FirstBest and Yodil Form Strategic Alliance to Deliver Data-Powered Underwriting to Commercial Insurance Carriers

PR Newswire Association LLC

BEDFORD, Mass. and CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstBest Systems, Inc., provider of insurance software solutions for American and global insurance carriers, and Yodil, a leading provider of adaptable business intelligence solutions for insurance, today announced a strategic alliance between the two organizations. The alliance will enable insurance carriers to harness the power of data and analytics throughout underwriting and the front office in order to drive underwriting profitability and growth.

The collaboration between FirstBest and Yodil will deliver new innovative solutions that deliver powerful, yet easy to use insurance BI capabilities to underwriting teams at the point of decision, without the expensive and time-consuming overhead of large-scale horizontal enterprise BI platforms. The two companies will develop joint products and services for the insurance market.

"Even with today's explosion of data and analytics, many carriers have gaps that prevent accurate and rapid decisions and can drive down underwriting profitability," said John Belizaire, Founder and CEO of FirstBest Systems, Inc. He continued, "The data may be out here but it's not getting to the people who need it to make better decisions. That's one reason why FirstBest is working with Yodil to provide actionable insight at the point of decision, empowering underwriters and executives to make the best possible decisions in the least amount of time."

"We look forward to working with FirstBest to develop new solutions for the insurance front office," said Frederick Waite, CEO of Yodil. The combination of FirstBest's front office expertise with Yodil's domain knowledge in insurance data science, will create powerful solutions to some of insurers' most vexing problems. From mining, refining and analyzing data to front office decisioning, we will help carriers to operate more effectively so they can drive growth and profitability.

"Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities are required across the underwriting process – at the transaction level to portfolio and operational management to deliver rich insights and support right decisioning. Our recent research shows that carriers are generally dissatisfied with the BI tools in use and available for underwriting," said Deb Smallwood, Founder of Strategy Meets Action. "Having an innovative BI underwriting solution that supports both underwriting automation and business intelligence becomes a powerful value propositions and fills a significant gap in our industry."

About FirstBest ?

FirstBest® Systems is the leading provider of insurance software solutions that help American and international global insurance companies improve underwriting profitability, scale their business and achieve high service levels with agents and brokers, across the enterprise. The patented and proven FirstBest Front Office Suite has processed more than $14 billion in quotes and includes modular underwriting workstation, mobile underwriting, agent/broker portal, and upload applications. Leading American and international carriers such as XL Group plc, OneBeacon Insurance Group, Chesapeake Employers, Beacon Mutual, ICW Group Insurance Companies, Amerisafe, and others rely on FirstBest to improve underwriting efficiencies and quality, institutionalize knowledge and best practices, and empower everyone in the process to rapidly quote, collaborate, issue, and bind business on a single real-time platform from anywhere. To learn more call 781.863.6000 or visit www.firstbest.com.

About Yodil

Yodil is a leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, marrying deep insurance knowledge with rich content and adaptable technology. Yodil delivers a comprehensive data warehouse, BI, and reporting platform that can serve as the information hub for insurance carriers, MGAs, and agencies, providing management and operational reporting and data analytics. Learn more at www.yodil.com.

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