Orlando, FL., May 18, 2009 – FirstBest® Systems , Inc., developer of advanced Underwriting Management Systems ™ (UMS) that enable property and casualty insurance carriers to profit from better underwriting, today announced that ICW Group Insurance Companies(ICW Group) has realized  significant results after implementing FirstBest UMS, which ICW Group has branded Snap, for its workers’ compensation line of business. ICW Group’s roll out of Snap, a rich agent portalwith a next-generation underwriting workstation, has already resulted in increased submissions, increased quote production, underwriting productivity, and real-time collaboration with their agents.

"We selected FirstBest UMS as the key enabler for our long-term competitive strategy to ensure we continuously capture, share and leverage the knowledge of our most experienced people, and to deliver a single easy-to-use desktop for underwriters," commented David Hoppen, Chief Operating Officer, ICW Group.  “A t the management level, we’ve gained the foresight to anticipate business conditions and visibility into both high-level metrics and detailed account activity, which is more essential now than ever.”

The FirstBest UMS was deployed within 9 months. Results from Q1 2009, as compared to the same period in 2008, during a highly competitive market, include a:

• 50.8% increase in quality submissions
• 70.8% increase in quote production
• 34.3% increase in bound policies
• 47% decrease in policy processing time

Efficiency gains are being recognized by both ICW Group’s underwriters as well as their agents. All of this was done with equal or increased quality of submissions, a 10% decrease in underwriters and within a tough competitive environment.

ICW Group is a multi-line Super Regional Insurance carrier with a major focus on Workers' Comp.   The company was looking for technology to help improve underwriting performance, increase existing market share by accelerating product development in response to market changes, and more easily enter new markets. Just as important, ICW Group wanted to provide true, real-time collaboration with their agents. They are already realizing this benefit, as demonstrated by the following Agency feedback.

“We got up and running after the first submission; Snap is amazingly simple to learn and user friendly. With Snap IQ, turnaround time is immediate too.  As ICW’s system is easier and faster to use, they are typically on our short-list,” said Vikki Stone, President of Stone, Harris & Stone Insurance Agency located in Encino, CA. "We want other carriers to follow the Snap system.”

"Our Workers’ Compensation line of business has realized a cultural transformation with Snap, by reducing manually-driven processes.  The FirstBest UMS underwriting system uses powerful rules and authorities to provide a configurable combination of automated assistance and processes.  Our underwriters and agents have embraced this evolution, yielding improved productivity, increased submissions and better agent collaboration. Ease of doing business has also been improved with the upload functionality. In fact, a gents are now submitting most applications and information through Snap, indicating it is both user-friendly and valuable. Most importantly for us, Snap is helping our agents achieve their goal of quickly responding to their clients,” added Paul Zamora , ICW Group’s VP of Underwriting, Workers’ Compensation.

“FirstBest UMS™ gets to the heart of profitability today – the underwriting process. After a six-month implementation period, carriers can eliminate inefficiencies, provide visibility and real-time collaboration, and establish best practices in the underwriting process, while making it easier for agents to do business with them, “ commented John Belizaire, CEO and Founder FirstBest. “More and more agents are submitting and receiving quotes via UMS / Snap and citing ICW Group as a ‘carrier of choice.’ This means the system is making their jobs easier and that’s a key goal.”

About ICW Group Insurance Companies
ICW Group Insurance Companies is a growing Super Regional multi-line property and casualty insurance carrier providing workers' compensation, surety, DIC and personal and business auto insurance. Its member companies consist of Insurance Company of the West, Explorer Insurance Company and Independence Casualty and Surety. Based in San Diego, Calif., ICW Group is a full-service carrier, providing claims and safety services for its product lines. With its unparalleled financial strength and underwriting acumen, privately held ICW Group is transforming itself into a ‘next generation' insurance carrier.  More information is available at www.icwgroup.com .  

About FirstBest
FirstBest® Systems, Inc. delivers advanced Underwriting Management Systems™ (UMS) that enable insurance companies to write more business and write better business. The FirstBest UMS™ combines a next-generation underwriting workstation with a rich agent portal for commercial lines carriers.Insurers can achieve greater speed and business agility, provide real-time collaboration to make it easy for agents to do business with them, promote enhanced underwriting discipline and best practices, scale their book of business profitably, and empower underwriters and agents with greater visibility into the business.

FirstBest Agent is now offered as a stand-alone solution and provides carriers with all Agency-facing capabilities, to enable a faster path to market-driven ROI, while enabling ease of doing business with agents.

For more information, visit www.firstbest.com or call 1.888.863.6095. 

Press contact:
Meira Primes
VP, Marketing
FirstBest Systems, Inc.
781.863.6005
mprimes@firstbest.com