Message From the CEO

19 Apr 2008

Spring seems to have finally arrived here in KY and has brought a flurry of activity at HRI. We have just returned from the PLRB 2008 Boston convention where we received a great response to our new web based claims assignment and management solution called PowerClaim Net Services as well as PowerClaim Replacement Cost Calculator (RCC) which is also totally web based. With these two new solutions along with our bell weather PowerClaim PC XML property estimating software we are now tit for tat with MSB and Xactware in solutions.

While we have been on the market for 10 years now our first focus has been working to improve our PC XML estimating package what we introduced in 1998. In hindsight it is hard to know if our initial total focus on the estimating piece of our total claims handling and underwriting valuation solution was the correct action or not. Clearly it would have permitted us to be more fully competitive with MSB and Xactware since their focus has been more on the management side and not the estimating side from our view at HRI. It does seem having a top rated field piece (PC XML) for estimating is now paying off that we are now offering a competitive turn key solution.

2008 new sales have opened very strong as well as a high renewal rate of customers gained over the past 10 years. While we continue to gain in our number of NFIP flood adjusters due to our focus in developing for that market this gain has been exceptionally strong in 2008. Another strong area of new growth has come from the contracting industry as we see firms who formerly used MSB or Xactimate turn to our PowerClaim newly enhanced suite of estimating solutions. Another area of growth in 2008 has come from providing more services to current long term accounts.

Physical plant wise we have leased the same office complex for five years and just renewed a long term agreement. This renewal lead to the request for new carpet and the owner’s decision to replace all of the carpet. Thankful I was out to Boston because it has been crazy at the office. While the owner picked up the tab for the removable and replacement we had to clear each space and then move everything back in place. The carpet will be completely installed by the end of next week but one large area will have to have all the cubicles reinstalled that are currently in a shipping container in the parking lot by the back door. For others that may be facing a task like this we are finding our cost in labor and deadlines being extended will be about 50% of the cost the owners are paying the company doing the work. It does look nice and we are glad it is getting done before hurricane season. Assuming this carpet is down as long as the last when I will be 80 next time. : )

Speaking of hurricane season reminded me early yesterday we experience a 5.2 earthquake that was centered about 100 miles north of us and was well felt in our area. The New Madrid earthquake zone is not very active but in 1811-1812 Reelfoot Lake in TN near the Mississippi River was formed due to the last major damage in the area.

The most exciting thing for me at HRI is our growth in sales and solutions offered has not directly involved me or been the results my selling efforts. Our president and her management staff are leading the company forward based on their own efforts and skills. Yes as the founder that was the solo staff in the earlier years and key in sales and support for years after we totally moved from hardware sales to software development and sales letting go has been very hard and earlier attempts had failed.

Clearly they did not do things “my way” and this caused me stress until I chilled enough to see while things were not done my way I actually liked the results better. : ) I am learning if one has hired the right people who love the customers as much as you do then you can really let go and it be in the best interest of all parties, especially that of the customers. Every founder has or will let go at some point so why not do it while you are still around to offer support as the management team learns to soar on their own.

As a note to other founders or CEO’s letting go is not natural for us because not letting go of our dreams in the earlier days was the key to our successes. I will be glad to share my experiences and failures of letting go in the past if you want to contact me. Learning to give others the chance to carry the ball forward and seeing them do it has been rewarding to me. Reading that one is not free to succeed until they are free to fail helped me. While I am only 57 I am starting to see it is our investment in the next generation of leaders that define us more so than our past successes in building things. The next generation is very different in many respects and from what I am seeing from them it impresses me.

We at HRI wish a safe and successful season as each one of you move towards summer.

1 Jan 2008

Happy New Year from all of us at HRI.

30 Aug 2007

This has been the hottest and driest summer I can remember here in KY, but we finally go our first one inch rain since around April, I think. At HRI we have been moving forward supporting current customers, finding new ones and continuing to update and add new solutions. The new releases of PowerClaim XML and PowerClaim Net Services are being well received and we continue to seek your thoughts on what you would like to see in the next generation. Another new change comes from our property replacement cost calculation tool called PowerClaim PV that resides inside of PowerClaim XML and also is offered as a standalone version. It will still be available, but the enhanced next generation is now a web application and is referred to as PowerClaim I2V. While I2V is a generic name used by many to mean many different things we use it to mean Insurance 2 Value.

To get faster feedback from field use we are currently offering PowerClaim I2V free until 2008. If you have used PowerClaim PV in the past you will know how to use PowerClaim I2V. There’s more to the web version, though, including the ability to attach photos to the report and also add a cover sheet (useful for the underwriting risk report). We have even upgraded our building photos on the building type selection screen to full color. While PowerClaim I2V can be used to replace PowerClaim PV it really goes well beyond the scope of PowerClaim PV.

PowerClaim I2V was designed for not only carrier underwriting departments, but in agency use and by the firms that specialize in doing underwriting inspections for carriers as well. Since it is totally web-based there is no software to install or update by any user ever. The valuation reports, complete with photos, are accessible by all you wish to give access to, but are secure from the eyes of others.

If you would to take us up on the offer to use PowerClaim I2V free of cost or obligation until 2008, please call 800-736-1246 and hit 3 for Sales or email sales@powerclaim.com with your request to be set up with your account today.

4 Jul 2007

I did not mean to miss the last four months of updating my CEO page because my goal is to update it monthly. I have been out to six claims conventions since my last update and when in the office things have been hectic with getting prepared for the next claims convention and getting the next round of PowerClaim XML ready for release and moving more solutions to the web. PowerClaim XML and the PowerClaim Net Services client module have been merged in Release 17 which is now out of beta testing and is shipping as Release Candidate 1 (RC1). PowerClaim Net Services is our web based claims management and reporting system. We also have the residential portion of PowerClaim PV (insurance to value) software ported to the web and it is in testing at this time.

Through 30 Sep 07 all of our current PowerClaim XML users are being provided PowerClaim Net Services at no charge as our way to say thank you and giving our current users a large window to try Net Services to see how it may help many of them to be more successful. If you are a user please contact us to get set up to start using PowerClaim Net Services. If you are not a current PowerClaim XML user we still offer you a free 30 day usage of our suite of claims handling tools so you can determine if they will meet your needs and enhance your income.

While it is a little early to expect hurricanes we know TX, OK and KS are having some major flooding this summer. It seems like there are always claims being created by weather events but we just do not now when or where they will occur.

While we are closed today this is the last holiday before Labor Day. Time continues to pass so fast. Hopefully our new solutions will enable you better to do your work this season. Let us hear from you (800-736-1246) or download at anytime at www.powerclaim.com

Thank you,

Gale Hawkins

4 Mar 2007

I now see I did not update this page in February but I was very busy turning 56 years old. : ) Every since the sixth grade the years have been getting shorter and short they seem. Well life is good and 2007 is starting out to be a fantastic year both personally and professionally.

Some things seem to never move and all of a sudden they move really fast. We at HRI have been promoting the XML Open Standard for a long time, well it was 2000 when we first officially introduced the Open Standard idea to the property claims industry and opened up our estimating software package PowerClaim XML so third party CMS vendors could do bi-directional exchange of claims data with our estimating solution without interacting with us.

So far this year we have five CMS vendors in the progress of tying into PowerClaim XML through the XML Open Standard. While we offer PowerClaim Net Services it only is geared for property claims today which is great for many but the fact remains there are many CMS packages out there in use that will let adjusting vendors manage all of their claims regardless if they are auto, property, etc. Firms that have a CMS in place that will interact with all of their estimating solutions receive a real boost to productivity and customer service ability. More and more carriers want direct web access to files they assign to vendors so they can see the especially the diary notes, photos, etc on the fly and in fact some demand it to keep their business.

On the home front PowerClaim XML Release 17 started to move to the field testing stage last week and it offers 13 new customer requested features. Multiple invoices and the ability to attach any PDF file to a claim file are two huge features that have requested for a long time but when it gets out in a public beta release I plan to come back and spell out the new features.

PowerClaim Net Services which is our new web based claims assignment and claims management reporting system continues to evolve with new features and reporting options. It is really an extension of PowerClaim XML and since it stores the complete live claim files so it also serves as a remote backup of all of your claim files should you have a computer crash or your computer stolen. The huge thing is you can let a carrier see their files from www.powerclaim.net or you can manage your claim files from anywhere in the world that offers internet access. If you have a retired friend that can review claim files for you in a CAT then they can sit right in their home and login and review/correct files for you.

We also released our first Spanish translation of our PowerClaim XML manual last month. There are some IA vendors that use adjusters who are learning English as a second language so the manual should be helpful to them in training these adjusters on the use of PowerClaim XML. We also offer PowerClaim XML free to adjusters and contractors in countries where we do not activity sell today in exchange for feedback on the estimating needs of their country. The Spanish version of the manual can be of help to contractors and adjusters in the Spanish speaking countries. PowerClaim XML ships with the most powerful database creation tool of any software package which permits the creation of complete databases by the adjuster or contractor and then these databases can be shared with others in their country or region.

Well the spring storms are here and if we can be of any assistance please call on us.

Gale Hawkins

1 Jan 2007

Happy New Years from the PowerClaim team. Thanks to each of our customers that help make 2006 another banner year at HRI even without any hurricane activity.

We expect to have the new 2007 databases ready to download to upgrade our current version of PowerClaim XML next week and a complete new release of PowerClaim PV. We have started in-house testing of Release 17 of PowerClaim XML that includes 14 new customer requested features and some of these are major request.

Last month was our official roll out of PowerClaim Net Services which is a web based claims assignment and claims management reporting system that is accessible 24/7. PowerClaim Net Services and PowerClaim XML are designed to work seamlessly to help carriers get a better grip on loss ratios than the industry as offered in the past. Call on us for a 30 minute live web based demonstration of Net Services.

1 Dec 2006

Hawkins Research Announces the Release of PowerClaim Net Services

MURRAY, KY, U.S. — December 01, 2006 — Hawkins Research Inc., the creator of PowerClaim XML and PV, today announced the release of PowerClaim Net Services, a total claims management solution for the insurance industry.

HRI began developing property insurance industry solutions for adjusters, contractors and appraisers in 1996. It has continually developed and improved these solutions over time. With the implementation of the new PowerClaim Net Services, customers will have another technological solution for claims management at their disposal.

PowerClaim Net Services is web-based, and can be used to provide executive management reports, data storage and mining to insurance companies. It allows managers to keep track of what adjusters are paying for items, create deviation reports, and assign and track claim assignments throughout the company.

Insurance carriers will also have the ability to generate customized cost databases based on pricing from company adjusters. By using the pricing overlay feature, pricing deviations that occur in the field can be more accurately reported and help protect carriers from systematic underpayment charges by consumer protection groups.

HRI is proud of PowerClaim Net Services, and ready for customers to begin taking advantage of its benefits. The addition of this program will undoubtedly help Hawkins Research, Inc. continue to grow as a company and offer customers a way to stay ahead in the technology race.

Hawkins Research Inc. 406 North 4th Street Murray, KY 42071 1-800-736-1246 www.powerclaim.com

7 Oct 2006

Summer slipped it autumn so quickly. In the last two months I have made 6 road trips with one or more staff members promoting PowerClaim Net Services which is our newest addition to the PowerClaim family of claims handling solutions.

PowerClaim Net Services is our web based electronic claims assignment and claims management reporting system. This solution now permits us to offer a turn key claims handling solution for IA vendors and property insurance carriers. You can learn more by going to www.powerclaim.com or calling us at 1-800-736-1246.

5 Jul 2006

A gap has appeared in my more or less monthly message from the CEO. On May 11, 2006 my left hip replacement was revised. Both of my hips were replaced on August 1, 1991, and so far the right one is still functioning well. Thanks to new technology the recent revision, which was done just over six weeks ago, appears to have been successful. Both my experience and the x-ray tell me that everything should be fine. Being that I am now fifty-five years old, the surgeon is hoping that my left hip will last me the rest of my life. Since I plan to live to be 110, he may be a bit optimistic, but that’s fine with me since I like optimistic people. :)

Not only am I walking unaided without pain now, being out of the office for several weeks gave me a chance to see how effective my succession planning has been. As I expected, things went great and the management team now in place did not miss a beat while I was out of the office. Until the founder of a company has worked himself or herself out of being required for daily operations to continue regardless of the size of the company, his or her company is a one-horse operation.

With a staff of twenty five, and companies having 1 – 500 adjusters using our PowerClaim family of solutions, the time had come to get serious about what would happen if I never came back through the doors. Whether a company has one adjuster or hundreds of adjusters using our solutions, they have made a commitment to HRI. We owe it to them to ensure they are not dealing with a one-horse operation.

Actually, I am enjoying the company more than ever now that my main focus is on staff and business development. In the start up days you have no choice but to do everything. It may be fun for a while, but one night you realize mowing the grass at 10:00pm because the security lights enable you to see is not the best use of a CEO’s time. Working all weekend to get out the payroll reports by hand is another example of poor use of the CEO’s time. But then again it is better then letting the IRS shut you down.

Next week we start the marketing of our new PowerClaim Net Services, and this will get me back on the road several times each month. While in the process of developing business, I will be developing different staff members that will travel with me from time to time. Net Services will be of value to just about everyone, but it was initially requested by carrier accounts. Net Services is similar to Xactnet and MSB’s ComCentral. Our claims management system will initially offer file storage and detailed custom management reporting abilities.

While one will need our PowerClaim XML estimating software to complete an estimate, PowerClaim Net Services will permit the office staff to start a new claim file. The adjusters will then be able to download their new claim assignments by logging into the PowerClaim Net Services server and importing their new claim files directly into our PowerClaim XML estimating software. When they wish then they can also upload the completed claim file to the Net Services server.

We are pleased to now be adding PowerClaim Net Services so that we can offer a turn key claims handling option to the Xactware and MSB choices. The per claim fee for using PowerClaim Net Services is $5 per claim regardless of the dollar amount of the claim files. This entitles the companies using our Net Services web solution to run the management reports of their choice, and to store their live claim files for up to two years without additional charges.

Thanks to each of our customers. Thanks to each of you that are in the process of evaluating our family of solutions. Thanks for each of you who are telling others about PowerClaim, while you are currently forced to use other claim handling options. And finally, thanks to my fine staff that makes servicing our customers Job One.

Gale Hawkins

11 Apr 2006

March was a very busy and positive month with road trips and preparing for the 2006 PLRB in Nashville that was successful as far as HRI was concerned. We got to meet many of our PowerClaim XML users and many for the first time. This was the event we used to introduce PowerClaim Net Services and demonstrate PowerClaim XML and PowerClaim PV running on a new Tablet PC.

PowerClaim Net Services is the name of our claims management solution. Before management reporting is a possibility the estimates have to be digitally created and saved into a database and data mined. The first in the PowerClaim family of solutions that when to market in 1998 was our adjusting software solution now called PowerClaim XML.

In 2003 we added PowerClaim PV for property valuations to our family of solutions. The adjuster needed this solution to determine if coinsurance requirements are met. Property valuations is also required by agencies to insure that underwriting has the correct valuation of a covered risk to help insure loss ratios are enhanced.

Our first phase of PowerClaim Net Services provides management reporting options. As it continues to evolve it will become a web enabled solution that will follow a claim from the call by the insured though the life and storage of the claim. Then the historical claims data will be used to aggressively better manage loss ratio factors.

Hardware and software will change as the years go by but the one thing that will not change is the carriers need meaningful management reporting and those reports will never be better than the quality of data compiled by the adjusters. It is our stated goal to offer the highest quality of estimating software for the adjusters to use and from their work to produce quality management reports to help carriers improve their loss ratios.

24 Feb 2006

February is truly shaping up to be a short month. We had another tradeshow and are activity planning four more this spring. PowerClaim Net Services has moved from discussion to active development. This Claims Management System will enable the PowerClaim family of services to handle a claim from the cradle to the grave.

The staff gave me a surprise birthday party at our scheduled staff meeting. Tuesday we earned our Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status and they had kept it from me by lying to me. Our 8 year old kids took me out to Chucky E. Cheese for a 2.5 hour outing and that was a trip. Having turned 55, I thought I was going to get a discount at all restaurants but it did not work that way at Chucky Cheese. I will have to say that is an interesting business concept. They sell an “experience”, not “fine” food.

Well I have reached the mid point on my way to 110 and looking forward to the second half of my life. With the wonderful staff we have I know my stress level has decreased which should be life extending. Seriously I would not want to relive my life to this point even though I would like to think I would do some things differently but I sure would not want anyone that is a part of my life today to be missing due to my having done things differently these past 55 years.

17 Jan 2006

As I look out on our first snow of this winter and think back to how it was 65 degrees yesterday then look at the forecast of near 60 degrees in two days it is clear so far we have had a mild winter here in Western Kentucky.

The land fall hurricane prediction for 2006 indicates potentially a busy season again this year. We are only a couple months from the start of the spring storm season and could see more significant ice storms in the mean time.

Regardless of the weather, 2006 is going to be a busy year for us at Hawkins Research, Inc. Simplicity in Motion ™ symbolizes our goals for 2006 and beyond. We were pleased to have our new 2006 release of PowerClaim XML and PowerClaim PV shipping on the 3rd of January this year. This permits us to put the development of our claims management system on the front burner after two years of rapid growth of our customer base. Along with the CMS solution we plan to start work on developing a metric and Spanish version of PowerClaim XML for the international market.

Whatever 2006 brings we will try to stay flexible so we can meet the ever increasing needs of our user base and we wish all a great 2006.

30 Dec 2005

Clearly 2005 will go down as a record year for weather-related losses and for many of those that are in the process of helping put things back the way they were before the hurricanes. Those of us directly connected to the claims handling industry are very aware of price increases that are associated with hurricane events, but I, for one, was not as aware of how sensitive the oil market can be to hurricanes in the Gulf.

2005 seemed to be the year several large carriers embraced the concept of “inside” adjusters in a very active way in a move to reduce costs by reducing the number of senior field staff adjusters. While those directly losing long-term jobs felt the impact of such a move, it does supply a few groups of experienced talent for the independent adjuster ranks.

In the future, carriers that are reducing their pool of staff adjusters will become more dependent upon independent adjusting firms for daily assistance and CAT duty. With benefit packages running 40% of base salary, even at $50K per year per adjuster, carriers are looking at $100K annual cost when they factor in just a car and associated expenses.

If a carrier with 1000 staff adjusters only has a 30% reduction in their adjusting staff, that means a savings of $30 million annual savings. When you look at reduced office expenses and ensuring these adjusters are not going to be tapping a retirement account, the total savings can be huge.

Just looking at the instant $30,000,000.00 annual savings alone, it is easy to see that would pay a lot of independent adjusting fees. Those that have been around for a while have seen the cycle of the increase/decrease in staff adjuster numbers at least once.

2006 should be an interesting year for those that can roll with the punches. Have a great holiday, and hang on for an exciting new year in the property claims handling industry.

7 Nov 2005

7 November 2005

It appears another year is quickly disappearing. The upside to that means we only have month left of hurricane season.

With so much adjusting activity taking place seven days a week time tends to blur and only when one sits down for a few minutes does some realize how much has been accomplished. At Hawkins Research, Inc. it has been nonstop in all departments. Customer Support naturally has been a very busy department due to a heavy call volume plus hiring and training new staff.

Development was about ready to release our new version Release 16 when Katrina hit. Because of the heavy usage of PowerClaim XML due to the strong hurricane season plus we are more heavily used for NFIP work than ever before means we have been getting a ton of feature request.

Instead of locking down the features and moving out of beta like we normally do we opted to stay in rapid development mode, which is much easier to do now that we are a Microsoft Certified Partner developer. Normally new features are not added once one starts shipping a beta release but this is not a normal hurricane season either.

Later this week Release 16 Beta 8 should be out of testing and available for download at www.powerclaim.com. While it will offer some tweaks it will also introduce some of your feature request that should make life easier for you. Global depreciation and the ability to print 4 photos to a page (saving you ink) will be two hot new features.

We are working on adding the NFIP worksheet but that is a few weeks away.

Gale Hawkins

11 Sep 2005

11 September 2005

What a difference from last month’s update. Katrina is the news, and she has blown some from New Orleans to states all across the US. Today I was reading about an extended family of 24 that has decided to put down roots in a relatively small town in Texas. The WOW Camp just about a mile from our office in Murray, KY, has well over 100 people from New Orleans, and the children are enrolled in the local schools and some adults have found employment. My chiropractor is in talks with a doctor from New Orleans that lost both his practice and his home. They left before the storm hit and stayed with his wife’s family, but they were expecting to return back to New Orleans a few days after Katrina made landfall. Many people left one car in the driveway because they expected nothing to happen but were just playing it safe.

There was some serious flooding (by KY standards) due to Katrina about 50 miles to the east of us, and, both at home and at the office, we experienced water coming through the basement walls. Clearly from photos on the web and stories from adjusters already on-site, the damage is the worst anyone has seen in MS, LA and AL. Reports as of today indicate death tolls may be much lower than expected, which is a positive development. Maybe that will be case all across the damaged area.

Just in time for the floods, we are offering Release 16 Beta 4 with Free PV. The enhanced NFIP (flood adjusting) module inside of this new release went into the field for feedback in April, and over the past six months we have taken feedback from adjusting companies that specialize in only doing flood work. Click on the news item link on our home page to learn more about our new release. http://powerclaim.com/news/15

While PowerClaim XML Release 15f (our current official version) was by far our best package, we are getting positive feedback from adjusters that are doing claims using Release 16 Beta 4. The Release 16 generation of PowerClaim XML stands heads and shoulders above the Release 15 generation of PowerClaim XML. Please read the news item link that specifies the enhancements in this new generation of PowerClaim XML.

Remember, if your company wants you to stay on Release 15f until it sets a date for everyone to update, please do not download a copy of the new Release 16 generation until your company gives permission. Upon installation of Release 16 generation, it will seamlessly convert your PowerClaim XML 15 claim files to the claims database file structure used in the Release 16 generation of PowerClaim XML.

Gale

2 Aug 2005

After a very early start of the hurricane season, so far only Dennis has hit the U.S. However, the heat wave has captured more media attention, and perhaps it has created more losses, especially in the agricultural belts. The fact is, now that August is here, we can expect to see the “typical” hurricane season to begin this month or next.

While hurricanes get a lot of attention, we at Hawkins Research, Inc. know the daily “run of the mill” property losses are the ones most claims managers have to prepare for and handle. The staff and independent adjusters handling the year-in and year-out losses are the ones that create much of the carrier image in the minds of the insured. These men and women are frontline customer service representatives, and we are seeing carriers that acknowledge this fact in more than just words. As is the fact here at HRI with our customers, the insured is more likely to remember the end result of filing a notice of loss than the good or bad experiences that occurred early in the claims handling process.

It is easy for those of us that provide technologies and solutions to the property insurance industry to get excited about the technologies themselves, forgetting to focus on our role of enabling the adjusting staff to do the best job possible. “Getting a sale” mentality can bite one in the end, regardless of the industry one is discussing. Looking at the needs of the adjusting industry from a customer-supporting role can perhaps help humanize technologies used to settle claims.

Pricing database concerns are at the forefront of the minds of many after all the press that is still coming from Hurricane Isabel in 2003 as well as the four hurricanes in 2004. While “buck passing” may be the American way to some, it is not acceptable if good customer support/care is key to a carrier. Yes, insurance adjusters have to put forth the effort to understand and know generally acceptable pricing for common items, but those providing reference materials and labor pricing data also have to do the same. Yes, in a case like the hurricane season of 2004, with four back-to-back hurricanes causing materials and labor cost to increase after each one, pricing will be very dynamic and have to be monitored on a daily basis. As stated above, hurricane losses do gain a lot of media attention, but thankfully most claims occur in locations where costs are more static.

The one thing technologies today enable is the data mining of claim files completed electronically. While this ability does not tell one what the correct local prices are, it can give overnight reports to the claims managers of the range and average prices being paid for repair items by the adjusters. The fact that many claims are settled prior to the first on-site visit by a contractor means, in many cases, the carrier knows to the penny what it paid but has little or no way of knowing what the contractor actually charged for repairs unless the file is reopened by the homeowner.

Without question, technology continues to bring new claims handling tools, but putting it in place in the field is still a challenge. For the carrier that prefers to leave a check with the homeowner for small claims, there are many solutions. Few are as cost/time effective as handwriting a check, however. Complete hand-held claims handling solutions are still more of a “buzz” word than we associated with the technology-side of claims handling solutions prefer to admit (let alone admit to the fact that technology can be counter productive to quality customer support for the policyholders).

Customer support can be enhanced through technologies, but it is the person-to-person relationship that will determine, in the mind of the policyholder, if she has received the level of support in the claims handling process she required and deserved. An adjuster who can technically write a solid estimate and print it out on a high-quality laser printer is still going to fail to have met the expectations of the policyholder if he drives off and the quality laser printed estimate is all “Greek” to the policyholder.

The fact that the claims handling solution success boils down to that person-to-person relationship is known by many carriers. These carriers are open to technology but will often reject technology that gets in the way of the person-to-person relationship. Software vendors can, and do, sit around and come up with great technologies to increase their profits and futures. This is a good thing if these technologies improve the image of the carrier in the mind of the policyholder. The policyholder that has paid premiums for 25 years and has just experienced her first loss is not going to be excited about the technologies some vendor has sold the carrier. She is going to look at the way the agency and adjuster handled the claim, and she will then decide if her decision made 25 years ago was a good one.

From my point of view, the most important function of those that provide claims handling tools to the property insurance industry is to support the adjusters with functional technology that can better enable them to look good in the eyes of the policyholder. Renewals are a good thing for both the carrier and technology vendor. Quality support ensures bills are paid. Technology should be transparent to the user, and seeing that become reality is our goal at Hawkins Research, Inc.

6 Jun 2005

As we edge ever so close to summer and hear that 2004 hurricane loses still have to be visited by that first adjuster on some islands, it drives home the scope of damages and misery created by hurricanes last year as we near the 2005 hurricane season. It will be interesting to see if Peter Cordani’s Dyn-O-Gel is put to the test of limiting the power of hurricanes. While it is easy to discount these dreamers that have yet to meet with real success, it does not mean technology can’t help prevent hurricane-related losses at some point in the future. Until that time, however, hurricane damages will be dealt with in the best way available today.

As we can see with adjusting software technology, technology can take years to become accepted and/or affordable. Old paradigms die-hard and new ones are not easy to birth, but when they do come it seems they catch many by surprise. As we can see over the past ten years in the claims handling industry, change is taking place, but more new technologies seem to fail in the short run. Often decades later, the same concepts become mainstream solutions because the all-important missing link suddenly appears out of the blue. After being talked about for the last 50 years, the concept of the “flying car” is making news with several proto types in advanced testing today. In addition, NASA is getting involved with the automated flight control system needed to permit this technology to get off the ground.

The thought that perhaps as many as 15,000 to 20,000 staff property adjusters without access to any type of adjusting software today is mind boggling to some. It came as a shock to me. Now most CAT and local independent adjusters along with many staff adjusters do have a current adjusting software solution at their disposal, yet there is still more than one carrier with 500+ staff adjusters that are working off of contractor bids. These carriers are moving to embrace technology so they can reap the benefits of data mining property claim files.

As always, those last to adopt technology, or even delay the purchasing of a new notebook computer, get more for less. They get to sidestep the cost and other issues associated with being on a legacy claims handling system. Often technology is adopted in ways that is just an automation of a manual process, but embracing claims handing technology should move one well beyond “doing” claims on a computer, printing out the file, or storing it directly as a image file in a document imaging system, which will still require at least one human eyeball to retrieve any historical claims data.

As more adjusters move to using claims handling systems that are based on unlocked open standard fully electronic claim formats, the more cost effective claims handling will become. While high technology costs and limited, technically experienced adjusters were major roadblocks to the adoption of computerized claims handling solutions in the past; this is not really the case today. Technology costs today are only a fraction of the cost from even a few years ago, and today’s college graduates that carriers are daily adding to their aging and retiring adjusting forces have been using computers for the past ten years. This fact greatly reduces rollout time and associated adjuster training costs formally associated with adopting computerized claims handling solutions. Even the rollout cost of a solution from another vendor, in both dollars and time, is greatly reduced for the same above reasons. The evolution of the Windows operating system has lead all of today’s adjusting software to work in a similar fashion, for the most part, just because most solutions are based more and more on Windows conventions.

While 2005 is approaching its mid point and typical hurricane season is a couple months away, we know 2005 will be the year that more and newer claims handling solutions will be evaluated and adopted. If you are a company that is looking for a claims handling solution, please let us know your needs, and we will let you try our solution without cost or obligation.

28 Mar 2005

Welcome to our new website. While it is still a work in progress and likely to remain so, I am very proud of our new look because it symbolizes the quality gains made both in our staff and our services provided over the past three years.

When I first realized it had been almost nine months since I had updated my CEO message, I thought perhaps one or two of my later messages had been accidentally deleted. I started going over the events of the past nine months, however, and I realized it just had been nine months since my last message. The month after my last post, the four back-to-back hurricanes started hitting Florida. While those events tested our ability to perform under stress, we survived because everyone ran non-stop for three months. While our volume of adjusters using PowerClaim XML grew quickly, it seemed like many were new to using adjusting software, which lead to many hours of over the phone training initially. By the time the third and fourth hurricanes struck, most all current adjusters were already in the field, which meant most all of the adjusters for these hurricanes were new to the industry or had been in retirement for years. Since PowerClaim XML initially started out as a 32-bit Windows based program, and it closely follows the Windows conventions for keyboard and mouse short cuts, many new adjusters found PowerClaim XML to be much faster to learn than software not based as much upon Windows interface standards.

While January always opens the busy tradeshow season, this January also brought onboard a new carrier. Last fall they had fielded a 60-member CAT team in FL, which was pulled from the 36 other states where they also write coverage. These adjusters, while seasoned, were new to the use of adjusting software; they picked up on how to use PowerClaim XML without any training program from us other than the manual and included training videos. The experience was positive enough for the carrier to decide to do al rollout of almost 500 of their staff adjusters.

With things already hectic, a request came in to update and beef-up our NFIP features to help fill the vacuum that has developed for a fully Windows-based flood software solution and to do it in time for this flood season. This week we were invited to speak and demonstrate our new flood version of PowerClaim XML at a flood-training seminar in Texas. While it was a very tense time for me as we showed our updated and enhanced NFIP forms and features for the first time to seasoned flood adjusters and flood claim examiners, it turned out to be the most exciting day since we have been in business. Sure, as with any software package that is going to stay around long-term, we are going to have to keep listening and developing because NFIP is a federal program, and federal programs are always changing. In two weeks, after we make a few tweaks based on the feedback we received this week, we will have this new beta “NFIP-ready” release posted on our website. This will enable you to install new or update your current version of PowerClaim XML. If you have no need to do flood claims, you can just stay on Release 15F for the near future, which is our most current version.

In April, we have two back-to-back tradeshows, the first being AMS in Nashville where we will showcase PowerClaim PV, our insurance-to-value solution. The day following AMS, we will be offering free PowerClaim XML training at the PLRB (Property Loss Research Bureau) conference that is being held in sunny San Antonio. We will then attend the tradeshow event that is to follow that week. If you would like to register for the free PowerClaim XML and PowerClaim PV training to be held on Sunday afternoon prior to the official opening of the convention, just click on the Home button at the top of this page and you will see a registration link under PowerClaim News.

Wishing this new website will keep its new look for very long would be foolish. By the same token we know PowerClaim XML and PowerClaim PV will look dated quickly if we stand still. With the list of feature requests that made it into the Spring release that went into initial testing this week, and the many others that are either currently in development or still on the drawing board, I can assure you we will not be standing still. Keep helping us help you by talking to us continually.

Thanks,

Gale Hawkins

16 July 2004

July is a special month for us at Hawkins Research, Inc. because it was in July of 1996 when the decision was made to start addressing the needs of the property claims handling industry. Two years later we sold our first copy of PowerClaim in July of 1998. Because of the progress you have help enable through your advice and support all of these years we are very excited about Release 15 of PowerClaim that started shipping today.

PowerClaim is unique in that it is the first adjusting software package to come out of a professional software-developing firm. Unlike other packages that evolved out of either contracting or adjusting firms, which over time evolved into software developers themselves. Initially our lack of adjusting knowledge was a major handicap for us but when adjusters realized we were serious about producing a fully functional adjusting software package that was much faster to learn and use then any other option on the market and yet work to keep the selling price in the $500 price range the adjusting knowledge we needed was provided by adjusters from all across the US. Now our initial lack of adjusting knowledge is key to what is propelling the success of PowerClaim today.

Instead of being based upon the input of those inside of a construction or adjusting firm that “knew” what “they” wanted, PowerClaim evolved with a base of input from adjusters across the entire US. At first I thought we were going to go crazy because each adjuster was sure his way was the best way to handle each issue. In time it became clear there were more than one valid view on how to handle many adjusting issues so we tried to make PowerClaim flexible enough so that PowerClaim would permit the adjuster to work the way he or she preferred to work instead of the more common approach where the adjusters were expected to change their work flow practices to fit the flow dictated by the software developers influenced early on by some in-house adjusters. This new 2004 release illustrates the difference between PowerClaim and the other guys more than ever.

The official 2004, Release 15 of PowerClaim XML adjusting software is now available for downloading at www.powerclaim.com. This release has been in testing for the past seven months and used in the field by adjusters all across the US for the past four months. This official release is basically the same as many adjusters have been using in the field for the past couple months except it is shipping with two updated materials and labor databases (2004 Insurance Repair and 2004 Commercial Construction) and an entire new database (2004 Residential Construction) for new residential construction cost.

Below is a list of new and changed features in this new 2004 version of PowerClaim. All have been requested from the field for some time but now that our adjuster support is enabling us to enlarge our development staff we are picking up the pace of improving features and adding new ones. Two that you will see below that are really hot is the true cutting and pasting of line items feature and the ability to email out of PowerClaim using your current email client. Not only does this mean you are able to email PowerClaim files in three different unlocked Open Standard formats, PDF, .mdb or XML without any additional setup being required but also now your Sent files are automatically recorded in your Sent folder so you have a record of what, when and to whom you emailed from PowerClaim.

NEW: Residential new construction prices included.

CHANGED: Commercial new construction prices updated.

CHANGED: Insurance repair cost database has been updated.

NEW: Options for adding openings and gable sections to exterior walls.

NEW: Option to print remove and replace operation on the same line.

NEW: Ability to receive claims databases emails sent externally.

NEW: Ability to copy modified Material database items betweens databases

NEW: Ability to set default coversheet comments.

NEW: Ability to set default email body.

NEW: Ability to copy and paste estimate line items.

NEW: Many new commercial building types added to property valuation module. Many more will be added soon.

NEW: Claims sources sidebar added to claims management screen. Sidebar allows you to manipulate different claims sources and use drag-and-drop functionality to manage your claims.

NEW: Ability to move claims to and from Microsoft SQL Server. A checkout feature is also included. These features require the installation of our SQL Interface add-on which should be available from our website or your PowerClaim XML CD.

NEW: Ability to import and export claims to a XML file format.

NEW: Ability to send PowerClaim XML claims and reports by email from your standard email client such as Microsoft Outlook, Hotmail or AOL.

NEW: A new tick sheet creator for the property valuation module is included as a separate program.

NEW: New preview report buttons have been added to estimating sections of the program.

CHANGED: Claim emailing, importing and exporting functions have been simplified and moved to the claims management screen.

CHANGED: Report creation process has been simplified. Features such as report emailing and PDF file creation have been moved to that screen.

CHANGED: The building line item screen has been modified to make it easier to modify items without portions of them being reset.

Now that Release 15 is officially shipping there are other features that will be moving into the testing phase for a Fall Release. More commercial building types will be added to the current commercial, residential and farm building types currently included in PowerClaim PV, our Insurance-To-Value module that is now included at no addition charge inside of PowerClaim XML. PowerClaim PV is also sold as a standalone version that is used by underwriting departments and insurance agencies to determine Replacement Cost and Actual Cash Value for Residential, Commercial and Farm Buildings. Batch photo importing and the ability to select which photos and the order in which they will print will be a new feature released this Fall as well as an improved diagramming module that will be more functional and include templates and the ability to create your own templates.

Keep sharing your needs and wishes with us and we will work to see that they are added to PowerClaim. Thanks to each one of you that are fueling our growth by your use of PowerClaim and by continuing to spread the word about PowerClaim to others in the industry.

Remember we try to catch our phones live from 7 AM to 7 PM CST M-F. In the event you get tech support voice mail please leave a detailed message and we will return your call possibly in minutes but all calls with be returned by the end of the day. It is my rule.

Gale Hawkins, gale@powerclaim.com or 1-800-736-1246

21 October 2003

We are having a beautiful Fall season here in Kentucky and hope you are having the same where ever you are located. I was on the road last week and got to see a lot of corn and soybeans being harvested in the Mid West.

If you will be at the ACE Claims Convention in Seattle, Washington please stop by our PowerClaim booth either Sunday the 26th or Monday the 27th.

Gale Hawkins

14 July 2003

Our new PowerClaimXML release 14 is now ready for downloading. If you have high speed access just grab the full install otherwise go for the update option if you currently are running Release 12 J.

This release will look and feel like what you have been using for the most part. There is the new 2003 Craftsman NRI database and new Material Database editor.

For the first time PowerClaim now contains the Residential portion of the National Building Cost property valuation database. This will soon be available as a $99 stand alone option for underwriting departments and insurance agencies in all 50 states. Just call Sales at 1-800-736-1246 if you need stand alone Insurance to Value reporting ability.

Gale

2 May 2003

As a short update, we continue to grow. The big event at this moment is that we just completed our move from 2500 sq. ft. of space to leasing a complete 7000 sq. ft. office complex. After one week in our new location we love it. I actually have an office with windows and not only do I have windows but they will open.

This was not a move that we had planned for but we had filled the old location but since we are planning to add about 10 employees every year near term when we learned of this opportunity we decided to move while the space was available instead of waiting a little longer.

The strange part was the day before we moved the rumor started that our then current location and other buildings near by were going to be dozed to make way for a new hotel. That rumor turned out to be factual so we were very happy we had leased the new location and got to move on our terms. We are only half a mile from our old location.

We are working to get the spring release shipping with the Property Valuation module included and as a stand-alone version as well for the underwriting departments. The move has delayed us several weeks but we should be out with a beta later this month and have the spring release of PowerClaim shipping in mass before the last day of spring. :)

Gale