FirstBest Systems announces 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 and includes enhanced features for multi-line underwriting and skills-based routing, and configuration for business users.

The collaborative underwriting suite allows carriers to use risk and third-party data and analytics to make the best decision in the least amount of time, provide best-in-class service, and increase underwriting profitability.

“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 needs,” says John Belizaire, co-founder and CEO of FirstBest Systems. “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 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
FirstBest Connector for Verisk provides access to more than 50 Verisk property and automobile data sources and analytics
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,” says 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.”

In addition to supporting straight-through processing, the FirstBest Front Office Suite 5.0 provides more than 50 Verisk data sources and analytics for a complete view of the risk. The Suite also delivers 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 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, LOCATION reports, catastrophe reports, motor vehicle reports and more from Verisk. FirstBest UMS can 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 implement competitive, account-based pricing strategies, deliver multi-product quotes, and provide 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 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.
Skills-based routing and enterprise task management keep the underwriting process moving – 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 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,” says 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, comments, “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.”

Special Reports /

FirstBest Suite Integrates Verisk Data Sources, Analytics

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