ISO Insurance Technology Solutions Awarded U.S. Patent for Its Method for Software Product Generation and Maintenance

January 1, 2011 / 3 min read

JERSEY CITY, N.J., March 11, 2008 — ISO Insurance Technology Solutions (ISO-ITS), a business unit of Insurance Services Office, Inc., (ISO) today announced it has been granted a patent for its innovative approach to implementing and maintaining rating and policy processing product definitions.

The Method and System for Software Product Generation and Maintenance patent (United States Patent number 7,322,030) is an innovative way to generate and maintain software products, such as DesignerAccess™, which is the cornerstone of ISO Rating Service® and the AscendantOne® Policy Management Suite. The tools and techniques disclosed in the patent may be used to manage the rates, rules, and forms that combine to form fully functional ratebooks; and the technology claimed has been recognized as unique by the Patent Office.

“Traditionally, vendors have copied work for other carriers and created a huge maintenance problem when changes are received from the bureau,” said Jonathan Kaplan, vice president of product development at ISO-ITS. “We have chosen to invert the model and leverage the work done to the line-of-business bases and states, creating a level where carrier deviations are introduced. When changes are made by the bureau at the state level or countrywide, carriers can choose to adopt or deviate from the changes while maintaining their prior deviations.”

“This allows carriers to implement the system faster, but more important, stay current in a more efficient manner,” added Kaplan. “Also, by externalizing the information from application code, it empowers the carriers’ business users while protecting them from future technology change.”

These tools and techniques can be applied to any property/casualty line of business, including commercial, personal, and specialty lines. It also works equally well for ISO, NCCI, and carrier-specific filings.

“Our customers have been able to leverage the power of the toolset to implement and maintain their product definitions in a more efficient manner,” said John Joly, chief operating officer of ISO-ITS. “We have moved the technology to the Microsoft .NET framework to ensure that the system will scale and perform to meet the needs of the nation’s largest carriers.”

ISO-ITS has also built out rate books for ISO’s commercial auto, commercial property, commercial inland marine, general liability, commercial umbrella, crime, CPP, personal auto, and homeowners lines of insurance for all ISO states using the DesignerAccess toolset and techniques described in the patent. These are available for download via ISOnetSM.

About ISO Insurance Technology Solutions
ISO Insurance Technology Solutions (ISO-ITS) delivers ISO Rating Service and the browser-based quoting/underwriting and policy administration platform of AscendantOne. The scalable tool-based components of ISO-ITS let insurers cost-effectively and rapidly deploy property/casualty programs, automatically manage rates, conduct rules-based underwriting, perform online quoting, and administer full policy life cycles.

About ISO
A leading source of information about risk, ISO provides data, analytics, and decision-support services to professionals in many fields, including insurance, finance, real estate, health services, government, human resources, and risk management. Using advanced technologies to collect, analyze, develop, and deliver information, ISO helps customers evaluate and manage risk. The company draws on vast expertise in actuarial science, insurance coverages, fire protection, fraud prevention, catastrophe and weather risk, predictive modeling, data management, economic forecasting, social and technological trends, and many other fields. To meet the needs of diverse clients, ISO employs an experienced staff of business and technical specialists, analysts, and certified professionals. In the United States and around the world, ISO helps customers protect people, property, and financial assets. For more information, visit www.verisk.com.

Release: Immediate

Giuseppe Barone / Erica Helton
MWW Group (for ISO)
(201) 507-9500
gbarone@mww.com
ehelton@mww.com