Computers are very good at displaying graphical images and manipulating large sets of data in a database. Combining these two capabilities results in a Geographic Information System (GIS). Business data can be combined with geographic information and quickly manipulated to answer questions based on geography.

Some typical applications are
· Displaying a map showing all the policy locations with premium above a specified level
· Displaying a map showing all the locations of claims over a given amount.
· Producing a report on all policies within five miles of a particular river
· Determining the best location for a new agency office
· Finding rating areas with excessive loss ratios
· Finding all auto policy holders without flood insurance living in a high-risk flood zone.

GIS Case Study

Suppose a carrier with 50,000 policies wants to determine how many policy holders are located in an assigned risk area. If we assume that you had all the maps your application needed, someone that was familiar with the problem and could process, on average, one location every 30 seconds and who could work accurately for eight hours a day, that person could only process 960 addresses per day. A portfolio with 50,000 policies would require a bit more than 52 person days to process.

Using our custom GIS applications, which contains all the necessary maps and descriptions of the wind tiers, we could process those same 50,000 policies in less time than it takes to make coffee in the morning. Therefore, increasing efficiency through outsourcing automation.