Views (February 01, 2004)

The Insurance Brokers Association of Canada (IBAC) kicked off its annual BIP advertising campaign last month at the Canadian National Figure Skating Championships. The well-received “Blanket-Anthem” television spots will run from January 5 to the end of May 2004 on a variety of shows in both English and French. “The more frequently the logo appears in family living rooms across the country, the more we are recognized as insurance intermediaries who offer a choice of products and value-added services,” says Larry Kozakevich, co-chair of IBAC’s BIP committee. Advertising materials are being made available to member brokers, including print ads that can be personalized, available at www.ibac.ca.

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Allianz Canada has launched a new online personal insurance program called “OPUS”, in Northern Ontario. The auto and habitational modules created over an 18-month period are connected to a rules-based policy print system from Xerox Business Systems. The program is scheduled for roll-out across Ontario by the end of February.

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Vancouver-based TransWorldconneX has launched the first single-source online listing of international expatriate and local national policies. The free service is being offered to brokers, consulting houses and insurers, to locate and purchase insurance and other services for international benefits clients. Quotes for policies will be handled within 24 hours, the company says.

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The Co-operators has unveiled a new brand campaign which capitalizes on the company’s almost 60-year history as the largest domestic insurer. The “heritage” campaign includes television ads, with radio and print ads to follow later in 2004. The company also recently celebrated being named to the Globe and Mail’s list of Canada’s 50 best employers, along with its Quebec subsidiary, L’Union Canadienne. “This is a significant achievement for us, particularly in a year that posed many challenges for our industry,” says vice president of human resources Bernie Mitchell.

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The CIP Society of the Insurance Institute of Ontario (IIO) held its annual New Fellows’ Reception at Toronto’s Albany Club recently. Accepting congratulations on behalf of the new FCIP graduates is Bruce Palmer of ING (at microphone), who called the designation “a milestone on the path to lifelong learning”. Along with the celebration of new FCIP graduates, the event also honored this year’s Fellow of Distinction, Carolyn Walsh (pictured with nomination committee chair Gord Crutcher, left, and IIO president Patrick King). Walsh has been a long-standing supporter of the IIO, sitting on several committees, although she may be best known for her work on the CIP Society’s annual gala fundraiser for the Starlight Foundation (Walsh is pictured with gala co-chair Camille Alexander).

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Broker management systems provider Applied Systems Canada Inc. has formed an alliance with Softext Publishing Inc. to enhance the financial services offerings for The Agency Manager (TAM) brokers. Softext’s Axis Administrator is a management system for mutual and segregated funds dealers and investment firms. The new integrated system will eliminate double entry of data in many categories and allow brokers to switch easily between programs.

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Aviva Canada and SQLiaison completed implementation of Fellow DSS, a new data management suite geared to the p&c insurance industry. The technology brings together data from legacy systems, found under different applications, and makes it easily accessible at the management level to give a “single version” of the information. For example, the program produces “key performance indicators” to track business progress. “With these applications, our business users will spend more time analyzing the date rather than assembling it,” says Gerry Lee, Aviva’s vice president of information management services.