While underwriting workstations are not a new concept, insurers are just beginning to develop Web-enabled technology systems to aid in underwriting and risk management decisions as well as to improve efficiency. Rory Cline, executive vice president at CNA Re, contends underwriting workstations are the biggest change hes seen in the industry over the past five years, noting that such workstations provide the industry with real-time data to help insurers do their job better.

Such online workstation platforms enforce a consistent underwriting discipline and focus throughout the organization via integration of data streams in areas such as claims, customer relationship management, knowledge management, as well as forms and process. The whole premise of the underwriting workstation initiative is to provide underwriters all the tools they need to make the best underwriting and pricing decisions, says Rick Harold, director of workstation development for Zurich North America in Schaumburg, Ill. This allows underwriters to spend more time on analysis of information, rather than clerical collecting of data. Last November, Zurich unveiled its underwriting workstations as part of its strategy to further enhance underwriting quality.

Cline says CNA Re has developed separate workstation systems for treaty and facultative business, which allow underwriters to gain access to large amounts of data at the click of a mouse. He notes CNA Re has used underwriting workstations since 2000 and is updating the system this year.
In the past, for an underwriter to get claims information or to check whether premiums have been paid, it would require a lengthy process and entry into several different data systems, Cline says. Now we have brought it all together.