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Is the ISO buyout corp, the same company that prints the ISO forms for carriers ?


(forum transfer posted by trader)

Appears to be a clear violation of federal law.

One company dictates policy, procedures and pricing, with no competition?

As with Covansas and the NFIP. They OWN EDS, NFS and Flood Direct, where does that leave any flood oriented competitor?

Common sense says we all are in for a world of hurt...............................................

(forum transfer posted by Katadj)

ISO supply data, analytics, and decision-support services for insurance, finance, real estate, health services, government, and human resources. Its not the the same company that prints the ISO forms for carriers .


(forum transfer posted by LSUFAN)

Alan, for a less flippant reply to your post last Friday in another thread that if you were John Postava and I that you would be very worried about the Xactimate being purchased by ISO, your point is well taken. New information always has to be reviewed to see if one’s course currently plotted still is the best course possible. ISO is a whopper of a force in many areas and there are a lot of questions to be answered in the coming weeks and months. Since we only learned of this news at the close of last Friday there are more questions to ask than there are answers today.

Questions like why did the largest player in the property estimating solution cash in when they seemed to be at the top of their game? Why did ISO want to add Xactimate to their mix? How much did Xactimate sell out for and what percentage of control does the Loveland family have in ISO if any? Is ISO privately or publicly held? Will Xactimate continue to operate as before or will the power move to the east coast? What will MDA do with the estimating software arm of MSB (IC) in light of this development along with the loss of Met Life to Xactimate per the press release from Xactware?

Perhaps with Xactware and MSB being more in the same league it will be most revealing to see the actions or reactions of MSB (MDA) to this development. We know Xactimate is building a new office complex and moving customer support back in-house. ISO seems to be more international is scope. Are they more into out sourcing/partnering to sustain growth than Xactimate has been? Will the carriers be pleased to see more or less competition in the in the claims handling solutions industry? Will Xactware have to throw the brakes on forward movement until the new owners pass over new directions for example or will ISO just want an annual report from the current Xactware management? In the year following the death of the founder of Xactware who was the actual power in the decision making process?

Typically there can be some loss motion due to changes like this. I know in talking with some long term folks in the MSB group they have been in limbo as far as their future since Boston Ventures took control and now what does it mean to be apart of a huge firm like MDA.

Perhaps it will be as long as 24 months before the pros and cons of the ISO purchase of Xactware start to be known. We do know ISO has been looking to purchase an estimating software vendor for sometime. I expect the founder of Xactimate had plans to sell unless his death was sudden and unexpected due to the fact he only turned over control of the company a few weeks before his death per press releases directly from Xactware. This deal happened just about one year after the death of Mr. Loveland so I expect since ISO was in the market there was some talk of selling before his death. To have sold sooner could have sent signals that the family wanted out badly, etc. Who knows and farther more few cares.

In time the answers to these and other questions will become knowable. In the mean time we at HRI will continue on our course plotted 10 years ago to become the most widely used estimating claims handling solution so we had our work cut out for ourselves before the news from last Friday. : )

(forum transfer posted by Gale)

It would be nice if the new owners of Xactimate would throw the entire program in the dumpster and start over again, what a horrable product...

 

(forum transfer posted by Rewardadjusting)

Gale,

I'm glad I'm just a 'juster and not a software provider.

_____________________________

LARRY D HARDIN

We heard the rumor a couple of months ago. Sorry, Gale, I should have called you to prepare you for the news. ISO with Xact is a formidable competitor for sure. That being said, the insurance carrier market needs and deserves to have choices when it comes to adjusting software. We will continue to provide the best alternative to brand X that we have seen to date. Are we shaking in our boot drives over here? No way. Life goes on in this crazy business and the Lord will never give you more than you can handle.

Xact never saw SIMSOL, MSB or the other players as competition. They sell more software than all of us combined (and their clients pay dearly for that privledge). My feeling is it will be business as usual for a while.

My biggest fear (for the property insurance industry and many of its vendors) is that pricing for home repairs does become somewhat "fixed" as it is in the auto world. If a contractor won't work for X/ISO pricing, will he be restricted in the carriers he can market to and work for (or limited in his profit making ability). Only time will tell. It will be up to the restoration contractors to stand their ground and carriers brave enough to do what is right for policyholders.

_____________________________

John A. Postava, R.P.A.
President
SIMSOL Software, Inc.

Ever carrier in the US realizes an insurance estimate sheet is worthless unless a competent repair person will do the work for the bottom line on the sheet.

Someday in the future, contractors may start bidding on jobs again. If this comes about the insurance reconstruction industry will change again.

(forum transfer posted by trader)

Totally agree with you, Trader. You may be able to cookie-cutter my car repairs but don't mess with my home. If I have a competent contractor I know does good work, I will use him and my carrier will pay for it (not a penny more or a penny less). Just because a preferred contractor's work is guaranteed for a year doesn't mean I want a lesser contractor to do the work over, and over, and over again disrupting my life and home.

I am sure there are many reliable and professional contractors in preferred networks. My point is I want the selection of the contractor to be mine. I just finished a big remodel on my home and I can't imagine what would have happened if the contractor wasn't the best I could find.

_____________________________

John A. Postava, R.P.A.
President
SIMSOL Software, Inc.

When most all in this profession acknowledged the presence of an 800# Gorilla , located in Orem, Utah, A/K/A Xactware, little did we know what would transpire.

The sellout of DDS to the Boston Venture Group of MSB=(Marshall Swift/Boechk) has turned a suitable product into a veritable maze of problems, which no one in the Company seems to be able to, or wish to solve.

Well , with this "new deal" we now have a 8 Million pound Gorilla/Elephant/Rhinoceros to deal with.
 
Read on compadres, and see what ISO is all about. They service and CONTROL the major portion of the P&C industry.

http://www.iso.com/press_releases/2...10_06.html

http://www.iso.com/about_iso/about03.html

http://www.iso.com/about_iso/about09.html

http://www.iso.com/links/

Refer to post number 3 above for one mans opinion, and I'm betting there will be Hell to pay over this.

(forum transfer posted Katadj)

If your talking antitrust, then this looks like a clean horizontal acquisition by ISO. Same industry, but different businesses. If this was cloudy, then you would have heard about it from the FTC or DOJ already.

http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/public/gui...es/hmg.htm

http://www.clm.com/pubs/pub-6073563_1.html

(forum transfer posted by rhking)

Carriers want a competent estimate for repairs so that they have an idea of what it should cost. How many times have you received estimates from insured's contractors that are a one item bid -- "Will repair all storm damage for $XXX,XXX." Without an estimate they trust (that's right contractors, for the most part, you're not trusted), the carrier has no idea if Mr Contractor's one line bid is "fair and reasonable." It's just like an auto body shop, they have to do a detail estimate. They can't charge whatever they like, neither can contractors. How many times has an adjuster heard from the insured that a contractor stated one price, then upped it when he learned that the cost was to be covered by insurance? Too many.

(forum transfer posted by aporco)

John the Xactimate story did catch us off guard since we were aware you were talking about selling part of your company to ISO and we had just assumed it would happen that way. It is interesting as to why Xactimate was interested in selling and ISO in buying. The rate of carriers moving from MSB to Xactimate may increase as the result of the sale but I agree it will be a couple years before the nature of the impact of this news will be fully known.

(forum transfer posted by Gale)

Maybe someone at ISO will listen and make a patch that allows you to label multiple photos like we can in Simsol.


They would probably just charge for it anyway.

I guess if I had a business and someone offered me big bucks and I could retire, it would be hard to pass up.

But like my friend Jim Nordon says, "It stinks, and I don't like it!"

( Forum transfer Posted by givemeroofs)

There are three more pages of post on this topic, you can read the complete thread by following the link below.

http://www.catadjuster.org/forum/tm.asp?m=24564

Perhaps we should revert to handwriting estimates. It may save a lot of time and $.


(last post of the thread in the old forum posted by LarryW)

I have a dear friend who "WAS" It manager for a national IA Vendor, He Jumped ship and now workes for Xactware, He tells me that ISO is focusing XM8-24, And Xacentral to the insurance claims business. Their focus will be IA vendor and Carrier Sales.

I dont think its neccesarrily a bad thing, But in Exacentral EVERYTHING YOU DO is documented and is uploade no matter if you like it or not. They are Implimenting Property Appraisal Forms, Invoicing forms, Auto PDF Stacker, Multi Picture Labeling, Just a Bunch of stuff.

RIGHT NOW, the ONLY INPUT Xactware has is the CARRIERS........... NIAA will have a say in this!

If you can't beat them...

After I finish up my reopens from Katrina, I will be making the switch from IC to Xactimate.  The industry is full of experienced adjusters that will gladly comply and use carrier/vendors preference of software. 

With the amount of adjusters out there, it would be foolish to provide too much insistence to use an alternative software.

I disagree with  the comment that the only input that Xactware has is from the Carriers, I know of some IA firms that have a lot of input. As for the Property Appraisal Forms, Invoicing forms, Multi Picture labeling and PDF Stacker it's already there in the XactCentral I'm using (version 24.10) I know the IA firms helped in the development of these features.