The cargo insurance process has traditionally been slow, rigid and repetitive. Pre-printed insurance company forms required that certificate information be entered manually and in triplicate. Bordereau declarations were prepared and sent to brokers who would re-key the information and then send the declarations to the underwriters who would also re-enter the information for their purposes. Recently efforts were made to streamline this tedious process by moving towards annual volume declarations. The resultant loss of shipment detail, however, proved a major obstacle to providing precise risk analysis and accurate rating.

The GENOA product represents the evolution of the CargoCover™ application, an online insurance system developed to diminish the inefficiencies and paper-reliance normally associated with cargo insurance.

Oceanwide.com developed CargoCover™ to offer small to medium sized freight forwarders the ability to book and manage their entire cargo insurance program online. Now in its fourth release, CargoCover™ has been operating in a 'live' environment since 1998. More than fifteen insurance companies are currently acting as market security for over 800 regular users of the CargoCover™ system. Acting on tremendous industry response, Oceanwide.com has expanded its online insurance offering with a system that incorporates multi-broker and underwriter functionality.

The GENOA Cargo Insurance Management system provides an interactive end-to-end solution that allows the entire industry to operate on a single open platform. Capitalizing on the Internet's low communications cost, GENOA offers real-time collaboration to shippers, brokers, underwriters and claims settling agents through a centralized database.

State of the art development technologies allow GENOA to offer users unprecedented flexibility and ease of use. Access to varying levels of information is restricted via user profiles that are determined by company and system administrator(s). Collaboration tools issue electronic alerts onto web-based status screens and by e-mail to prompt for action and streamline the processes involved in creating, issuing and renewing policies based on user requirements, generating certificates of insurance, recording shipment and storage declarations, initiating and processing claims, and tracking the use of the policies.