In 2010, ISO released the ISO Electronic Rating Content (ISO ERC). This product allows insurers to ingest loss costs, rules, and forms attachment logic electronically through XML or via direct call to the ERC rating engine. It seems logical that ingesting data electronically will be faster and easier than manual entry, and it seems logical that data that has already been interpreted will cut down on the analysis phase. But we wanted to see if that was true — whether insurers using ISO electronically were indeed reaping the benefits and how much benefit was accruing. Of course, the underlying question is whether it’s worth investing in this kind of technology.

So we decided to take a look and check it out. We interviewed five insurers using ISO ERC, and five similar insurers using a more traditional manual methodology. The interviews were designed to get a deep understanding of their product management process — from the day they are notified that a new circular has been released, to the day the product is live in the market. And then we compared the two looking to understand if the use of ISO ERC results in tangible improvements compared to the traditional methodology for handling product changes.

The results were impressive.