PacificComp Selects FirstBest Underwriting Management System

Jump Starts Ease of Doing Business with Agents and Brokers and Paves the Way for Expansion

BEDFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- FirstBest® Systems, Inc.,provider of insurance software solutions that help Property & Casualty insurance carriers drive premium growth, scale their business and achieve high service levels with agents, announced today that Pacific Compensation Insurance Company (PacificComp) has selected and implemented FirstBest UMS, a next-generation underwriting workstation, combined with a rich, transactional and real-time agent portal and unique instant-upload solution. FirstBest UMS is part of the FirstBest Front Office Suite, which brings together agents, brokers and underwriters in a collaborative underwriting process that helps them rapidly and efficiently submit, evaluate, quote, and close business. FirstBest’s professional services team partnered with PacificComp to deliver the underwriting management system in fewer than six months.

“FirstBest’s team was a true partner to PacificComp, ensuring on-time and on-budget delivery of FirstBest UMS in a matter of months. It’s rare, and very encouraging, to see such a timely rollout of a core business front-office system,” commented Joe Cardenas, CIO, PacificComp. “Having the new underwriting management system in place is already yielding operational efficiencies. The solution is speeding processing, boosting agent-underwriter collaboration and will soon streamline new product delivery and expansion into more states. It’s a home run for us.”

Designed by agents and underwriters, FirstBest UMS™ helps commercial-lines carriers deploy products faster to keep up with market shifts and customer demand. The solution combines a next-generation underwriting workstation and Web 2.0 agent portal for comprehensive underwriting workflow and real-time carrier-agency collaboration. FirstBest UMS empowers carriers to match price to risk, on an individual risk basis, and to enforce predictive/loss development models. The software streamlines processes, making underwriting faster and more accurate, captures the knowledge of experienced underwriters, helps maintain and improve best practices, and enforces rules and discipline.

“PacificComp has made an exciting shift in our sales distribution model, delivering products exclusively through independent agents and brokers. Several of our newly contracted brokerage partners were involved in the pilot program to test the UMS and feedback has been very positive. The initiative highlights our commitment to making it easy for agents and brokers to do business with us,” stated Jon Siglar, Vice President, Chief Sales and Field Services Officer, PacificComp.

“Forward-looking carriers, like PacificComp, understand that leveraging front-office systems is critical for differentiation and increased profitability. FirstBest UMS quickly fuels growth by delivering ease of doing business for agents, increasing productivity and quality for agents as well as underwriters. We call this the new front office for insurance,” said John Belizaire, Founder and CEO, FirstBest.

About PacificComp

Pacific Compensation Insurance Company, formerly Employers Direct Insurance Company, is a specialty writer of workers’ compensation insurance. Based in Agoura Hills, CA, the company provides workers’ compensation insurance coverage exclusively through brokers for California companies. Founded in 2002, the company leverages the latest technology to provide broker partners with 24/7 access and unprecedented convenience to efficiently close, retain, and renew more business. PacificComp is a wholly owned subsidiary of Alleghany Corporation (NYSE: Y).

About FirstBest

FirstBest® Systems delivers insurance software solutions that help commercial and specialty-lines carriers drive premium growth, scale their business and achieve high service levels with agents. The proven FirstBest Front Office Suite includes modular agency upload, agent portal and underwriting workstation applications. Insurance companies such as AMERISAFE, Inc., a specialty writer of workers' compensation insurance for hazardous industries, ICW Group Insurance Companies, a multi-line super regional insurer, and Beacon Mutual Insurance Company, Rhode Island’s largest writer of workers’ compensation insurance, rely on FirstBest solutions to improve underwriting efficiencies and quality, institutionalize knowledge and best practices and empower everyone in the process to quote, collaborate, issue, and bind business on a single real-time platform. FirstBest also hosts the Agent-Carrier Connection, a collaborative underwriting forum and news portal.

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

FirstBest is a registered trademark of FirstBest Systems, Inc. FirstBest UMS, Underwriting Management System, FirstBest Agent, FirstBest AppReader, FirstBest Front-Office Suite, and Agent-Carrier Connection are trademarks of FirstBest Systems, Inc.All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.