ICW Group Selects FirstBest's Underwriting Management Systems

P&C Carrier Positions to Advance in the Marketplace With FirstBest's Next-Generation Underwriting Solution

LEXINGTON, Massachusetts - October 26, 2007 - FirstBest® Systems, Inc. today announced that ICW Group, a leading provider of property and casualty insurance, has selected FirstBest's advanced Underwriting Management Systems™ (UMS) to position itself in the constantly changing competitive landscape of insurance. The FirstBest UMS™ is the first business solution to address the entire underwriting life cycle in an easy-to-use, integrated platform, enabling ICW to bring superior speed and results to its underwriting process.

Provided as an on-demand, Web-based platform for underwriting all lines of business, FirstBest UMS delivers straight-through processing, exception-based underwriting, real-time collaboration, knowledge management, and an execution platform for predictive modeling - all in one integrated solution. Carriers deploying this solution benefit from closer agent-underwriter relationships, management visibility into the underwriting process, and the continuous capturing and sharing of underwriting experience and best practices.

"We selected FirstBest's UMS because of its alignment with our strategy. With FirstBest's UMS, we unilaterally become as strong as our strongest underwriter. The solution continuously captures the knowledge of our most experienced people and makes it easy to leverage and share that expertise," said David Hoppen, Chief Operating Officer, ICW Group. "Having the ability to memorialize our institutional knowledge is key to perpetuating and improving our game plan."

"Our selection of FirstBest's UMS enables us to execute on our strategic initiative - to deploy enterprise underwriting. This solution is clearly filling a void in the marketplace and at ICW by providing a comprehensive underwriting solution based on the latest technologies and aligning with the features and functions required in today's marketplace." said Deborah Smallwood, Chief Transformation Officer at ICW, who joined the company earlier this year from the analyst firm TowerGroup. "ICW Group understands that the key to competitiveness lies in its core underwriting processes. The FirstBest UMS provides a complete, automated solution for all transactions - new business, renewals, exceptions, referrals, endorsements, and more - empowering ICW to scale and adapt in response to market cycles." said John Belizaire, CEO of FirstBest Systems.

About FirstBest Systems

Founded in 2006, FirstBest® Systems, Inc. delivers advanced Underwriting Management Systems™ (UMS) that enable commercial insurance carriers to profit from better underwriting. The FirstBest UMS™ is a next-generation underwriting solution for commercial-lines carriers that enables them to write more and better business. Insurers can scale their underwriting profitably while achieving greater speed and business agility; foster real-time collaboration to make it easy for agents to do business with carriers; promote enhanced underwriting discipline and consistency; and empower management with greater visibility into underwriting processes. For more information, please visit www.firstbest.com or call 1.888.863.6095.

FirstBest Systems
Meira Primes
VP, Marketing
781.863.6005
mprimes@firstbest.com

About ICW Group

Privately held ICW Group Insurance Companies represents a group of multi-line property and casualty insurance carriers providing workers' compensation, surety, commercial property, earthquake and personal and business automobile insurance. Its member companies consist of Insurance Company of the West, Explorer Insurance Company and Independence Casualty and Surety. Based in San Diego, California, ICW Group continues to transform itself into an insurance industry leader dedicated to meeting the needs of its agents and the people and companies they insure. More information is available at www.icwgroup.com.

Company Contact:

ICW Group
Gary Whitfield
Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications
858.350.2963
gwhitfield@icwgroup.com

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