Business News

Willis Chooses Spectrum from Pitney Bowes Business Insight for International Geocoding

Thursday 10. February 2011 - Reinsurance Leader Improves Client Decision Making through Greater Accuracy of Location-Based Data

Pitney Bowes Business Insight, a global leader in customer data, analytics and communication software and services, today announced that risk management and insurance intermediary Willis is using Spectrum, Pitney Bowes Business Insight’s enterprise location intelligence solution, for improved international geocoding.
With more than 400 offices in nearly 120 countries, Willis develops and delivers professional insurance, reinsurance, risk management, financial and human resource consulting and actuarial services to corporations, public entities and institutions around the world. Using the Enterprise Geocoding Module for Spectrum, Willis can now translate address information within policy details into latitude and longitude points, which can then be used for in-depth risk analysis. By increasing its locational accuracy, Willis’ catastrophe models now produce more reliable results, and risk estimations for hazards such as flood, wind, subsidence, earthquake, crime and wildfire can be performed with greater precision.
Providing an accurate overview of an area’s risk status means that Willis’ direct corporate clients, insurance carriers and target reinsurance companies can receive the best and most comprehensive picture of exposures and price for their book of business at time of renewal. It also provides better insight and risk reporting capabilities to help address Solvency II requirements, the set of updated regulatory requirements for European insurance firms, which come into effect in 2013.
The Enterprise Geocoding Module also enables clients to make international comparisons across country lines to create more effective pricing, underwriting and risk management. For example, the ability to pinpoint the distance between a property and a faultline can help ensure that a deal is underwritten at the correct price.
Starting in the UK, France, Germany, Austria and Sweden, the Pitney Bowes Business Insight solution will serve Willis offices worldwide, providing up-to-date, accurate and consistent geocoding across international geographies. It was chosen due to the quality, breadth and trustworthiness of the geocoding data that Pitney Bowes Business Insight provides, and the flexibility of its licensing model.
“Pitney Bowes Business Insight’s geocoding solution has improved the service we offer to our clients by enabling them to make more informed decisions about their reinsurance costs,” said Nigel Davis, executive director at Willis. “Better geocoding greatly improves the accuracy of how risk data is represented. Being able to drill down and see how individual properties are affected by potential hazards is very attractive to our clients and can make a huge difference when underwriting agreements.”