"How Technology Can Help Insurers
to Capture New Markets
More Rapidly and Profitably"

A Business Insurance custom webinar, presented by:

Live online event: March 3, 2008; 2 p.m. Eastern, 11 a.m. Pacific

Register today

The property/casualty insurance industry is under ever-increasing pressures to produce return-on-investment in the face of the lower premiums resulting from the five-year soft market as well as the worldwide financial downturn. In today's market of low rates and declining economic activity, insurers that want to improve their competitive position, as well as maintain their book's quality and breadth must process significantly larger volumes of business. Insurers need to balance these conflicting goals while budgets and investment are being curtailed.

Today's commercial P/C market is also far more dynamic and fluid that it has ever been. When it comes to adaptation and entry into new markets, willingness is no longer sufficient. Insurers need to adopt new approaches and new technologies to significantly accelerate the development of new products and to benefit from first-mover advantages.

Today, insurers looking for expanded sources of revenue can enter new markets, either by writing a new line of business or by expanding an existing line into new segments. This can include areas such as small business, national accounts, or specialty programs. All of these initiatives require substantial expansion to the insurer's underwriting workflow, methodologies and pricing strategies.

FirstBest® Systems provided advanced Underwriting Management Systems^TM (UMS^TM) to P&C insurance carriers. The UMS web 2.0 based platform delivers straight through processing, exception-based underwriting, real-time collaboration, knowledge management, management visibility, and integration with predictive modeling in one integrated solution to carriers' vital underwriting operations.

For more information, please visit www.firstbest.com

Click here to register for this free webinar.

PANELISTS:

• John Belizaire, FirstBest Systems Inc.
  

  John Belizaire is founder and CEO of FirstBest Systems in Bedford, Massachusetts. John is an accomplished enterprise software entrepreneur with a track record of new venture development and management success. Prior to co-founding FirstBest, he was senior director of business development and strategic planning for BEA's Ecommerce Applications Division. Before BEA, John co-founded The Theory Center, a leader in Java-based component software for enterprise applications.





• Ellen Carney, Forrester Research Inc.
  

  Ellen Carney is a senior analyst with Forrester Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ellen is part of Forrester's technology industry strategy team. In addition to publishing research focused on the strategies, best practices, and trends in how the financial services industry researches, procures, and deploys business technology, she is responsible for developing the global forecasts for IT budget and spending forecasts for insurance and banking. Ellen brings nearly 20 years of experience in delivering technical and professional services to clients in a variety of industries and markets. Prior to Forrester, Ellen was principal consultant at ThruPoint, a New York based professional services firm. Before joining ThruPoint, she was a director and principal analyst for Gartner and prior to Gartner, she held sales enablement and support roles at the former Cabletron Systems.





• Richard Kerr, MarketScout Corp.
  

  Richard Kerr is Chairman and CEO of MarketScout Corporation. MarketScout.com is a Dallas, Texas-based electronic insurance exchange, which underwrites and distributes hundreds of product lines to its 35,000-member agency network across the United States. Mr. Kerr also is the founder of the eInsurance Symposium, an annual conference that explores best practices in property/casualty insurance underwriting and marketing strategies using the latest developments in web-based technology. Mr. Kerr previously was Chairman of Lambert Fenchurch US Holdings from 1995-2000, and prior to that was Chairman of Sedgwick Energy from 1990 to 1995.




This event will be moderated by Business Insurance Special Projects Editor Rodd Zolkos,
with interactive Q&A from the live audience.










Register today