50 Canadian brokerages score 100% on tech scorecard: CSIO

The Centre for Study of Insurance Operations announced Tuesday it has identified 50 brokerages from across Canada as CSIO technology leaders.

“These brokerages have been deemed top performers because they achieved a score of 100% on their CSIO technology scorecard assessment,” Toronto-based CSIO said in a release.

CSIO, which is comprised of property and casualty insurers, brokers and technology vendors, oversees development, implementation and maintenance of standards and forms for the property & casualty insurance industry.

The association said it is producing technology score cards for its broker members “to help them learn about the CSIO standards and solutions available to them.”

Those standards include eDocs, which is designed to allow brokers to download policy documents directly from carriers’ computer systems to their broker management systems and to store those documents in BMSes without manual intervention.

The eDocs certification program is “designed to ensure standards-based solutions are uniformly implemented across the country, significantly improving efficiencies to the broker channel,” CSIO president and CEO Catherine Smola told members during a speech at its 2014 annual general meeting.

CSIO said Tuesday there are 23 brokerages in Ontario designated by CSIO as technology leaders, plus 11 in Alberta, five in Quebec, four in Saskatchewan and seven in the other provinces.

“CSIO will update the scorecard regularly to reflect current adoption rates.”

The information technology resources on the score card include a mobile website and search engine optimization (SEO).

CSIO previously published educational material designed to help brokers improve the traffic to their websites from search engines such as Google. In a previously-released white paper, CSIO describes SEO as “the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic” to a website from search engines. CSIO added at the time that brokers should minimize duplicate content and develop mobile versions of their websites.

Other CSIO services for members include eDelivery, which “allows members to leverage the CSIOnet platform together with the eDocs standard, to deliver personal lines policies electronically to insurers through Canada Post’s epost platform,” Smola said earlier this year at the CSIO annual general meeting, held at the National Club. She added at the time that eDelivery improves the “ease of doing business within the broker distribution channel” for insurance customers.

Northbridge Insurance was the first carrier that CSIO certified for all three of commercial lines eDocs, personal lines eDocs and eDelivery, the association said at its AGM earlier this year.

CSIO certification is free to vendors and carriers paying CSIO membership fees. In order to be certified, members need to submit a completed application package that includes a self-assessment, including supporting documentation. CSIO then reviews those applications. Those who are successful receive a certification letter. CSIO also adds the names of those certified to its list of certified products and post that information to its Certified Solutions page.