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Customer ServiceElectronic Communication between Insureds, Agent/Broker and Company Businesses large and small are offering the public the option of communicating with them electronically. Consumer experiences with electronic mail and the WWW through popular online services and company systems have demonstrated to many the speed and economy of the medium. Savvy business operators are tempted by the speed and economics of routing inquiries, orders and complaints electronically. Because it is such an information and communication dependent industry, the insurance business stands to gain a lot from using electronic communication with its vendors and customers. When considering opening itself to such "channels," any business needs to consider some practical issues involving privacy and security. Today, one can see wide contrasts in the degree of privacy protection offered by sites that invite the public to "Talk to Us."
As more insurers and agents see the opportunity to use this new medium to save expense, they may start installing communications tools with varying degrees and effectivness of privacy protection. Today, there is a broad spectrum of understanding (and lack thereof) regarding increasingly important technologies with curious names like public key encryption, PGP, digital signatures, cryptolopes, Secure Socket Layer (SSL), Secure HyperText Transfer Protocol (S-HTTP) and Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME). Regulators may need to look beyond their traditional resources in order to keep abreast of the developments in this field, so that they will be able to evaluate what regulations and controls are needed for public protection. Sources of further information regarding this important subject include:
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Toronto's Electric Coffee House Software Technologies Corporation Risk Management Administration Web Site |
Customer ServiceCommercial Insurance -- The Sun / Chubb / Sedgwick Project In late 1995, Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation, a global technology leader, challenged its insurance provider and broker to work with it to improve the way its certificates of insurance are delivered. Sun sells and services its technology systems worldwide and its customers need fast, reliable access to evidence of necessary insurance covering Sun's exposures. Traditionally, handling requests for insurance certificates has been a labor intensive paper process involving multiple layers of handling. Sun's vision of a insurance marketplace enabled by electronic commerce is on the Net. Sun presented its challenge to Chubb and Sedgwick James in December 1995. With the assistance of ADVice, Inc., an affiliate of Toronto's Electric Coffee House, they chose to forgo the traditional approach of attempting to build an industry consensus on standards before proceeding. Instead, they agreed to develop and present a plan by the April 1996 RIMS convention, then less than 5 months away. They maintain a home page dedicated to the project at http://insuranceusa.iconnet.net/netpartners/index.html Using the assistance of Software Technologies Corporation and Insurance USA , they were successful in presenting a Proof of Concept White Paper at the 1996 RIMS convention that details the project and its outcome, now available at http://www.adviceinc.com/certificate.html The plan the three partners developed and implemented includes extensive use of electronic communication, email and Electronic Data Interchange ("EDI") to handle requests for certificates of insurance. Instead of relying entirely upon slow and labor-intensive paper delivery of Certificates of Insurance, many of which only evidenced annual renewal of coverage, they publicly posted Certificates of Insurance at a secure web site so that many requests can be handled by simply emailing the URL to requesters. The posted certificate is protected from alteration by posting it as a hard to alter "GIF" image on a web site meeting security requirements of Sun and Chubb, as shown by the Example Certificate at http://www.magibox.net/~sedgsf/acct/sjsun/memo/ The partners also collaborated on the development and interlinking of their respective web pages, so as facilitate their respective employees' locating resources available from the respective partners, for example:
The partners' Proof of Concept WhitePaper, presented in April, 1996 brought flattering press notice from such sources as Canadian Insurance E-News and closed with the following thought-provoking conclusion: "Unlike other industry initiatives, it did not attempt to reach consensus among the involved parties before proceeding. Rather, the partners limited themselves to one trading relationship and focused on business problems to address. Since it uses open standards and communications, it is easily portable to any other business partners who share this philosophy and commitment." "Certificates of Insurance ... A White Paper Version 1.0," Conclusion, at http://www.adviceinc.com/certificate.html For additional papers on the development of new technology applications to the business of insurance by Insurance USA, see their Technology Corner at http://insuranceusa.iconnet.net/features/tech.html This document was first online at lynxcom.com |
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