Verisk Insurance Solutions partners with connected-car technology firm IMS

U.S.-based Verisk Insurance Solutions has announced a new strategic alliance with Intelligent Mechatronic Systems Inc. of Waterloo, Ontario, a leader in connected-car technology, because of IMS’s “well-defined and proven approach to deploying successful insurance telematics programs worldwide.”

The strategic alliance “signifies the extension of IMS strategy to continue offering insurers best-of-class choices for driver analytics insight,” notes a statement Thursday from Verisk Insurance Solutions, a Verisk Analytics business, which provides information about property and casualty insurance risk.

Verisk Insurance Solutions is already currently backed by sophisticated telematics models filed in most U.S. states, the press release notes.

“Our telematics models are based on detailed actuarial analysis of auto claims losses, which puts policyholder driving behaviour in context with real-time driving conditions,” Jim Levendusky, vice president of telematics at Verisk Insurance Solutions, notes in the statement. The alliance will allow Verisk to provide high-performance analytics and driver risk scores to insurers, Levendusky reports.

“IMS brings tried-and-tested expertise in end-to-end operations, logistics, customer support and innovation that insurers can implement today,” says Ben Dailey, executive director of U.S. Sales and Business Development for IMS.

“IMS has teamed with Verisk because of its close network of relationships within the property/casualty insurance market and its ability to bring its filed, market-ready Safety Scoring and GeoMetric programs to our insurance telematics technology,” Dailey points out.

To date, 43 states have approved Verisk’s Safety Scoring program, which monitors driver behaviour and provides a risk score that underwriters can use to provide discounts for safe drivers. GeoMetric, currently available in 34 states, is the company’s risk score and driver discount rule that looks to reward policyholders who drive in areas safer than where their vehicles are garaged.