Over the last year, Ive had a chance to talk a number of times with Klaas Westera, president of CSIO, a Canadian broker/carrier association, about its new industry Internet portal. Although the CSIO portal and the strategy behind it have relevance for the U.S. insurance industry (at least the independent part of it), I suspect that few carriers or agents know much about itor even who CSIO is. So heres a short report on the ambitious and suggestive efforts going on north of the borderand what it might mean to you. (By the way, in Canada independent agents are called brokers, to distinguish them from one-carrier agents.)

CSIO, the Centre for Study of Insurance Operations, is a cooperative broker and carrier association focused on improving the efficiency, effectiveness, and competitiveness of the independent Canadian insurance distribution system through the use of technology. Its a bit like ACORD, IVANS, and a national rating vendor rolled into one.

Over the years, CSIO has created electronic data interchange (EDI) standards such as AL3, form standards (paper and computer formats), Web-screen standards, XML standards, terminology standards (including an English to French glossary), and developed an industry extranet (CSIOnet).