Eighteen months after AIR Worldwide launched its Touchstone catastrophe modeling platform, the Boston company is rolling out version 2.0.

Touchstone 2.0 includes a number of tweaks and advances to the original software. For example, the new version can account for both catastrophe and noncatastrophe risks in the same platform, in areas such as fire, lightning, explosion and vandalism.

AIR Worldwide said it added a new “underwriting mode” to Touchstone 2.0, which helps insurers streamline the account underwriting process. As well, companies can adjust the model output to reflect their own view of risk. Specifically, the new version can adjust ground-up losses by event, region, line of business or coverage in order to better reflect a company’s loss experience, underwriting guidelines and its own internal research, or for sensitivity training, AIR Worldwide said.

“With the release of Touchstone 2.0, AIR continues to demonstrate our ability to deliver and expand on our promise to provide the market the next-generation catastrophe modeling platform,” AIR Worldwide COO Bill Churney said in a statement.

High-tech catastrophe modeling is a competitive space as insurers seek to boost their precision in risk predictions. Rival RMS, for example, is gradually rolling out RMS(one), a cloud-based catastrophe risk management system that it hopes will both modernize and transform the industry, though it has had some kinks that have slowed the rollout process. RMS is also deploying some savvy marketing to increase awareness of the product. Earlier in July, the company announced it would grant governments free access to RMS(one) through a new initiative with The World Bank and United Nations, with a goal of increasing the use of the technology in the developing world.

In July, CoreLogic, which owns cat modeler EQECAT, released a new version of its EQECAT’s natural catastrophe risk modeling platform RQE (Risk Quantification & Engineering). Among other things, the new RQE platform contains new proprietary risk models for Japan earthquake and tsunami, Singapore earthquake, and European windstorm.

AIR Worldwide stakes its own large claim to the catastrophe modeling market, however, touting that it founded the catastrophe modeling industry in 1987 and models risks in more than 90 countries. The company unveiled its initial Touchstone modeling platform in January 2013, after five years of development. AIR Worldwide is part of the Verisk Insurance Solutions group at Verisk Analytics.