Here It Comes: ICAMS for Windows (from Corey Chambliss)

Screen shot from ICAMS

We have been working to replace the interface of ICAMS for quite some time. The Underwriting department has been using the new Windows version of ICAMS for quoting for over a year and have been using it to process policies since last year.

We have really pushed the limit of what functions we can give in the old DOS program.  Getting our Underwriting and Claims department into this new system will allow us to keep up with the future needs of our company.

One of the main differences the claims department will notice between the old DOS version and the Windows version is the way you approach any of the lists like claimants, claims or vendors.  In the DOS system, you would always start at the top of a list that showed every claimant, or every vendor. Then you would start typing the name you wanted until you reached it or got close enough to stop typing your search and scroll though the list to what you needed.  Now you won’t be shown anything until you have typed in come criteria to search for.  To make this searching easier, the system does not require you to type an entire name.

For instance, if you type “Smith” you will get “Smith” and “Smithbower”. You can also use the wildcard “*” or “%”.  Searching for “*SMITH” lists Clingensmith, Hockensmith, Klinginsmith, Neismith, Smith, etc.  I find this helpful if I am not sure of the correct spelling of a name. When looking up company names this can really help. If I want to find something like “Timothy M Smith”, I may not know if there is a period after the M, I can just search for “TIM*SMITH” to find the listing.

more>>>

Recent Insurance News

Flood Insurance Reform Moving Ahead—The Senate Banking Committee's version of flood insurance reform should move by Memorial Day, and Banking Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., served advance notice that his reforms may be tougher than House leaders propose. "Over its near-40-year history, the program has never approached actuarial soundness, which can be attributed to the manner in which the program was designed," Shelby says. He's especially critical of the program for providing "coverage for thousands of repetitive-loss properties, vacation homes, and perhaps, a considerable number of structures that should never have been built." More than 100,000 properties with $4.6 billion in flood claims have filed repetitive loss claims of $1,000 or more but account for 38 percent of all claims against the National Flood Insurance Program.

Allstate Ranks U.S. Drivers—Keep this in mind while on summer vacation—and keep your eyes on the road! Residents of Sioux Falls, S.D., are the safest drivers in the United States, according to the second-annual report put out by AllState. Sioux Falls moves up from the number two spot on last year's report, replacing nearby Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This ranking of the best drivers in the 200 largest cities in America revealed that the average driver in Sioux Falls will have an auto collision every 14.3 years, compared to the national likelihood of every 10 years - making them 30 percent less likely to have an accident than the national average. Iowa, Tennessee and Colorado stand out as also being home to some of the country's safest drivers. Two cities from each state are in the top 10.

more>>>

click here for larger graphs