LOS ANGELES March 20, 2006 – Marshall and Swift / Boeckh (MSB), the leading worldwide provider of building cost data and estimating technology to the property insurance industry, along with the Arbella Insurance Group of Quincy, Mass., announce a successful completion of MSB’s Tele-Estimating ServicesTM (TES).
TES is a direct-to-consumer book of business management service provided by MSB that revalues existing policies by combining telephone and mail marketing techniques with advanced valuation technologies to generate faster, more accurate replacement values than are typically generated using other methodologies.
“Initially we were leery about starting a program of this nature as it is a huge undertaking to update a book of business. However, this was a positive and worthwhile experience,” says Andrea MacKay, AVP of Underwriting at Arbella. “The staff at MSB worked with us from the very start. They came in and talked to us and our agents and explained the process. We implemented a pilot so we could see what TES could do for us before we decided to enter into a contract.”
“Our agents worked extremely hard on this project, and our results were great. Although ITV was on our minds, we also needed policyholders to understand the importance of what we were doing,” continues MacKay. “We found that some policyholders had additions to their homes or had started businesses out of their homes, which in turn, increased our risk. Our agents were able to communicate to their policyholders the importance of having accurate coverage especially when things had changed from their existing policy.”
“TES was one of the best decisions we’ve made. Our book is better. We’ve identified unknown risks and made the adjustments that were necessary. Our ITV has improved. In the end, everybody benefited from this,” says MacKay.
About The Arbella Insurance Group
The Arbella Insurance Group, founded in 1988, is a customer focused regional group of companies providing personal and commercial property and casualty insurance products throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. In addition to its insurance operations, Arbella’s service companies provide loss management, claims settlement and agency assistance. Arbella Web site is at http://www.arbella.com.
About MSB
Marshall & Swift / Boeckh (MSB), an MDA company, is the leading supplier of local building cost information, residential and commercial property valuation technology and services for the property and casualty insurance sector in the United States and Canada. MSB has five offices throughout the U.S. and Canada. For information, please contact Marsha Berenson, Media Coordinator, at 800-285-1288, Ext. 2828, e-mail MAILTO:[email protected], or visit MSB’s Web site at http://www.msbinfo.com.
About MDA
MDA provides advanced information solutions that capture and process vast amounts of data, produce essential information, and improve the decision making and operational performance of business and government organizations worldwide.
Focused on markets and customers with strong repeat business potential, MDA delivers a broad spectrum of earth and space based information solutions, ranging from complex operational systems, to tailored information services, to electronic information products.
MDA employs more than 2,700 people in locations across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The Company’s common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol TSX:MDA.
Tags: Marshall & Swift / Boeckh (MSB)