ISO Suite Electronically Delivers Insurance Library; Insurers to Use ISO Suite to Customize Their Manuals

January 1, 2011 / 4 min read

NEW YORK, June 28, 1999 – Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO) unveiled ISO Suite, a new software product that electronically delivers extensive, up-to-date insurance information to insurers and agents.

At the same time, ISO introduced ISO Suite, enabling insurers to combine company-specific and proprietary information with ISO materials to produce their own manuals and policy forms.

ISO Suite delivers to insurers and agents every month, in an easy-to-use format, the latest ISO Commercial Lines Manual (CLM) information on a CD-ROM. Customers simply select a line of business, state and the effective date of a policy on the ISO Suite Selection Panel, and a powerful filter scans the database and displays in one window all applicable state and multistate rules, loss costs, policy forms and endorsements. This eliminates the need to open multiple manuals or switch among screens.

The ISO Suite reference library includes ISO CLM information for 12 lines of business: state and multistate rules; loss costs; the classification table including Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) information; policy forms and endorsements; rating plans; and fire-protection classifications of communities, based on ISO's evaluation of their fire-suppression capabilities.

ISO Suite+ takes the concept of an integrated manual a step further, and puts data management and publishing power into insurers' hands. ISO Suite+ electronically delivers accurate, up-to-date ISO material that insurers can date-stamp with their own effective dates, and combine with their own rules, rates, and policy forms and endorsements to produce company-specific, customized manuals for their agents and employees.

"ISO Suite and ISO Suite+ underscore ISO's commitment to leverage technology to electronically provide insurers and agents with the most up-to-date insurance information, when and where they need it," said LeRoy A. Boison, Jr., ISO's senior vice president of insurance services.

"With this new delivery system, customers access ISO material faster, reduce distribution costs, eliminate paper manuals, and enhance employee productivity. Now, customers can focus on growing their business and leave it to ISO to provide timely insurance information in a format that meshes with their workflows," he added.

ISO Suite and ISO Suite+ are the successors to Commercial Lines Electronic Manual Services (CLEMS), ISO's earlier-generation delivery system.

ISO Suite
ISO Suite's powerful query tools, search capability, and built-in hypertext links allow insurers and agents to quickly locate information according to criteria they define. Users can switch instantly among rules, policy forms, and related information. ISO Suite has been designed to work seamlessly with customers' workflows and provide a single point of access to insurance information from a variety of sources.

ISO Suite can run on single or client workstations as well as on local area networks. Users can also access ISO information from any location at any time.

ISO Suite+
ISO Suite+ allows insurers to access ISO's insurance reference library and publish customized insurance manuals and policy forms that integrate ISO materials with company-authored information.

ISO will deliver source documents at the rule, loss cost, and policy-form level to ISO Suite+ customers in Word for Windows 6.0 and Folio® Flat File (FFF) formats, along with the effective and expiration dates necessary to build the ultimate electronic manual. The entire database contains more than 80,000 documents and more than 200,000 applicability records.

Using sophisticated software called the ISO Suite+ System Administrator, insurers can apply their own effective and expiration dates to the ISO information in any combination they choose – by state, line of business, or even for a single document – integrate their own rules, rates, and forms; and publish their own company-specific manuals and forms.

ISO Suite+ users can access and download weekly updates of ISO material via a file-download process using ISOnet®, ISO's Internet delivery system. The update procedure helps ensure customers have accurate and current insurance information.

ISO Suite+is a truly integrated manual, enabling customers to use the product's Selection Panel to view, in one window, all ISO manuals for multistate and state information, company-specific exceptions, and changes to ISO information.

Both ISO Suite and ISO Suite+ run on Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 operating systems.

For more information on ISO Suite and ISO Suite+ and system requirements, call ISO Customer Service toll-free at 1-800-888-4476, or e-mail at info@iso.com.

Word, Windows and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Folio is a registered trademark of Open Market, Inc.

Release: Immediate

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