TORONTO, ONTARIO–(CCNMatthews – July 4, 2005) – Allstate Insurance Company of Canada has reached an agreement with Symbility Solutions Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Automated Benefits Corp. (TSX VENTURE:AUT), to implement the Symbility mobile claims system for property insurance operations in Canada.
Last week, Symbility Solutions announced its first customer – The Economical Insurance Group, Waterloo, Ontario, making this the second customer win for Symbility Solutions in less than a week.
The Symbility mobile claims system runs on tablet and pocket PC’s with integrated Bluetooth®, Wi-Fi and GPRS/1X wireless technology. The Symbility mobile claims system allows adjustors and contractors to write and process claims on-site with greater accuracy and to settle claims more quickly. Over the course of pilot programs with Allstate Canada, Economical and Gore Mutal Insurance in Canada, Symbility’s mobile, wireless, on-site pen-based system allowed claims adjusters and contractors to process claims on-average six times faster than when using traditional processing systems.
Allstate Insurance Company of Canada’s pilot program was conducted in Southwestern Ontario and was designed to evaluate the Symbility mobile claims application based on several criteria including consistency of estimate data, ease of transmitting estimate information between contractors and adjusters and readability of estimates and overall communication of information.
“After careful evaluation, we selected Symbility based on the ease of use of its mobile claims application and its industry leading wireless capabilities that allow us to take the information our staff needs and communicate between the field and head office to increase efficiency,” said John Greb, vice president, Claims, Allstate Insurance Company of Canada.
“At Symbility we believe we are now at the beginning of an era where adjusters and contractors have the freedom to transmit estimates wirelessly, using hand-held, pen-based computers directly on-site,” commented James Swayze, chief executive officer, Automated Benefits Corp.
“When we began this project with Allstate Canada, our goal was to prove that our system could reduce property claim resolution time, lower the cost of administration and ultimately realize value in their settlement process through the efficiencies of our application,” said Symbility President Eric Embacher. “Allstate Canada’s adoption of our system to support their property claims process is validation that we met our objectives.”
About Allstate Insurance of Canada
The Allstate Insurance Company of Canada, with headquarters in Markham, Ontario, has provided personal lines products and services to Canadians since 1953. Allstate Canada provides a full line of auto, home, individual life and travel products, serving customers through its Good Hands Network of over 400 agents, the 1-800-ALLSTATE Call Centre and allstate.ca. Allstate Canada is part of the Allstate Corporation, a Fortune 500 company. Allstate is widely known through the “You’re in Good Hands With Allstate®” slogan.
About Automated Benefits Corp.
Automated Benefits Corp. (www.autoben.com), headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, is a software company dedicated to developing applications for the insurance industry. The corporation currently has two subsidiaries, Autoben and Symbility.
Symbility Solutions (www.symbilitysolutions.com) has developed a mobile claims system focusing principally on residential and commercial property claims estimation for use by insurance company adjusters and independent contractors. Symbility has offices in Waterloo, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec. Autoben is focused on the employee benefit segment of the life insurance industry. Located in Edmonton, Alberta, Autoben provides claims management software for health and dental plans in addition to insurance products for employer groups. The proprietary software of Autoben, ABI, assists in reducing the cost of employee benefits programs by allowing local adjudication and administration to over 23,000 employees across Canada.
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This release and prior releases are available on the KCSA web site at www.kcsa.com.