Feature Story:
ISO Commercial Property Training in Action
SPI Plus® Customer Education Program
In 2006, ISO introduced the SPI Plus® Customer Education Program to meet the training needs of our customers. Developed by an interdisciplinary team from ISO’s sales, training, technical, and product areas, the program set out to meet basic customer needs. “The program has several goals,” says Mike Simonian, an ISO product manager. “We want to ensure that insurers understand how to access the SPI Plus reports, how ISO develops the information in the reports, and how insurers can use that information to underwrite risks more profitably.”
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| Tom Chase, ISO's manager of Survey Services, speaks to a group of underwriters participating in one of ISO's education programs. |
"Many of our customers have new employees who are unfamiliar with some of the data elements in our reports, the many new product enhancements added to SPI Plus, and the breadth and depth of ISO site-specific information,” says Ted Brandley, ISO’s sales support manager. “But even experienced underwriters have benefited from a review of data elements and reports and their application to risk-specific underwriting.”
“In its first year, the SPI Plus Customer Education Program was a real success. We completed programs with more than 775 participants, and our goal for 2007 is to double that total,” says Brandley.
The program, conducted by ISO product experts certified in the property rating and underwriting process, is highly customizable to meet the needs of individual insurers. “The program isn’t intended to be a sales pitch for ISO products. Instead, it's a way to provide a complimentary value-added service to our customers. We work closely with our customers to identify the reports and data they want to review and incorporate their underwriting procedures into each session,” says Brandley.
Depending on the customer’s needs, ISO can also offer education sessions through our online web seminar program.
For more information
To find out more information about the SPI Plus Customer Education Program, please send e-mail to Glen Brooks at
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SPI Plus training educates the underwriters in Preserver Group
As the New England regional underwriting manager for Preserver Group, Sam Knowles understands the importance of quality education for his underwriters. What components make up a sprinkler grading? How do deficiency points affect the grade? Those answers would give the underwriters another layer of understanding the risk. Sam also wanted to combine the training with a detailed technical course on sprinkler systems.
“I spent a lot of time working with ISO’s training team to customize the training program — packing the right information into a half-day format. My main concern was that the training meet Preserver Group’s objectives,” Sam pointed out. “We had a group of about ten underwriters, ranging from senior to associate level. Everyone took something important away from the training.”
 The half-day program taught underwriters what to look for in automatic sprinkler protection. And it explained system deficiencies and how to correct them with loss control recommendations.
“The ISO trainers did a great job. The program moved at a good pace and contained focused material. We gained a better understanding of all the reports available in SPI Plus — there were more reports than we realized. Any carrier that’s writing property insurance of any significance can benefit from this training program. I’ve done a lot of underwriting training myself over the years, and ISO’s program is one of the few that goes behind the scenes and gets to the ‘why’ of the information. That’s information underwriters should know to make better decisions,” Sam emphasized.
Sam Knowles is an underwriting manager for Preserver Group, headquartered in Paramus, New Jersey. Preserver provides a variety of property/casualty insurance products to commercial markets in the Middle Atlantic and New England regions.
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