ISO’s PICAS Short-Listed for BCS Consumer IT Innovation of the Year

London, U.K. – 25 October 2010 – ISO’s Personal Injury Claims Assessment Service (PICAS^_®) has been short-listed for the Consumer IT Innovation of the Year in the BCS UK IT Industry Awards 2010. The UK IT Industry Awards are dedicated to recognising the contribution of individuals, projects, and organisations that have excelled in the use, development, and innovative deployment of IT in the past 12 months. PICAS is the insurance industry’s first solution to entirely digitise the claims process for personal injuries and is already showing dramatic improvements in reducing processing time for claimants.

PICAS, competing with five other products from across a whole range of industries in the Consumer IT Innovation of the Year category, fully digitises personal injury claims reporting by integrating the different systems and steps — medical, legal, and insurance — involved in the settlement of personal injury claims. ISO has developed PICAS in conjunction with Premier Medical, Plexus Law, and a number of leading insurers. PICAS uses technology to replace the lengthy paper exchange and negotiation period that currently exists between claimants and insurers. The PICAS solution has already demonstrated that it can significantly reduce the life cycle of insurance claims by more than 60 per cent — from a normal time frame of around 358 days for settlement to 133 days.

Commenting on the news, Joe Pendle, director of Client Services at ISO, said, "The PICAS team is proud to be short-listed for the BCS UK IT Industry Awards 2010. It’s a testament to the vision and pioneering work of everyone involved in revolutionising the personal injury claims process." 

"It’s becoming increasingly urgent to completely digitise the insurance claims handling process to meet the recent Ministry of Justice time requirements for resolving personal injury claims," continued Pendle. "PICAS is designed to help all parties within the claims life cycle — solicitors, insurers, and claimants — but above all, to settle claims quickly and fairly for the claimant. PICAS has shown what is possible and is setting the standard for the claims industry as a whole."

PICAS uses components of the ISO Claims Outcome Advisor^_® personal injury management solution to streamline elements of the settlement negotiation and process between parties in the claim.

The awards ceremony will take place on Thursday, the 11th of November 2010, at the Battersea Park Events Arena, London.

_{About PICAS^®
The Personal Injury Claims Assessment Service (PICAS^®) is the industry's first solution to entirely digitise the settlement of personal injury claims. ISO developed the service in conjunction with medical professionals, claimant solicitors, and insurance companies to provide a collaborative solution that is both fast and fair for the claimant. It ensures a reduction of paper transfer and handling to provide benefits to all involved parties. PICAS is a service of Insurance Services Office (ISO) Limited, a leading provider of personal injury claims solutions.}

_{About ISO Claims Outcome Advisor^® (COA™)
ISO Claims Outcome Advisor^® (COA™) is the industry’s first personal injury claims management solution that manages the multiple dimensions of organisations’ personal injury claims portfolios. COA understands the severity and recovery implications of more than 18,000 injuries, treatments, complications, and preexisting conditions and 14,000 occupations and creates for an insurer a historic database of all of its injury claims. COA helps claims handlers, managers, and actuaries manage the unique and complex medical, legal, and occupational issues presented by personal injury claims and helps ensure appropriate financial arrangements are agreed to and implemented. Claims handlers can manage all aspects of a case from first notice of loss to return-to-work plans, rehabilitation, and damages.}

_{About ISO
Since 1971, ISO has been a leading source of information about property/casualty insurance risk. For a broad spectrum of commercial and personal lines of insurance, the company provides statistical, actuarial, underwriting, and claims information; policy language; information about specific locations; fraud-identification tools; and technical services. ISO serves insurers, reinsurers, agents and brokers, insurance regulators, risk managers, and other participants in the property/casualty insurance marketplace. ISO is a subsidiary of Verisk Analytics. For more information, visit www.iso.com and www.verisk.com or contact:}

_{Mark Strang
Tel: 01252 761055
mstrang@iso.com}

_{Claire Russell - PR for ISO
Tel: 01780 721433
crussell@ibapressoffice.com}

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