Ease of Implementation Smoothes the Transition for West Coast Insurers to ISO's Property Valuation Solutions

January 1, 2011 / 5 min read

BOSTON, July 11, 2007 — West Coast-based insurers Capital Insurance Group (CIG), Civil Service Employees Insurance Group (CSE), and Merced Mutual Insurance have implemented ISO’s property valuation solution — ISO HomeValue™ — to better estimate the cost to re-build a property in the event of a total loss. As a web-based residential replacement cost estimator, ISO HomeValue was easily incorporated into each insurers underwriting workflow.

“We were impressed by the speed with which we were up and running with ISO HomeValue,” said Frank Querques, senior vice president of insurance operations at CSE. “Within a matter of three weeks our agents were accessing ISO HomeValue directly from our agency portal. ISO HomeValue even lets us manage the addition of new agents. Even better, building cost data is updated automatically, over the web. This is a significant improvement over the laborious process required by our previous provider, which meant mailing out CDs to every agent for every update.”

To meet the varied business and information technology needs of insurers, ISO’s solutions for property valuation provide a complete range of implementation options—from simple web links to fully customized web services integrations. In many cases, an insurer that wants a more integrated solution will start with a simple option to derive immediate value.

“We needed to get up and running quickly, so we decided to have our agents log in to ISO HomeValue using a simple web connection,” said Penni Lockard, underwriting and systems manager at Merced Mutual. “Now, we are in the process of completing a more complex web services integration. This will enable our agents to access ISO HomeValue’s replacement cost estimates without even leaving our system, further streamlining their underwriting workflow and reducing the potential for data entry errors.”

ISO designed its implementation options with the insurance agent in mind. Insurers have the option to set up a process whereby property information already captured in the company’s quoting system will automatically populate ISO HomeValue’s data fields. Similarly, data from ISO HomeValue can be fed back into the company’s system. This significantly reduces duplicate data entry, enabling agents to work faster with fewer errors.

Since most new clients change to ISO HomeValue from a previous provider, ISO places a great deal of emphasis on ease of transition.

“We wanted the transition to ISO HomeValue to be painless for our agents and underwriters,” said Vinnie Ascoli, personal lines manager at CIG. “ISO HomeValue’s knowledgeable technical support staff worked with us to customize ISO HomeValue to fit our needs. The responsiveness of the ISO HomeValue team has made the experience extremely positive for us.”

About Capital Insurance Group
Founded in 1898, Capital Insurance Group® (CIG) proudly enjoys a reputation for providing more than 100 years of excellent service and quality products to its customers. Rated A ( Excellent ) by A.M. Best, CIG offers a wide range of personal, commercial, and agricultural insurance products through independent and franchise agencies in the states of California, Nevada, and Oregon. Agricultural and commercial insurance programs are also available in Arizona. For more information about CIG or to locate an agency near you, visit www.ciginsurance.com.

About Civil Service Employees Insurance Group
Based in San Francisco, California, Civil Service Employees Insurance Group (CSE) is a western regional company that has focused its business on quality protection, affordable rates and long-term relationships with its customers since 1949. Its wide range of products, including automobile, home, liability, boat and commercial packages are sold to civil servants and the general public through independent insurance agents in California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah as well as through its direct marketing center. For more information, please visit www.cseinsurance.com.

About Merced Mutual
Merced Mutual Insurance Company is a residential property specialty company operating exclusively within the Central Valley of California by marketing its products through the independent agencies located throughout the territory. Just recently, Merced Mutual celebrated its 100th anniversary. The company looks forward to continued growth with the assistance of today’s technological tools and products, including ISO HomeValue.

About ISO HomeValue
ISO HomeValue is an award-winning residential replacement valuation system that enables insurers and their agents to make reliable estimates of the replacement cost of residential properties in the event of a total loss. ISO HomeValue can improve insurers’ underwriting profitability by helping to ensure policies are written to reflect full replacement value. ISO HomeValue can be integrated with virtually any underwriting or policy management system, as well as with a wealth of data sources from ISO. When integrated with AIR Worldwide’s catastrophe models, ISO HomeValue enables insurers to assess the catastrophe risk of individual properties at the point of underwriting. Recognized with an A.M. Best E-Fusion Award for underwriting management, ISO HomeValue was developed by AIR Worldwide Corporation, a subsidiary of ISO.

About AIR Worldwide Corporation
AIR Worldwide Corporation (AIR) is a leading risk modeling company helping clients manage the financial impact of catastrophes and weather. Utilizing the latest science and technology, AIR models natural catastrophes in more than 40 countries and the risk from terrorism in the United States. Other areas of expertise include site-specific seismic engineering analysis, catastrophe bonds, and property replacement cost valuation. An ISO business, AIR was founded in 1987 to provide its insurance, reinsurance, corporate, and government clients a complete line of risk modeling software and consulting services that produce consistent and reliable results. Headquartered in Boston, AIR has additional offices in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.air-worldwide.com.

Release: Immediate

Contacts:
Giuseppe Barone / Erica Helton
MWW Group (for ISO)
201-507-9500
gbarone@mww.com / ehelton@mww.com

Kevin Long (AIR)
617-267-6645
klong@air-worldwide.com