What’s New: In Brief (November 16, 2006)

Seventy-one Grade 9 students attended the Insurance Institute’s Feed the Minds of Youth day, held in conjunction with Take Your Children to Work Day in Toronto in November.
A total of seven insurance companies participated in the event, in which the children ate a pizza lunch while learning about a variety of insurance careers.
The students heard a speaker, Dave Smiley, give an introductory speech, entitled ‘What is Insurance?’ They also played an educational game called Career Links.

ABZ, the Solera company operating in the Netherlands, has completed its acquisition of CATO, which operates a Web portal that enables information exchange between insurance carriers, their corporate clients, and government agencies.
In a press release, ABZ CEO Peter van den Heuvel said “Solera’s willingness to support our service expansion by purchasing CATO answers a real customer need by automating a process that typically has been manual. It enables our insurance clients to file required reporting efficiently with improved quality and accuracy.”
Solera companies include Audatex in the United States and Canada. Audatex is a company dedicated to improving claims process efficiecy.
ABZ’s acquisition enables it to enter the medical information-reporting segment, an emerging business segment in the Netherlands.
Tony Aquila, the founder, chairman and CEO of Solera, added: “ABZ is leading the way in building global solutions that build collaboration and reduce friction in the claims process. CATO makes our insurance clients more efficient and enables our team in the Netherlands to provide better service to their customers.”