About McKenzie Intelligence Services 

McKenzie Intelligence Services (MIS) is a leading innovator in geospatial disaster assessment and intelligence. Specializing in situational awareness for both natural and man-made disasters, MIS delivers crucial insights into material losses for its customers, primarily in the insurance sector within the United States. 

MIS provides unmatched accuracy in disaster assessments thanks to its team of NATO-trained imagery analysts. By integrating custom data, such as locations and asset values, with high-fidelity, human-reviewed imagery, the company offers precise insights into the extent of damage and estimated losses following a disaster. This proactive approach leverages First Notification of Incident (FNOI) to inform insurers of damage before it is reported, ensuring efficient resource allocation, in stark contrast to the industry norm of relying on First Notification of Loss (FNOL) from policyholders.

Visualizing disaster damage for actionable insights

From the start, McKenzie Intelligence Services set out to create a map-centric interface design, recognizing that disasters are inherently spatial events. Location-based visualizations help insurance companies to quickly grasp the scope and impact of events. MIS needed a mapping solution that could be seamlessly integrated into its interface to offer users a clear and intuitive way to understand event data.

Given the large number of buildings and other assets that their clients monitored, MIS needed a map solution that could comfortably handle large amounts of custom data. MIS also wanted a solution capable of supporting many highly-detailed map overlays that could be viewed on a single map in order to show datasets such as predicted and actual hurricane paths and building damage extents. A powerful yet user-friendly interface would allow users to filter different data sets, view detailed imagery, and receive clear and tailored insights for quick and effective decision-making.

A seamless map experience for global enterprises

McKenzie Intelligence Services started using Mapbox nearly nine years ago. Comprehensive Mapbox documentation and open communication made it possible to seamlessly integrate the map into the interface and present an updated service to customers in a short time. MIS has been building on a Mapbox foundation ever since, confident that Mapbox provides the robust, highly-adaptable, and scalable map services demanded by their growing global customer base. 

The flexibility of Mapbox matches MIS requirements to visualize damage assessments for events large and small without disruption, even for customers with tens of millions of locations to monitor around the world. The continuous updates and responsive support from Mapbox have ensured that MIS can scale their services smoothly, accommodating the increasing complexity and volume of their data. The platform’s robust infrastructure has effortlessly supported MIS’s growth, enabling real-time processing and visualization of vast datasets. This positive developer experience has fostered a productive partnership, allowing MIS to focus on innovating and delivering exceptional value to their clients. With Mapbox, MIS has confidently expanded its capabilities, leveraging scalable map services to meet the evolving needs of a global enterprise clientele.

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Enhanced disaster assessment with Mapbox GL JS and Geocoding

McKenzie Intelligence Services used Mapbox GL JS to build their Global Events Observer (GEO), the leading platform for timely and comprehensive insights into losses from disasters. Combining their in-house expertise in both geospatial technologies and damage assessment, MIS analysts promptly provide customers with a detailed map-based overview of global catastrophic events, transforming data into timely and accurate insights. MIS-generated data layers are made available to users in the map-based interface. Within the map, users can focus in on specific events, examine a detailed grid of cells with assessed damage levels, and explore data more broadly by viewing multiple types of events within the same map.

Interactive features within the GEO platform are enabled by the Mapbox GL JS library, while the Mapbox Geocoding API makes it easy for users to navigate within the dashboard to jump to specific areas or even specific buildings of interest.

Where other platforms use predictive models to estimate where damage may have occurred, the GEO platform stands apart in that it uses highly accurate human review by expert specialists who review tens of thousands of buildings every week. After years of generating extremely high accuracy data, MIS is combining their human review process with rapid machine learning algorithms to allow for an initial rapid assessment while analysts complete their high-fidelity manual review.

Fast integration and boost for scaling up services

The MIS development team was not new to geospatial technologies when they chose to build with Mapbox. They opted to invest in a best-in-class solution from the start and have seen their choice validated by year after year of reliable performance and customer satisfaction.

Building with Mapbox has been instrumental in transforming McKenzie Intelligence Services from a small consulting company offering support for individual customers and one-off incidents to providing constant assessment services to the world's largest insurance companies with tens of millions of properties to assess in any given incident.