The American Association of Insurance Services (AAIS) and FJA-US have partnered to develop the AAIS Underwriting Platform (UP), which an AAIS statement describes as a cloud-based, centrally maintained rating engine and product module based on FJA’s Product Machine.

UP will be deployed initially to support the AAIS Commercial Output Program (COP), a program developed to insure property exposures of large commercial, industrial and institutional risks. AAIS reports that more than 100 insurers, including some of the nation’s largest, are affiliated with AAIS for use of the COP. AAIS plans to adapt UP to support all of its programs.

“FJA has a strong product configurator and if this gives them a chance to bring more competition into the large commercial market, that should be welcome because the segment hasn’t traditionally been served well by automation,” comments Mike Fitzgerald, an analyst with Celent.

Since speed-to-market for product changes continues to be a high priority for carriers, and those who are not in a position to replace their legacy systems are likely to see the appeal of a cloud solution based on AAIS, according to Novarica analyst Karlyn Carnahan. “A cloud-based rating engine is likely to make it easier for carriers to enter the COP market and provide their agents with new business quotes, improving the ease of doing business,” she observes.

As a cloud-based and centrally maintained platform, UP offers insurers the opportunity to save thousands of dollars in IT costs, according to Truman Esmond, VP, customer engagement, AAIS. “At the same time, companies that use UP will retain the flexibility to accept or postpone updates to the COP and future underlying programs, and to customize those programs,” he says.