tornadoes of August 20 which touched down near Toronto and then write a report about their findings.

HCAI Reintroduction Update - September 14, 2009.
August 21 marked the end of user acceptance testing, also referred to as "Model Office". Voluntary testers from a variety of health care facilities and insurers attended half-day and full-day testing sessions to evaluate how the new HCAI application performed. Three different approaches were used:

eBusiness and Technology

Profiles of Innovation: "Conversations for a smarter planet" IBM event Toronto.
IBM is hosting an exclusive event on the topic of Advanced Analytics. If you have a need for client insights and are responsible for any of the following functions: Marketing, Communications, Brand Management, Portfolio Management, Product Development, Corporate Strategy, IT - CIO and IT Applications, COO, Underwriting, Chief Architect, this event will be of interest to you.
Please join us in downtown Toronto on October 7th as we discuss how Advanced Analytics will help you build sustained competitive advantage.

FINEOS included in the IBM Insurance Process Acceleration Framework.
DUBLIN, Ireland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FINEOS Corporation, a global provider of innovative enterprise software solutions for insurance, today announced that its software has been validated for the IBM Insurance Process Acceleration (IPA) Framework. Insurance solutions offered by IBM are built on the IBM Framework and aim to create more flexible, responsive companies through the progressive transformation of operational processes. As part of this, IBM has teamed up with leading software vendors in the core insurance space. FINEOS, a long established partner of IBM, offers solutions that improve the efficiency of core processes in areas such as Claims and New Business.

Gomez Publishes New White Paper: "Best Practices to Assure High-Performance Web Applications in a Web 2.0 World".
Lexington, Massachusetts, September 16, 2009 - Gomez, Inc., the leader in Web application experience management, today published its latest white paper about best practices for optimizing the performance of Web applications that use AJAX, Flex, and Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) in today's multi-browser world.

Gartner Identifies Ten Enterprise Architecture Pitfalls.
Egham, UK, September 2, 2009 - Selecting the wrong person as lead enterprise architect, and not engaging business people are two of the biggest pitfalls organisations face when trying to establish an effective enterprise architecture (EA) programme, according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner analysts have identified the ten biggest EA pitfalls, as well as practical advice on how organisations can avoid them.

Distribution

Keal Technology and Canadian Signassure/sigXP User Group Expand Broker Education.
TORONTO, Ontario, Canada - September 14, 2009 - Keal Technology and Canadian Signassure/sigXP User group announce they have expanded their partnership to jointly deliver educational offerings to their mutual clients. Earlier in 2009, the partnership was expanded to include regional, face-to-face education sessions to expand the reach of the first joint users' conference last fall. Responding to industry challenges, the upcoming conference agenda will provide brokers with take-away tools to help them become more competitive.

Policy and Product Management

US Property/Casualty Rating Systems: ABCD Vendor View, 2009: Report Published by Celent.
Boston, MA, USA - August 26, 2009 - A new report, US Property/Casualty Rating Systems: ABCD Vendor View, 2009, is designed to help carriers take a fresh look at the various players that are active in the stand alone rating applications space. The goal in conducting this detailed data analysis and in talking to key players is to provide comparative data that helps carriers shortcut the process of evaluating rating engine vendors.

Business of Insurance

Co-operators Life Insurance Company and Central 1 Credit Union to acquire The CUMIS Group Limited.
BURLINGTON, ON, Sept. 17 2009 - Co-operators Life Insurance Company and Central 1 Credit Union today announced an agreement to acquire The CUMIS Group Limited, subject to regulatory, shareholder and court approvals and other standard closing conditions. This transaction would result in a strong, Canadian-owned supplier of insurance products and services to Canadian credit unions and their members.

Advocis report: Canadians not prepared for retirement.
September 17, 2009 -- TORONTO – Advocis, The Financial Advisors Association of Canada, released a commissioned report today that concludes that there must be more opportunities for Canadians to participate in pension plans. And the most effective way to encourage higher participation by Canadians is fostering employer-sponsored defined contribution (DC) pension plans.

Managing Relationships and Customer Service

DALBAR's DC Web Rankings Recognize Industry Leading Plan Sponsor Web Sites.
(Boston, MA. - August 2009) For the third quarter in a row, Principal Financial's plan sponsor Web site places first in DALBAR's DC WebMonitor ranking while also earning an "Excellent" DALBAR designation for the first time. Rounding out the top five for Quarter 2-2009 are, in order: Transamerica, John Hancock, The Newport Group and Vanguard.

Marketing and the Market Place

Forrester: Americans Continue To Adopt Digital Lifestyle.
Cambridge, Mass., September 2, 2009 . . . Americans of all ages continue to adopt a digital lifestyle according to the largest annual survey of consumers' technology adoption and attitudes by Forrester Research, Inc. "The State Of Consumers And Technology: Benchmark 2009, US" is a graphical analysis of Forrester's North American Technographics® Benchmark Survey, 2009 (US, Canada) of nearly 48,000 respondents. A rich data asset for Consumer Market Research professionals' product planning and go-to-market strategy assessments, the survey includes more than 1,400 data points and data on 378 US brands. It is the largest ongoing survey in the world to explore consumer attitudes, ownership, and use of technology.

Media Dollars Shift to Digital in Downturn: eMarketer.
SEPTEMBER 16, 2009 - The economic downturn is causing most marketers to decrease media spending budgets, and the remaining expenditures are shifting further toward digital, according to a Q2 2009 survey by Round2. More than two-thirds of senior executives in the Western US responding to the "2009 Media Survey Results & Analysis" reported their media budgets would decrease at least somewhat in 2009 compared with 2008.

Insurance in the Community

University of Guelph receives $400,000 from The Co-operators for new Centre.
GUELPH, ON, Sept. 16 2009 - The University of Guelph and The Co-operators today launched a new centre dedicated to preparing a new generation of business leaders committed to community engagement and sustainability. The Co-operators Centre for Business and Social Entrepreneurship will be supported over the next five years by a $400,000 gift from the Guelph-based insurance and financial services organization.

from Doug:

Who do you know whom I also know? - or six degrees of separation. While lunching with an industry participant yesterday, we discovered we had a mutual acquaintance in Chilliwack BC. He had been her student in high school while I know her more recently as a friend in the heritage association I belong to. Although the impact of social networking continues to grow and evolve, the personal touch you uncover during casual conversation will long be important - I hope.


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