October 19, 2009: FirstBest and MajescoMastek Team to Improve P&C Underwriting
In an effort to enable insurers to improve underwriting operations and ease of doing business with agents and brokers, MajescoMastek and FirstBest Systems Inc. announced a business alliance.
October 10, 2009: FirstBest, MajescoMastek Establish Business Alliance
Technology solutions providers MajescoMastek and FirstBest Systems, Inc., have announced a strategic partnership that will enable insurers to improve underwriting operations and ease of doing business with their agents and brokers.
October 2009: Gaining a Strategic Edge with Technology
The co-founders of FirstBest Systems, John Belizaire, Julian Pelenur and Joe Pilkerton, explain how their software fills a collaborative gap in underwriting and streamlines the process.
September 21, 2009: Web 2.0 Systems Facilitate Collaboration Among Key Agency, Underwriting Players
A shared platform with real-time tools helps partners work together while far apart.
July 2009: ICW Group Now offers Workers' Compensation Insurance in Illinois
The carrier said it has recently achieved a series of transformative milestones that have greatly enhanced its agent-focused business strategy.
June 2009: FirstBest Announces App Forms Reader and Dashboard Features
The FirstBest Agent solution provides carriers with all Agency-facing capabilities and enables a quicker path to market-driven ROI, as well as easy upgrade to the complete FirstBest Underwriting Management System.
June 2009: ICW Group Selects Valen Technologies for Analytics Solution
Upon successful completion and evaluation of the model, the Valen UnderRight predictive analytics solution may be integrated with ICW Group's existing systems and technology, including FirstBest's Underwriting Management System (UMS), which ICW Group has successfully rolled out to the marketplace under its Snap brand name, the joint source reports.
June 2009: AQS Partners With FirstBest To Help P&C Insurers Speed Application Process And Deliver Products To Market More Quickly
"The advanced technology of FirstBest will complement the policy administration capabilities and tools-based flexibility of AQS Access and AQS Advantage. It also will expand the ease with which agents can collaborate with us. The UMS underwriting rules configuration and its clearance capabilities -- combined with the adaptable configurability of our policy administration systems -- will enable companies to write business more efficiently." Bruce Davis, CMO, AQS.
June 2009: News from 2009 IASA Conference: AMERISAFE Goes Live on FirstBest UMS for Workers’ Comp
"The AMERISAFE/FirstBest relationship is a true partnership; FirstBest has met and exceeded our expectations from day one." Geoff Banta, Chief Operating Officer, AMERISAFE.
May 2009: Insurers Embrace the Magic of the Dashboard
The weather for this year’s Orlando-based ACORD/LOMA Systems Forum was decidedly un-Disney-like, with nearly continuous rain forcing conference-goers and vacationers alike to find alternate means of amusement as their children literally climbed the walls. That didn’t stop those on the show floor, however, from embracing the magic.
May 2009: FirstBest Launches Standalone Agency-facing Solution
FirstBest (Bedford, Mass.) has announced that it will offer FirstBest Agent as a standalone solution, apart from its flagship Underwriting Management System (UMS) solution.
May 2009: FirstBest Wins Vanguards in Insurance Best Practices
The third annual Vanguards in Insurance Program (VIP) produced some results that echoed previous years, plua a few new twists.
May 2009: Business Upgrade
When it comes to underwriting, John Belizaire admits that his background in enterprise software makes him something of an outsider. But that hasn't stopped the chief executive and founder of FirstBest Systems, Inc. from pushing his company toward what he views as an insider track.
April 2009: Get in Touch with Gen Y
Today’s senior ranks of insurance professionals are retiring at the pace of approximately one every 10 minutes, taking a wealth of experience and knowledge out of the profession at a startling pace. Agencies and insurance carriers alike now face a major challenge to attract, hire, train and retain Generation Y replacements, all while continuing to service an increasingly complex and pressured marketplace.
April 2009: Buyer's market: VC firms demanding greater oversight
Two local firms accomplished a rare feat this year. They got venture funding at terms both said weren’t onerous. NKT Therapeutics Inc. in Newton landed $8 million in Series A funding, while FirstBest Systems Inc. in Bedford secured $6 million in a B round. In both cases, finding a venture firm willing to part with money was the hard part.
April 2009: Soft Landing
Some insurance agents look at doing business through a carrier Web site or portal as a giant leap of faith, but carriers are finiding their partners enjoy the ease of doing business and the improved underwriting relationships these new solutions offer.
April 2009: Startup brings underwriters into the Information Age
Stepping into the offices of a commercial insurance carrier's underwriting department is like stepping back in time. Such an environment doesn't lend itself to today's need to adjust business strategies around endless streams of data. So in 2006, Belizaire and two of his partners formed Bedford-based FirstBest to provide underwriters in commercial insurance with up-to-the-minute data and analytics.
March 2009: Managing Risk
For most insurers, business intelligence means point solutions at best. But those carriers that weave analytics into the fabric of their organizations are equipped to drive more precision in pricing and greater profitability to the bottom line.
March 2009: FirstBest Gets second round worth $6M
FirstBest’s success with early customers has proven market demand, scalability and value proposition for its product, a software that automates workflow and applies business intelligence analytics to the underwriting decision-making process.
March 2009: FirstBest Picks UP $6M For Underwriting Software
FirstBest Systems Inc., a provider of underwriting software for the property and casualty insurance industry, has secured $6 million in Series B financing from its existing investors.
FirstBest Closes Series B Funding
FirstBest Systems Inc. said it has secured $6 million in Series B funding.
FirstBest Systems Banks $6M Series B Financing, Looks to Help Insurers Overcome Economic Slump
Here’s a firm that may see demand for its products increase due to adverse economics in its target market. FirstBest Systems, a Bedford, MA, provider of underwriting software that could help property and casualty insurers expand their businesses, says it has wrapped up a $6 million second round of financing to ensure its own growth.
March 2009: FirstBest Systems Closes $6 Million in Series B Funding Led by Flybridge Partners
FirstBest® Systems, Inc., developer of advanced insurance Underwriting Management Systems™ (UMS) that enable property and casualty insurance carriers to profit from better underwriting, today announced it has secured $6 million in Series B funding. Flybridge Capital Partners and Brookstone Partners led the round with participation from existing investors. The new funds will be used to expand sales and internal staffing, fuel marketing to new lines and increase development of UMS—a next-generation automated underwriting workstation combined with a rich agent portal.
March 2009: Underwriting for All Seasons
The recent and ongoing soft makret has pressured carriers into defensive positions while some analysts are offering hope that hardening will occur in some segments at least in the next year. With those conflicting viewpoints in mind, many insurance companies are asking what the right strategy is for now.
March 2009: FirstBest Systems, RiskMeter Partner on Program
More-accurate technology is helping risk managers at property and casualty insurance companies like ICW Group to ramp up service and build business.
February 2009: FirstBest Systems, RiskMeter Partner on Program
FirstBest Systems announced a new alliance with RiskMeter Online to integrate its real-time natural hazard risk reports into the FirstBest Underwriting Management Systems. This partnership will enable insurers to streamline the underwriting process by eliminating duplicate data entry, as well as reduce the back and forth cycles between underwriter and agent.
February 2009: Q&A with John Belizaire, CEO, FirstBest
Carriers that want to quote and bind business faster, and to make it easier for agents to work with them, can implemnt front-end technologies that enhance, ranther than replace, thier core systems.
Solutions - Enhanced Underwriting Management Systems
UMS Version 2.0 now offers full, rules-driven straight-through processing, including flexible online quotes for agents. Agents can upload and receive complete, bindable online quotes in seconds, and agency-automated letters of authority now allow carriers to decide when and for whom onlines quoting is available.
February 2009: Business Intelligence Makes Insurers More-Competitive Risk Managers
Analytic capabilities are central to the tactics and strategy of San Diego-based ICW Group Insurance Companies… ICW Group declines to discuss its full range of vendor solutions relating to BI and predictive analytics, but it acknowledges the codevelopment of its SNAP workers' compensation front-end new-business application with FirstBest Systems (Lexington, Mass.). The application is built on Java server technology on the back end and Adobe Flex on the front end, and runs on a MySQL database. SNAP incorporates predictive analytics, including new technology from Denver-based Valen Technologies. Launched in late 2007 and upgraded the following year, SNAP speeds the processing of workers' comp applications and renewals.
For additional media information or to schedule a briefing, please contact Meira Primes, VP of Marketing at 781-863-6000 or mediacenter@firstbest.com.