| Release: Immediate Contacts:
Susan Boyle / Jessica Riccardi
MWW Group (for ISO)
201-507-9500
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Massood Abolfazli
603-546-2432
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AMERICAN FINANCIAL GROUP CHOOSES ASCENDANTONE PROPERTY/CASUALTY RATING AND POLICY-MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AFG to Integrate AscendantOne Solutions into Corporate IT Architecture Nashua, N.H., August 11, 2003 — AscendantOne®, Inc., a unit of ISO, has signed a contractwith American Financial Group, Inc. (AFG) to integrate AscendantOne's property/casualty solutionsinto AFG's Services Oriented Architecture (SOA). AFG's Information Technology Services (ITServices)Division creates business technology solutions for Great American Insurance Group, through whichAFG is engaged in the insurance business. Under the terms of the agreement, AscendantOne's browser-based rate, quote and policy-administrationsystems will be integrated with other SOA technology components to support Great American InsuranceGroup's insurance and information processing requirements. As an internal services provider, AFGITServices Division will make AscendantOne's component-based architecture — including its ratingandpolicy systems — available to Great American Insurance Group. AFG ITServices chose AscendantOne's flexible, web services–driven solution suite to consolidateand accelerate its delivery of property/casualty sales and service functionality to Great AmericanInsurance Group's business units. The AscendantOne rating system provides true web-based rating,quoting and rules-based underwriting for any property/casualty personal and commercial line. Thepolicy system enables real-time policy service, including automated out-of-sequence endorsements,automated renewals and advanced workflow management for any distribution channel. The integrationof AscendantOne's solution suite into AFG's component architecture is part of a drive to enhanceand web-enable key technology infrastructures across AFG's diverse business units. Carl Jaekel, Enterprise Architect, AFG ITServices said: "As we develop advanced, on-demand technology services in response to emerging business needs, it is imperative that we provide flexible and secure business-enhancing functionality to Great American Insurance Group's business units. AscendantOne's browser-based solutions mirror and complement our Services Oriented Architecture, enabling us to rapidly expand delivery of robust, scalable commercial automation on behalf of our business units at desired points of sales and service." ITServices and AscendantOne have already begun the first phase of project initiatives, which include validation of bidirectional XML interfaces via message-queuing technology to: - address policy-inquiry requests;
- process coverage-verification requests from Great American Insurance Group's claims module;
- feed Great American Insurance Group's billing component with AscendantOne policy data for producing invoices; and
- integrate AscendantOne transaction data with components of the Great American Insurance Group's system architecture, including policy details from both Great American Insurance Group's unique product offerings and AscendantOne's ISO product inventory.
"AscendantOne is pleased to have been selected by American Financial Group's ITServices Divisionas a complementary solution provider," said Chuck Boodro, President of AscendantOne. "We lookforward to integrating our XML-driven rating and policy-management system as part of AFG's evolvingproperty/casualtysystems architecture. The flexibility of AscendantOne's network-based solutions will help AFG ITServicesdesign seamless, real-time workflows for business constituents to write and service specialty programsfor any distribution framework," Boodro added. About American Financial Group (http://www.amfnl.com) Through the operations of Great American Insurance Group, AFG is engaged primarily in property and casualty insurance businesses, focusing on specialized commercial products for businesses, and in the sale of retirement annuities, life and supplemental health insurance products. About AscendantOne (http://www.AscendantOne.com)
AscendantOne®, a unit of ISO based in Nashua, N.H., featurescomprehensive, browser-based rate-quote-issuance, underwriting, policy and account-management capabilities,powered by ISO's advisory loss costs, manual rules and forms. Our scalable, XML-driven solutionscomplement existing IT infrastructures, delivering new, network-based economic value to insurers.With distinctive and leverage-able business technology supported by patent-pending change-managementmethodologies, AscendantOne facilitates efficient pricing and policy service for any commercial orpersonal line of business, and for all ISO, bureau, specialty and proprietary insurance programs.AscendantOne's best-of-breed web-services architecture enables highly collaborative and cost-effectivenew-business-to-renewal workflows — anytime, anywhere and for any property/casualty distributoror demand-chain participant. About ISO
ISO is a leading source of information, products and services related to property and liabilityrisk. For a broad spectrum of commercial and personal lines of insurance, ISO provides data, analyticaland decision-support products; consulting; data processing; and technical, statistical and actuarialservices. ISO field services include on-site rating and underwriting services and the evaluationof community loss-mitigation efforts. ISO's products help customers with sales and prospecting, underwriting,rating and quoting, customer management, policy administration, product development, claims administrationand fraud detection. ISO's AIR Worldwide subsidiary provides technologies to assess and manage naturaland man-made extreme-eventrisk. Through its ISO Claims Services, Inc. (iiX unit) and Intellicorp subsidiaries, ISO providesmotor vehicle reports and criminal-records information and through its AscendantOne unit deliversrating, quoting and policy-administration solutions. In the United States and around the world, ISOserves insurers, reinsurers, agents, brokers, self-insureds, risk managers, insurance regulatorsand other government agencies. All trademarks appearing in this news release are the property of theirrespective owners. |
