Remember that old adage about early birds? Not surprisingly, itrings true even in the insurance business. For example, gettingcomplete information about a potential customer at the beginning ofthe quoting process — rather than at the point of sale — allowsinsurance carriers and their independent agents to make intelligentdecisions about prospective policyholders from the start. Moreover,agents won't waste time chasing potential customers who don't fitunderwriting guidelines.

Insurers adopting a prefill program for policy data are findinggreat value, according to John E. Cantwell, assistant vicepresident – marketing at ISO. Cantwell conducted a web seminar,"How to Make Application Prefill Work for You," presented by ISO,Tech Decisions, National Underwriter P&C, and FloridaUnderwriter.

"Without prefill, most third-party data comes late in the policyprocess," says Cantwell. "With prefill, we're verifying informationat the beginning of the process. It's better for the customer,there are fewer surprises, and that leads to more sales."

ISO Prefill offers value to insurers through four areas,explains Cantwell: better customer experience, more sales, lowerexpenses, and reduced premium leakage and fraud.

Customers can receive faster quotes, Cantwell maintains, whetherthrough an agency, the carrier's call centers, or the insurer'swebsite. By having relevant information on the applicant availablefrom the outset, insurers will experience more first-call closingswith fewer callbacks needed and fewer customers abandoning thequoting process on the web. "Faster quotes equal more productiveagents," he says. "More accurate quotes and policies equal lessfollow-up and correction."

Numerous data sets are available for carriers to use in ISOPrefill, Cantwell indicates. Coverage Verifier is one of these."[Coverage Verifier] gives a snapshot of the customer's policy dataat the point of quote in prefill, not at the point of sale," hesays.

Coverage Verifier is a participatory database of coverage andpolicy information similar to loss history databases, notesCantwell. Member insurers contribute detailed policy transactionsdaily, with up to seven years of transactional history kept onfile, he adds.

Another data set is the A-PLUS claims history database, whichcontains information from carriers that control more than 92percent of the industry's direct written premium. "The data iscustomized so [carriers] receive only the claims they want," saysCantwell.

He points out that additional available prefill elements includethe annual mileage of a vehicle. "This is calculated usingavailable odometer readings in combination with modeled analytics,"he says. The analytics can also determine the daily commute fordrivers, and by accessing data from the professional licensedatabase, a user can find whether the vehicle is utilized forbusiness.

The advantage users have with ISO prefill technology, suggestsCantwell, is the depth of ISO's data. "No one processes moreinsurance data than ISO," he asserts.

More than 600 million property/casualty insurance claims arepart of the ISO database, with approximately 14 billion records inthe statistical databases.

ISO's focus at the moment is on personal lines, states Cantwell,but he doesn't rule out eventually offering prefill for commerciallines. "There's no product on the shelf yet for commercial lines,but it could be done," he says. "We're closer to this than we mightexpect."

Cantwell assesses the value of prefill for independent agents,as well: "Agents should embrace this technology because it makestheir lives so much easier," he says.

Access to the full web seminar is availablehere.