LOS ANGELES JUNE 19, 2006 – Marshall and Swift / Boeckh (MSB), an MDA company and the leading worldwide provider of building cost data and estimating technology to the property insurance industry, introduces MSB InterChange (TM), a dynamic, on-line database of accurate property characteristics data. The database, the only one of its kind in the industry, is continuously updated with data drawn from real estate, financial, insurance, and remodeling activity across the United States. Agents and underwriters who have access to InterChange’s insurance-ready data via MSB’s home valuation applications, gain greater efficiency and accuracy at the point of sale when creating preliminary insurance-to-value calculations, quoting, and binding homeowners coverage.
Peter M. Wells, President of MSB, explains that the challenge of incorporating third party building characteristics as part of calculating replacement cost values has traditionally been the questionable reliability of this information. MSB believes it is necessary to develop a viable scoring process as part of filtering information before that information is shared with insurers.
“Too often, ordinary public record data has been accepted with no consideration toward validation processes that allow better use of third party input,” says Wells. “Our InterChange initiative is not just to source any data, but rather apply scoring metrics before insurance-ready building characteristic data is released. Because MSB works in all industries requiring details of mission-critical building cost information, MSB is positioned to receive data from multiple sources and to develop reliable analytics pointing to the viability of input data.”
The extensive database of insurance-ready home data for millions of American homes is available at the point of sale through MSB’s industry-leading home valuation application, Residential Component Technology (TM) (RCT) hosted on MSB Express (TM), a secure Web-based platform. InterChange pre-populates data fields in RCT with current, continuously updated home characteristic data into the appropriate data fields, reducing phone time and data errors. InterChange home characteristic data is also available in a database form to carriers that participate in a reciprocal data exchange.
Data is deemed insurance ready only after undergoing a stringent data analysis, validation and scoring process that determines the accuracy and reliability of the home characteristic data received from each individual source. Data configuration and content are provided in a manner that complies with credit and consumer privacy laws. Because highly accurate property characteristic data is available from one source within the current quoting workflow, efficiency is improved, the need for costly inspections is reduced, and customer service and financial position are improved. Going forward, MSB’s vision for InterChange is to expand into commercial property, to provide services to Canada, Europe and to expand services beyond the insurance marketplace.
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.
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