Change is an everyday occurrence in the insurance industry. But it's how carriers react to change that differentiates the leaders from the also-rans. For Amica Mutual Insurance, importing third-party reports helped the carrier make important underwriting and rating decisions, but far too often, the reports required the carrier's IT department to make changes before the business units could glean necessary information from them.

"We would get a report, and our systems would opt out because we weren't aware of a particular change," says Mary Ann Palumbo, an Amica assistant vice president in sales and client services. "The problem kept the IT department constantly having to look for and install the changes. We wanted to use our IT resources for other projects."

Amica uses a variety of third-party data such as motor vehicle reports, Comprehen-sive Loss Underwriting Exchange reports, and insurance bureau scores, according to Palumbo. "We prefill reports, we get reports on youthful discovery, and we also have another product we use to check the motor vehicle reports," she says.