Fireman’s Fund Wins WIC Endorsement

California-based Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company has won the endorsement of the Woodworkers Institute of California (WIC), an association of cabinetmakers and professional woodworkers, primarily because of a new customized internet-based CD-ROM insurance service for the WIC members that simplifies their business insurance tasks and links them to other key sites and conveniences on the World Wide Web.

The CD-ROM contains a series of risk management tools and access to a proprietary 24/7 extranet, allowing woodworkers to:

• report losses online to Fireman’s Fund.
• link to medical providers for workers’ compensation.
• gain online access to a proprietary Fireman’s Fund customer Web site providing industry-specific information and bulletin boards. Customers can pose questions to Fireman’s Fund or their woodworking industry peers so they can trade experience on specific problems.
• access information packets and articles on critical issues facing the industry.
• order information, free of charge, from a library of loss prevention materials and common insurance forms.
• learn about preferred pricing for buying online data backup services for their business through EVault, a national provider of online data backup and recovery solutions, at special prices for Fireman’s Fund insureds. Other similar preferred pricing will become available from other vendors over time.

The CD-ROM is one of seven, each serving a different industry and each acting as a portal to a proprietary dynamic extranet. The seven industries currently include: woodworking, real estate, leisure (restaurants, hotels, country clubs), manufacturing, services, retail stores, and wholesale operations.

The CD-ROM and extranet were developed after conducting focus groups in specific industries to learn what insurance needs are not being met in the insurance marketplace.