FirstBest Releases Insurance Front Office Suite 5.0 With Verisk Integration for Data-Powered Underwriting and Innovations for Multi-Line Carriers

BEDFORD, Mass., June 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstBest® Systems, Inc., provider of insurance software solutions for U.S. and international property and casualty insurance carriers, today announced the release of the FirstBest Front Office Suite™ 5.0 for insurance.  The new Suite integrates with more than 50 data sources and analytics from Verisk Insurance Solutions, a unit of Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ: VRSK), includes enhanced features for multi-line underwriting and skills-based routing, and offers easy-to-use configuration for business users.  By providing one-stop access to more complete risk and third-party data, as well as powerful analytics and models, the collaborative underwriting Suite empowers carriers to make the best decision in the least amount of time, provide best-in-class service and increase underwriting profitability.

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"The market is telling us that data, multi-line underwriting and collaboration capabilities are critical to driving an enterprise underwriting strategy.  With the release of FirstBest Front Office Suite 5.0, we're delivering on each of these key needs," said John Belizaire, Co-Founder and CEO, FirstBest Systems, Inc.  "The intersection of people and data within the underwriting process is the next major innovation in underwriting automation and we aim to be at the forefront of that trend with Front Office Suite 5.0 and future offerings."

Front Office Suite 5.0 delivers increased efficiency with new skills-based routing and Business Analyst Studio tools that enable managers and business users to speed setup, configuration and the entire underwriting process.  The FirstBest Front Office Suite 5.0 includes the following modular applications:

• FirstBest UMS™ ─ underwriting workstation
• New - FirstBest Connector for Verisk ─ provides access to more than 50 Verisk property and automobile data sources and analytics
• New - FirstBest Business Analyst Studio™ ─ enables the carrier's business users to rapidly configure the FirstBest Front Office Suite 
• FirstBest Agent™ ─ agent portal
• FirstBest AppReader™ ─ upload for carriers, agents and brokers
• FirstBest Mobile™ ─ mobile underwriting application for iPad users

"The massive proliferation of data, combined with the increased power of modern analytical tools, has the potential to transform the insurance industry dramatically during the next decade," said Matthew Josefowicz, Managing Director, Novarica. "Today's challenge for carriers is not a lack of data but rather the ability to consume that vast amount of data within the underwriting process in order to make the best decisions." 

Innovation and New Features in FirstBest Front Office Suite 5.0
People are the center of the new business and underwriting process in the insurance front office. In addition to supporting straight-through-processing, the FirstBest Front Office Suite 5.0 now provides more than 50 Verisk data sources and analytics for the most complete view of the risk. The Suite also delivers comprehensive multi-line underwriting for account-based underwriting across the entire enterprise, the new FirstBest BA Studio, which puts rich configuration tools in the hands of the carrier's business users, skills-based routing to speed the underwriting process, and the FirstBest UMS Mobile app for Apple iPad with an enhanced user experience for underwriting on the go.  Notable innovations and enhancements in version 5.0 include:

• FirstBest Connector for Verisk provides a more complete picture of the risk –The packaged FirstBest Connector delivers out-of-the box integration to Verisk for electronic delivery of more than 50 commercial and personal property and auto data and analytics, including A-PLUS™ property and auto loss history reports, Coverage Verifier(SM), LOCATION® reports, catastrophe reports, motor vehicle reports and more from Verisk. FirstBest UMS can automatically retrieve and incorporate Verisk data in the underwriting process, providing the underwriter with the most complete picture of the risk, and enabling consistent, quality underwriting decisions from within the underwriting workstation.
• Enhanced multi-line underwriting capabilities coordinate the decision process for complex risks across the account and enterprise – FirstBest UMS enables carriers to more effectively implement competitive, account-based pricing strategies, deliver multi-product quotes and provide professional and coordinated multi-option, multi-policy proposals.  It supports multi-line/multi-product account-based upload, clearance, submission, risk evaluation, rating, pricing, quoting, proposal generation, and binding, connected seamlessly to multiple policy admin systems.  The Front Office Suite supports Workers Comp, General Liability, Commercial Auto, Property, Umbrella, and more.
• New FirstBest Business Analyst Studio enables the carrier's business analysts to configure the Suite, lowering TCO and speeding time to market – Provided with the Front Office Suite, FirstBest BA Studio's graphical user interface enables the carrier's users to rapidly change key elements of a Front Office Suite deployment including fields, values, questions, screens, supplemental questions, risk selection, rules, assignments, and even straight-through-processing, without complicated programming. Increased configuration capabilities include:
  • Expression editor - for calculating field values based on mathematical formulas and if-then-else conditions
  • Dynamic data sets - field choice options dynamically determined based on previous responses
  • Reusability of content - across different lines of business and delivering improved maintainability
  • Enhanced management tools - for managing configuration changes across multiple work streams

• Skills-based routing and enterprise task management keep the underwriting process moving –  Complementing FirstBest's real-time and asynchronous team collaboration and workflow features, these new capabilities provide the ability to assign tasks individually or in bulk, to both groups and individuals, using availability and skills-based routing.  Workgroups can be configured so that newly assigned tasks are "pushed" to users within the group or so that users can "pull" the next task from the queue when ready. Both users and managers can monitor work queues, open tasks, and view submission updates.
• FirstBest UMS Mobile delivers enhanced user experience for Apple iOS™ devices – A third-generation user interface enables underwriters to move seamlessly between FirstBest mobile and desktop applications.  Delivered on the Apple iPad, the mobile app empowers rapid decision making from anywhere, at any time, with real-time secure data access and transactions. With version 5.0, underwriters can rapidly review, approve/decline and comment on applications that have been referred to them and close business whenever they're away from their desks.

"At Verisk, our goal is to help companies transform their competitiveness through the most extensive collection of risk data and analytics," said Neil Spector, President, Verisk Insurance Solutions – Underwriting.  "By delivering the wide variety of Verisk data and analytics directly to the point of decision on the underwriter's desktop, FirstBest and Verisk are enabling underwriters to make the most accurate pricing decisions, increase competitive advantage, and build a better book of business.  We will continue to work together to deliver future innovations in the P/C underwriting industry."

Robin Arendt, XL Group's Chief Information Officer, commented, "With the FirstBest Front Office Suite, our underwriting and servicing teams can collaborate seamlessly across the enterprise and are able to focus on the analysis of the risk instead of time-consuming data collection.  The Suite's intuitive account view provides us with the ability to analyze the entire risk, not just pieces of it. With version 5.0, we now have the ability to create complex and complete proposals more quickly and with the touch of a button, in order to provide professional proposals in less time."

Availability and Webinar
The FirstBest Front Office Suite version 5.0 is available immediately.  Please join FirstBest for a complimentary webinar on July 18, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. eastern by registering at www.firstbest.com/fos5. For more information, visit www.firstbest.com/front-office-suite5.

About FirstBest
FirstBest® Systems is the leading provider of insurance software solutions that help U.S. and international insurance companies improve underwriting profitability, scale their business and achieve high service levels with agents, across the enterprise. The patented and proven FirstBest Front Office Suite has processed more than $9 billion in quotes and includes modular underwriting workstation, mobile underwriting, agent portal, and agency upload applications. Leading American and international carriers such as XL Group plc, OneBeacon, IWIF, ICW Group Insurance Companies and others rely on FirstBest to improve underwriting efficiencies and quality, institutionalize knowledge and best practices, and empower everyone in the process to rapidly quote, collaborate, issue, and bind business on a single real-time platform from anywhere. To learn more, call +1-781-863-6000.

FirstBest is a registered trademark of FirstBest Systems, Inc. FirstBest Front Office Suite, FirstBest UMS, Underwriting Management System, FirstBest UMS Mobile, FirstBest BA Studio, FirstBest Agent and FirstBest AppReader are trademarks of FirstBest Systems, Inc.

SOURCE FirstBest Systems, Inc.