My Insurance Card brought to you by State Farm Insurance

I’m always impressed when a company does something new and become the pioneer that soon other companies will follow. The insurance business does not have the best reputation. The public view these people as boring, stuffy, old and money hungry – similar to the accounting world.

Technology has really evolved in the last few years with smarter and faster hardware, advanced software and the concept of web 2.0 (which is all about interactivity). I’m not sure if you are aware but State Farm launched an iPhone application called, “My Insurance Card”. This application allows State Farm clients with iPhones to access their insurance information which includes an image of their insurance card, and the ability for the client to find out their coverage instantly. This application has the capability to submit a claim and in case of emergency, take a photo with the iPhone and submit them and record accident details and vehicle damage. Did you know that Health Sciences are slowly evolving to what we will know it as e-Health where all our records and Health Card information will be stored online for easy retrieval that you and your health care professional can access. They will soon allow people to have a choice not to carry their Health card because of that reason.

State Farm, I’m thoroughly impressed! They have a Twitter account which also tweets frequently and releasing an iPhone application for their insureds. What a great marketing sales tool you have created.

The iPhone application, My Insurance Card, conveniently tied in to a story a blogger posted online which circulated on the Internet about a gentleman, who also happens to be a lawyer, was stopped by a cop and was asked for his insurance card. He didn’t have it on hand, but he remembered he had an image of it on his iPhone. When debating if it was still legitimate, the man said, where in the law did it say people had to have a paper insurance card? With that argument, the cop could not answer and let him go with a warning. The lawyer happened to be signed on with State Farm and now State Farm is further circulating this story on Facebook and Twitter. If you want to read the whole story, click here: How My iPhone Got Me Out of a Ticket. I would be thoroughly more impressed if I found out that when you renew and update your insurance information, it gets updated instantly to your file which you then can access through your iPhone.

Currently it is not available in Canada, but I’m guessing it is a matter of time that State Farm Insurance rolls it out to Canada or another insurance company mimics it. I think it is smart. The application is free, many people have an iPhone (last quarter the iPhone and Blackberry sold over 400,000 units in Canada).

The iPhone application is a great idea, but what about the Blackberry users? So many more professionals and students alike have recently jumped on the bandwagon on the Blackberry. From my experience more professionals use a Blackberry. Prior to graduating from college, I saw more students carrying a Blackberry than any other phone, including the iPhone. It could be because in Canada, iPhone is only available at Rogers or Fido (same company and only GSM company in Ontario, far as I know) whereas RIM distribute their products to wireless companies that are both GSM and CDMA.

I wonder what’s next in the insurance world because slowly insurance companies are adapting to technology and changing the way it’s run. This new iPhone application might also help dispel some rumors and preconceived notion that insurance industry is boring, stuffy, and old.

You can follow me on Twitter too! SMRestoreYR

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