Glenn Titterton, President & CEO, said that "BF&M has been a technology leader for many years and it was perhaps to be expected that BF&M would be first to open up e-commerce business opportunities to its customers and the public generally." Mr. Titterton said, "we recognized over two years ago that it would be critically important to offer our customers the opportunity to transact insurance services over the Internet. This exciting Internet initiative has had a snowball effect throughout our organization and will also improve the services that we offer to customers who chose to transact their insurance business by phone, fax, mail and in person. It is clear that these developments will transform the way insurance is transacted and will greatly improve the services we offer to our customers. I am very proud that BF&M has taken the lead in this area, which demonstrates both the effectiveness of our forward planning and our commitment to offer the very best service available anywhere."
"This has been a major undertaking and in order to offer these facilities to the Bermuda public at the earliest opportunity, we created a special team headed by Hugh O'Neill, Vice President, Information Systems and Glen Gibbons, Vice President, Customer Relations. They have done an outstanding job of preparing for the continuing rollout of e-commerce capabilities. We have now gone live with a quote and buy facility allowing the purchase of motor, travel, home and personal effects insurance over the Internet. These will be followed by other product launches in the coming months."
Adds Mr. O'Neill, "our e-surance site at www.bfm.bm is a secure and friendly way for any consumer to get on the web and buy insurance products. We have compared other insurance sites around the world, and we feel that we have one of the easiest to use. Surprisingly there are still not many insurance sites around the world where you can instantly buy insurance, and even though we currently serve only the Bermuda domestic market, we believe ours to be quite advanced from a global perspective."
The e-surance site at www.bfm.bm currently focuses on new business but Mr. Gibbons makes it clear that the e-commerce initiative at BF&M is only the beginning. "We focused first on the quote and buy aspects of personal insurance products, with online renewals and other services to follow shortly. Business to Business ( B2B) products are also being addressed. B2B in the form of electronic claims has been in use in various parts of the Group for some time and has enabled greatly reduced turnaround times in critical areas."
Web surfers who care to check insurance sites around the world will find that BF&M's e-surance site at www.bfm.bm is one of the most advanced and user friendly sites available. Mr. Titterton stressed that "while the site focuses initially on the new quote and buy aspect of personal insurance, it contains a great deal of additional information and facilities, much improved over our earlier web site. We will be rolling out new products on a regular basis and these will include renewals and improved claims services."