What’s New: In Brief (November 07, 2006)

The Toronto Insurance Women’s Association (TIWA) has announced it will be hosting its February 2007 Wine and Cheese event at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto.The event will take place on Feb. 15, 2007, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., in the Constitution Hall of the Convention Centre.Tickets for the event will only be available through advance purchase and WILL NOT be sold at the door, TIWA has announced.For more information about tickets, contact Tina Jones at Tjones5@stpaultravelers.com or at 416-643-4746.TIWA is also looking for sponsors for the Wine and Cheese event. Those interested can contact: Michle Mallet at mmallet@insuranceinstitute.ca or at (416) 362-8586 Ext. 2305, or Nancy Carnahan at ncarnahan@kingsway-general.com or at (905) 629-7888 Ext. 2573

The Canadian Information Productivity Awards (CIPA) has bestowed a Silver Award to Royal & SunAlliance in recognition of the company’s ClaimsFusion technology.Irene Bianchi, vice president of claims & corporate services at Royal & SunAlliance, said Royal was “very proud to be recognized.””This [ClaimsFusion] tool plays an important role in streamlining our claims handling process, thereby allowing us to deliver industry-leading claims service to our brokers and customers,” Bianchi said in a press release.ClaimsFusion, an in-house, Web-based claims system, is used to handle both simple and complex commercial and personal insurance claims from first notice of loss to completion. “ClaimsFusion brings all required information to the adjusters’ computers as soon as it is requested,” Royal & SunAlliance said in a press release. “The adjusters can see real-time relevant coverage information at the time of loss, and can also directly link to policy wordings and forms. Auto-fill letters and forms eliminate unnecessary typing.”ClaimsFusion is designed to help adjusters organize their workdays by displaying new claims and other tasks on their home pages. Supervisors can monitor desktops and assign incoming claims.Previously, it took a supervisor about two days to reassign claims from one adjuster to another. “With all the facts and tools at their fingertips, adjusters can begin to determine fair settlements immediately on the phone with customers,” Royal &SunAlliance says in its release. “In most cases, a customer now deals with only one person.”