Making the RiskMeter Online Accessible to Agents
About Aerial Photos
NC, OH and SC Just Added to Distance to Fire Station Report!
CDS Wildfire Updates
COBRA Zones Added to RiskMeter Online’s Flood Report
Building Characteristic Info May be Added to the RiskMeter Online
Upcoming Events - Meet the CDS Team!
Online Training Schedule!
Test Drive ANY Risk Report for One Month Free!
Welcome to Our Newest Customers!
Request a Hardcopy of the Newsletter
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Questions or Comments?
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Making the RiskMeter Online Accessible to Agents
Do you want to know the secret on how to
immediately increase your sales and underwriting
efficiency? It’s easier than you think, and CDS
will
show you how.
All you need to do is put a RiskMeter link on your
agent portal. Yes, that’s it! This is no ordinary
link
though. Behind this link is a hyperlink that will
automatically bring your agent to the RiskMeter Web
site and log them in. Not only by clicking on this link
will they be automatically logged into the
RiskMeter, but we can customize the
settings (brush
clearances, shoreline, rating territories, etc) and
messages that the RiskMeter returns. This
feature
will let your agents know ASAP if a new policy should
be submitted to your underwriters.
By allowing your agents to use the RiskMeter to
screen risks, both agents and underwriters become
more efficient by reducing the number of calls it
takes to clear properties. This frees your agents to
spend more time selling, and allows your underwriters
to spend more time reviewing tough cases.
*** For more information on this feature, please
speak with your account executive.
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| About Aerial Photos |
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This month I figured we'd take a few minutes of your
time to talk about aerial photos. I'll focus on how
they are used, updating, and new options.
Updating
People often ask us “How up-to-date are the aerial
photos?” The answer varies. Shooting aerial
photos is a time consuming and expensive process.
Taking the pictures is not the difficult part, but after
a
picture is taken, it must be manipulated to match the
dimensions on the ground. This process is
called “orthorectification.” Basically, if a picture
hasn't been shot straight down, the picture
must be bent to take into account the terrain. This
must be done individually for each picture!
Additionally, for hi-resolution photos, they don’t
cover a very large area. This means that lots of
pictures must be taken. This is why generally only a
metro area or county is photographed at a time. It’s
expensive. The only entity that has flown over the
entire
US is the USGS, and these pictures generally are low
resolution (2m) and can be very old, because they
are updated on irregular schedules.
The company we use for the aerials works
as an aggregator of aerial photos. This means they
have agreements with many smaller providers, that
may focus on a single state or region. Once one of
these companies flies into an area to get new
photos, we’ll get them.
In some areas aerial photos might be 6 months old,
while
in other areas, they could be 2 years old, and maybe
in a
rural area, they might be 5 years old. It really
depends.
However, when you are viewing the image on the
RiskMeter, there is a button under the photo that
says, “More Info.” If you click on this, it will tell you
the date of the photo.
How Do You Determine the Level of Detail?
Aerial photos are digital pictures. And just like
the pictures you take with your digital camera, if
you zoom in too close, they will pixelate (get
jagged). This is true of any digital picture. So just
like a digital camera, the better the
resolution, the more detail you can see. With aerial
photos, we talk about the ‘base resolution’ or ‘ground
resolution.’ This tells you how how big each pixel is
on
the ground. The smaller the number, the better! It
means you can zoom in further, and the picture
won’t be jagged. The ‘More Info’ button will also tell
you the resolution (pixel size) in meters of the
photo.
Why use the RiskMeter Aerials?
Many articles have recently been written about new
options on the web for aerial photos. There are
some key differences, though, that you should
consider. First, the date of the images is crucial.
For things like evaluating brush fire exposure, if land
has been cleared, and there is no longer brush, then
older photos will not help very much. The same thing
goes for looking at a new development; if its not in
the photos, then the photos are useless. The
photos we get are generally the newest available. A
little more expensive, yes, but again, many times
older photos are worthless.
Secondly, some viewers limit how far you can zoom
in, so you can’t get a very good look. In general, our
photos have no limits. So you can really get a good
view of an area.
There are two features also available with the
RiskMeter that wouldn’t be available to you if you use
other aerial photos. First, we present the risk map
next to the aerial map at the same size and scale.
This makes it very easy for the user to compare the
two photographs. If you are looking at brush in an
area, and the risk map shows red, then its easy to
see in the aerial the area we’re referring to. With
outside aerials, this wouldn’t be as easy.
Other Instances When Aerial Photos Should be
Used
Underwriting - Details of a property that
cannot be found from the street are revealed. Aerial
photos allow underwriters to see “Attractive
Nuisances” that increase risk, such as:
swimming pools, trampolines, retention ponds, creeks
and pipelines (when they run above ground).
If a neighborhood appears to be stable, then a field
inspector might not need to be sent out. Being near
something that is hazardous (commercial area,
quarry, junk yard) may provide enough facts to turn
the policy down all
together.
Claims/Loss Control - Photos of roof
tops help inspectors, who need to survey damage, to
create an outline of the roof before they go onsite.
This image would then be used to drop
measurements on.
Investigation – Accidents requiring
a “vehicle accident scene inspection”. Photos and
measuring tools may reduce time that a scene
inspector spends in the field or it could prevent a
person from going all together.
If you don't know how to use Birdseye geocoding
(aerial photos), please call us at 617.737.4444 and
we can walk you through, or sign up for one of our
FREE Web Ex training sessions at:
https://cdsys.webex.com<
Sincerely,
Daniel Munson
VP of Sales & Marketing
CDS Business Mapping
Tel: 617.737.4444
Email:
dmunson@cdsys.com
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| NC, OH and SC Just Added to Distance to Fire Station Report! |
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CDS has just added NC, OH, SC to its Distance to
Fire Station
report. This brings the total number of states to 25.
The distance between a property and the primary fire
station directly affects your loss ratio. Regardless of
the training, personnel or equipment at a station, if
an insured location is greater than 5 miles from a
station the chance of a large loss is inevitable. By
simply typing in an address, you will get: driving
distance to local responding fire stations, names of
the stations
and staffing (career or volunteer).
We will continue to add more states until we meet
our goal of providing nationwide coverage. We want
your feedback to see which states we should add
next. If there is a state you would like to see us
add, please contact Jamie Munson at 860.854.6125
or
jmunson@cdsys.com. In addition, we also have
responding fire district boundaries for the following
states: CA, FL, HI, IL, KS, MS, ND and VA.
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| CDS Wildfire Updates |
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In order to provide you with the most accurate
wildfire reports as possible, we have been manually
updating our wildfire model on a weekly basis. Over
the last two years alone we have made 15,000
updates! Some of the counties we have recently
updated are: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San
Diego and Ventura. We will continue to update our
wildfire data, and if you run a report that has been
affected by a new development and it is not shown,
please Email Charles Kane at
ckane@cdsys.com with the address
and the
result you got. Thanks in advance for your
cooperation.
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| COBRA Zones Added to RiskMeter Online’s Flood Report |
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The RiskMeter Online has added another vital piece
of information to its Flood report. Not only will the
RiskMeter Online return SFHA, Community Name and
Number, Zone, Panel Number and Date, FIPS Code
and Census Tract, BUT it will also tell you if a policy
falls in or out of a COBRA (Coastal Barriers Resource
Act) Zone. This is now automatically added to all
flood reports at no additional cost. For more
information, please contact your account executive
today!
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| Building Characteristic Info May be Added to the RiskMeter Online |
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Based upon feedback from companies and agents,
CDS is looking into adding building characteristic
information to the RiskMeter Online. We would have
a short form, which will return square footage and
year built, and a long form, with additional
information, such as number of stories, roof type,
construction type, sales price, etc. These would be
available for both homes and commercial properties.
CDS is trying to gauge the interest in these reports.
If you are interested, CDS would like your feedback.
Please contact Dan Munson at 617.737.4444 or
dmunson@cdsys.com
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| Upcoming Events - Meet the CDS Team! |
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CDS will be exhibiting at the following upcoming
conferences. Whether you're a customer or
prospect, we'd love to meet with you onsite at these
exceptional events! Feel free to stop by our booth
or if you wish to schedule an appointment, please
contact Dan Munson at 617.737.4444
(dmunson@cdsys.com) or Bradley Sherwin at
310.546.5696
(bsherwin@cdsys.com)
Sacramento Big I Day
October 19, 2005 *Sacramento, CA
CPCU Society Annual Meeting and Seminars
October 22 - 25, 2005 *Atlanta, GA
CPCU All Industry Day
November 17, 2005 *Orange, CA
CIWA Wholesaler Industry Day
November 17, 2005 *Orange, CA
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| Online Training Schedule! |
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In order to help you utilize the RiskMeter Online more
effectively, we are now offering FREE Online
training.
This is a great way for your organization to have its
most pressing questions answered, learn about
reading various risk reports and how to utilize
cutting-edge features, such as: Birdseye
Geocoding, One Click Ruler and Manual
Placement. To register for an upcoming
Webcast, click on one of
the links below or for more information, contact Maria
Francis at 617.737.4444 or
mfrancis@cdsys.com
National
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
1:00 pm- 2:00 pm (EDT)
https://cdsys.webex.com
National
Wednesday, November 9, 2005
1:00 pm- 2:00 pm (EDT)
https://cdsys.webex.com
Western Risks
Thursday, November 17, 2005
1:00 pm- 2:00 pm (EDT)
https://cdsys.webex.com
National
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
1:00 pm- 2:00 pm (EDT)
https://cdsys.webex.com
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| Test Drive ANY Risk Report for One Month Free! |
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Would you like the opportunity to evaluate any one
of our risk reports without obligation? You can now!
For a limited time you will be able to test-drive any
RiskMeter Online report for FREE! Take advantage of
this exceptional opportunity to see how a particular
risk report can benefit your organization. To add a
FREE, one-month risk report to your account, please
call 617.737.4444.
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| Welcome to Our Newest Customers! |
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Carriers
- Insurance Company of the West
- Florida Select
- Markel Insurance
- Ohio Casualty
Agents
- Colemont Insurance
- Crawley Warren Ins
- Dopazo & Assoc
- Justine Rodgers Insurance
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| Request a Hardcopy of the Newsletter |
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Having a hard time managing your inbox? You can
now receive the RiskMeter eNewsletter via regular
mail. To get the latest issue of the RiskMeter
newsletter delivered to your office (when it becomes
available), please email Paul Ptashnick at:
pptashnick@cdsys.com
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| Questions or Comments? |
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If you would like more information on any of the
topics discussed in this newsletter, please contact
Dan Munson, VP of Marketing & Sales at:
617.737.4444 or
dmunson@cdsys.com
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| Help a Friend or a Colleague |
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Please forward this free newsletter to a friend or
colleague who might benefit from it. We only ask
that you send the entire newsletter. Thanks!
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