OneBeacon Professional Insurance to Streamline Underwriting and Deliver Superior Collaboration and Broker Service with FirstBest Systems

Published on Wednesday, 02 May 2012 08:47 Written by TradersHuddle Staff

BEDFORD, Mass., May 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstBest® Systems, Inc., provider of insurance software solutions for global insurance carriers, today announced that OneBeacon Professional Insurance (OBPI), a member of OneBeacon Insurance Group (NYSE: OB), has selected and begun deployment of the FirstBest® Underwriting Management System (UMS).

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"Brokers have made it clear that there needs to be a more efficient way for them to work with carriers. They rely on us to provide the information they need to effectively manage their business," said OBPI President Paul Romano. "We intend to roll out FirstBest® UMS across OBPI during the next two years, in order to streamline the underwriting process, better accommodate brokers' timeframes and deadlines by making it easier for them to directly access and collaborate with our experts, and help both brokers and OBPI achieve measured, profitable business growth."

The patented FirstBest UMS helps insurers to transform the underwriting process.  UMS makes underwriting faster and more accurate, captures the knowledge of experienced underwriters, helps maintain best practices, and enforces rules across the enterprise. The underwriting management system develops highly accurate risk profiles based on risk data, modeling tools, third-party data and best practices, so that underwriters can focus on analyzing the risk and delivering answers to their brokers in an accelerated timeframe. It helps carriers deploy products faster to keep up with market shifts and customer demand, leveraging a complete transactional agent/broker portal that facilitates new business and renewals.

"FirstBest addresses the insurance front office with a common, configurable application and enterprise underwriting technology platform that can be readily integrated with policy administration and other back-end systems," commented FirstBest CEO and co-founder, John Belizaire. "We've kicked off a true partnership with OneBeacon Professional for this strategic enterprise initiative, which spans integration, configuration and phased delivery of collaborative underwriting applications across the organization."

"We believe FirstBest's technology will facilitate consistent, quality underwriting across OBPI," said Scott McClintock, OneBeacon Insurance Group's CIO.  "Instead of navigating through multiple systems to view and analyze risk data, our underwriters can leverage the solution as a single point of reference, enabling them to spend more time on analysis and work more closely—and efficiently—with our brokers."

SMA Founder Deborah Smallwood stated in the recent report, Positioning for Growth: Insurer Technology Spending, Drivers, and Projects, "Priorities among business applications indicate that insurers are working to provide a smooth and efficient path for their agents and brokers, making it easier to interact and exchange information.  And, insurers are giving top priority to projects that will help their partners increase their own productivity. This emphasis on front-office efficiency is being complemented with highly prioritized projects that will improve both new business and underwriting workflows, and fuel better underwriting decisions."

OneBeacon

OneBeacon Insurance Group, Ltd. is a Bermuda-domiciled holding company that is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "OB." OneBeacon's underwriting companies offer a range of specialty insurance products sold through independent agencies, regional and national brokers, wholesalers and managing general agencies. Each business is managed by an experienced team of specialty insurance professionals focused on a specific customer group or industry segment. OneBeacon's solutions target professional liability; ocean and inland marine; collector cars and boats; energy; entertainment, sports and leisure; excess property; environmental; group accident; programs; public entities; technology; and tuition refund. For further information about our products and services visit: www.onebeacon.com and to remain up to date on OneBeacon's news, follow us on Twitter @OneBeaconIns or visit our online newsroom: www.onebeacon.com/newsroom.

FirstBest Systems, Inc.

FirstBest® Systems is the leading provider of insurance software solutions that help global insurance companies improve underwriting profitability, scale their business and achieve high service levels with agents, across the enterprise. The patented and proven FirstBest Front Office Suite includes modular underwriting workstation, agent portal and agency upload applications, with capabilities for mobile insurance users. The scalable Suite has processed more than $6 billion in quotes for companies such as XL Group plc, ICW Group Insurance Companies, Pacific Compensation Insurance Company, and Preferred Concepts, LLC. To learn more, call +1-781-863-6000.

FirstBest is a registered trademark of FirstBest Systems, Inc. FirstBest Front Office Suite, FirstBest UMS, Underwriting Management System, FirstBest Agent and FirstBest AppReader are trademarks of FirstBest Systems, Inc.

SOURCE FirstBest Systems, Inc.