Catastrophe Software Launched In US

NIIT Insurance Technologies Limited, a leading global IT solutions organisation, today [Nov.7] announced the official launch in the US of its highly successful Exact Advantage software application for management of global exposure to potential losses arising from man-made and natural disasters, such as terrorism or chemical hazard, as well as windstorm, earthquake and flood.

The firm works closely with a number of Bermuda catastrophe re/insurers who use its software.

“The system brings together the power of a market-leading risk aggregation engine and an advanced global mapping interface utilizing the latest Geographical Enterprise Systems [IS] technology to assess and monitor risk exposure across multiple lines such as energy — onshore and offshore — and property,” said a spokesman.

He continued: “Exact Advantage provides underwriters, actuaries, risk managers and senior managers with a highly intuitive user interface, meaning the application can be readily adopted as a part of standard business processes.

“It is a powerful tool for proactively assessing the susceptibility of underwriting portfolios to catastrophic events. With this system they can rapidly visualize and access the vulnerability of their own book of business, or their organization’s entire portfolio, to losses arising from a specific event or to a chain of related loss events.”

Thomas Westhoff, Director, Insurance Technology [US and Bermuda] for NIIT’s North American subsidiary, said: “The increasing intensity and uncertainty of catastrophes has created unprecedented opportunities, as well as risks, for the underwriting market. This year alone, the incidence of disasters has been significant.

“The earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand, for example, and hurricanes Irene and Katia in the Atlantic caused tragic loss of life as well as serious damage to property and essential infrastructure. Insurers play a vital role in helping fund recovery but a key challenge for senior managers and underwriters is to meet market demand while ensuring that they do not become vulnerable to unacceptable losses from extreme events.

“Exact Advantage provides a central resource with powerful capabilities for managing exposure across a broad range of business lines encompassing windstorm, flood, explosion and terrorism, property, energy plant, fine art and high-value personal accident — all of which might be inter-related in a single portfolio of business.”

Mr. Westhoff was appointed to his North America and Bermuda role in September after a career as a senior strategic business development executive, specialising in the insurance sector.

Commenting on the appointment, Marcus Broome, president for NIIT’s American operation, said “We have a strong presence in the international commercial insurance markets and are looking to further build our customer base in North America and Bermuda. The appointment of Thomas underlines our commitment to increasing the recognition of our abilities in delivering and supporting commercial insurance software solutions on a global basis.”

Exact Advantage’s intuitive interface and visual representation of results means that the underwriter can make a rapid assessment of whether a particular submission should be evaluated in detail, easily accepted, or rejected right away.

The NIIT spokesman explained a baseline map showing the location of assets or geographic distributions to accumulated risks can be combined with other data, such as flood plains, satellite imagery, terrain profiles, fault lines, and previous and current events.

“This, together with a host of supporting features and reporting capabilities facilitates the optimum use of underwriting capacity and reinsurance program while guaranteeing that exposure to losses from any event does not exceed levels set by underwriting or corporate strategy,” he said.

Exact Advantage is used by organisations with multiple business units operating in several jurisdictions, as well as single site operations. It covers all commercial insurance lines in the specialty, excess and surplus, and reinsurance markets. The system can also be extended to the retail insurance market.

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