AscendantOne's rating methodology and calculations conform to published ISO manual rules validated by ISO's insurance experts for each ISO line of insurance, the company said.

ISO said the new unit will also provide products insurance companies can use with their own independent insurance programs and non-ISO lines of business.

"We acquired AscendantOne in response to our marketplace," explained Frank J. Coyne, ISO's chairman, president and chief executive officer.

"Our customers have been urging us to offer them our own policy administration and rating solutions for some time. AscendantOne's products and services provide a natural extension of ISO's core services by enabling us to deliver our analytical information using powerful applications and leading technology," said Coyne.

AscendantOne President Chuck Boodro said ISO, as a leading source of data and analytical pricing and underwriting information for the property-casualty industry, "is ideally suited to provide policy-management and rating-platform solutions delivering timely ISO information directly to insurers through our flexible web-based XML system."

Mr. Coyne said ISO chose to acquire AscendantOne "after a detailed exploration of existing and emerging technology platforms for policy administration and rating. We believe AscendantOne has the best business-driven tool, which will allow our customers to easily integrate ISO information."

Mr. Boodro said that as an ISO unit, "AscendantOne is fully powered by ISO information and enjoys the strength of ISO's financial resources and well-established name and reputation throughout the property-casualty insurance industry."

Mr. Coyne noted that over the past ten months, ISO and AscendantOne have collaborated successfully on developing this new component-based delivery solution.

Mr. Boodro added that "the two companies' strengths in providing timely insurance decision support together with web-services technology will offer insurers a new, cost-effective means of assessing risk, acquiring new business, servicing their policyholders and retaining their profitable accounts."

Mr. Coyne said AscendantOne will deliver value to insurers in a variety of ways by helping them achieve increased profitability and significant cost savings by eliminating manual input of ISO information into their rating and policy-administration systems as well as providing compressed analysis and implementation time for ISO program revisions.

He said the new unit will also allow for shorter development cycles and speed to market for new and existing products and expedited regulatory filings and rate-change implementations.

ISO provides information, products and services related to property and liability risk. For commercial and personal insurance lines, ISO provides analytical and decision-support products, consulting, technical services, statistical services and data processing.

ISO's products help its customers with sales and prospecting, underwriting, rating and quoting, customer management, policy administration, product development, claims administration and fraud detection.