Business News: AIR and Precisely, Crawford and Hover, GRS and WKA, QBE and Flywheel

Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide announced that it including software produced by Precisely, a startup that focuses on improving the quality of data, in its Touchstone 2020 risk-assessment tool.

Gayartri Natarajan, vice president of product for Boston-based AIR, said Precisely’s international address-level geocoding product will improve the quality of loss-exposure data.

“Having the right latitude and longitude coordinates for a property can have an enormous bearing upon the accuracy of risk estimation and the impact that extreme events might have on that property,” Natarajan said in a statement. “Through our collaboration with Precisely, Touchstone 2020 will help support clients’ ability to access this feature for international properties.”

AIR said the integration will allow licensed and configured users to import or re-geocode exposure data with street addresses. That includes the option of including high-resolution address-level international geocoding services for use with Touchstone loss, hazard, and geospatial analyses.

AIR clients can also pass the premium geocodes on to their downstream insurers, brokers, reinsurers, and retrocessionary insurers, the company said. Users will also have the option to control which locations are not sent to the premium geocoder by country or by line of business.

Precisely, which officially launched as a brand in May after purchasing the assets of Pitney Bowes, provides software that improves the quality of warehoused data. The company is headquartered in Pearl River, New York.

Global Risk Solutions, a London-based complex claims management firm, announced that it has acquired William Kramer & Associates, an environmental risk-management company headquartered in Avon, Connecticut.

GRS said WKA adjusters have extensive experience in such claims across a range of industries, including oil and gas, energy, mining, manufacturing, and real estate and litigation management.

“Bill Kramer and William Kramer & Associates have been successful in the major and complex

loss insurance sector for decades,” stated Michael Reeves, GRS’ complex claims loss executive, in a press release. “WKA is a recognized name with a solid reputation in many of the global insurance centres, and this agreement represents a tangible sign of our intention to grow our complex claims solutions business both in the U.S. and internationally.”

GRS said the acquisition will complement its Environmental Risk Management Solutions Group and increase the company’s level of expertise and presence in global markets.

Crawford & Co. has contracted with Hover to provide adjusters and independent claims contractors with complete property measurements.

Hover allows adjusters to obtain the dimensions of structures by using their cell phones to take photographs of each face and corner. The San Francisco-based startup has been steadily signing up new insurance carriers and independent adjusting firms as customers since its launch in 2012.

Crawford, based in Atlanta, calls itself the world’s largest publicly listed independent claims administrator. Hover Executive Vice President Kevin Reilley said the partnership will reduce the company’s claim cycle times and provide better data-sets to carrier partners, while improving customer satisfaction.

Crawford said the investment with Hover will support do-it-yourself data collection, enabling more virtual and desk adjusting services.

QBE North America has contracted with Flyreel Inc., to allow customers to perform self-service property inspections.

QBE said in a press release that Flyreel can be used by customers to document interior and exterior data while using artificial intelligence to identify hazards and risks.

“QBE believes strongly in empowering customers with the most advanced tools available to help them obtain the right coverage for their homes,” stated Vice President Fred Dabney. “This progressive approach will help our customers even more, given our new virtual world.”

Denver-based Flyreel provides a smartphone app that guides insurance customers to conduct home inspections or file first notices of loss.