Markel Corporation Selects Thazar Solutions to Deploy Business Intelligence System

Business Wire, Sept 16, 1999

KANSAS CITY, Mo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 16, 1999--

Thazar Solutions Corporation ("Thazar Solutions"), the leading provider of business intelligence solutions to the property and casualty insurance market, announced today that Markel Corporation ("Markel"), a property casualty insurance holding company, has chosen Thazar Business Intelligence Suite(TM) as a basis for integrating and delivering key information for Markel's decision support needs.

Headquartered in Glen Allen, Virginia, Markel consists of five property/casualty insurance subsidiaries which serve a variety of commercial- and personal-lines markets. Faced with the challenges of competing in the specialty insurance market, Markel engaged Thazar Solutions for an enterprise-wide decision support infrastructure to support Markel's business intelligence initiatives. Thazar Business Intelligence Suite(TM) will bring business-critical information closer to Markel decision makers to support key activities such as pricing analysis, product positioning, profitability and risk analysis. More importantly, using the same architecture in all Markel companies provides a consistent approach to business intelligence that will lead to a more efficient and effective system overall.

"Data warehousing is one of Markel's strategic I/T initiatives. It is one of four legs of an I/T architecture that we feel a specialty P&C carrier will need in order to be successful over the next 5-10 years," said Rich McClain, CIO. "Thazar Solutions' sole dedication to the P&C industry, their quality of staff, and the fact that they have already evolved their data model through over four versions is what really sold us. Still, we know that data warehouses are not `off the shelf' products. With Thazar Solutions' help, we intend to expand and integrate the Thazar model into our business."

Insurance organizations are recognizing the tremendous value to be gained by uncovering the hidden data patterns and business relationships locked inside their business systems. Thazar Solutions software and services will deliver to Markel the ability to tranform its current business information into enterprise information intelligence. Furthermore, information can also be delivered through Thazar Solutions' Prophet Portal(TM), a browser-based alternative to installing and updating an application at each user's desktop. This web-based business intelligence will also offer Markel the ability to distribute monitoring and analysis capabilities to wholesalers, agents, and other business partners.

"The business paradigm of the insurance industry is constantly shifting, especially in the specialty insurance market," said Tom Chesbrough, President & CEO, Thazar Solutions. "The nature of specialty lines is very meticulous; you must thoroughly know your customers' wants and desires and develop products that meet their specific needs and do it at a competitive price. The beauty of the Thazar Business Intelligence Suite(TM) architecture is that it not only handles standard insurance lines, but is flexible enough to handle specialty lines as well." This flexiblity was the determining factor that influenced Markel to implement Thazar Solutions' Suite.

"We are delighted that Markel has selected Thazar Solutions to develop its business intelligence environment," said Mike Lammers, Vice President, Client Services. "We look forward to being their business intelligence partner as they continue to grow and move into new niche markets."

About Markel Corporation

Markel Corporation, based in Glen Allen, Virginia, markets and underwrites specialty insurance products and programs to a variety of niche markets. In each of these markets, the Company seeks to provide quality products and excellent customer service so that it can be a market leader. The financial goals of the Company are to earn consistent underwriting profits and superior investment returns to build shareholder value.

About Thazar Solutions

Thazar Solutions Corporation is a privately held company with its corporate headquarters located in Kansas City, Missouri. Thazar Solutions, the only complete business intelligence solution designed exclusively for the insurance industry, incorporates a relational database accompanied by data marts designed to gather vast amounts of data from disparate legacy and current transactional operating systems and organizes it in one single source designed specifically for analysis. Front-end applications refine the decision-making process with specific best practices information and processes to effectively perform risk analysis, market segmentation, cross-selling, benchmarking and profitability analysis, and more.

For more information, visit http://www.thazar.com