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Guidewire Software, Inc. (Foster City, Calif.) has announced the 2018.1 release of Guidewire InsurancePlatform for P&C insurance. The release includes enhancements to Guidewire’s Core, Data, Digital, and All-in-One product families, the vendor reports. Guidewire also notes that its Guidewire PartnerConnect and Ready for Guidewire accelerator libraries in Guidewire Marketplace now offer nearly 500 accelerators for customer download.

“Insurers are actively reinventing customer, agent, and employee experiences,” comments Brian Vannoni, VP and principal business owner, Core, Guidewire Software. “Guidewire InsurancePlatform delivers solutions that unify multiple core, data, and digital products along with a growing partner ecosystem to meet ever-higher digital expectations and faster time to market; all curated and tailored in ways that help insurers solve specific business problems, available in the cloud or on the ground.”

“For example, this latest release enhances our commercial lines solution with streamlined submission management and underwriting, and faster responsiveness to agents and brokers,” Vannoni adds. “With our new Explore for Underwriting offering, we are extending the benefits of Smart Core to underwriters and underwriting managers.”

Doing the ‘Heavy Lifting’ for Customers

“Guidewire is doing the heavy lifting to allow our customers the time and flexibility to focus on innovating and disrupting their existing business models,” comments Ali Kheirolomoom, chief product officer, Guidewire Software. “We are pleased to offer 2018.1 to the market as the latest release in our very consistent cadence of providing key enhancements to help insurers adapt and succeed—while also incrementally helping lower their costs along the way. The cloud-based nature of our products and our Dev Ops focus allows us to do this very efficiently.”

Guidewire describes InsurancePlatform as offering an engaging experience for insurers while enabling them to make smart, data-driven decisions through predictive, guided processes, API-driven design and integrations, and pre-built content. In addition, it empowers them to deliver streamlined, personalized digital experiences to their prospects, policyholders, partners, and internal teams.

New Architectural Paradigm

Many of the established core systems suite vendors have recently announced systems upgrades that emphasize cloud readiness, an “app store like” approach to plug-ins and features, and a focus on interoperability with data services and other third-party capabilities via microservices, notes Matthew Josefowicz, CEO of research and advisory firm Novarica (Boston). “This may represent the beginning of a paradigm shift similar to the shift from monolith systems and single component systems to the ‘best of suite’ model about a decade ago,” he comments. “We may be starting to shift to a world in which where a specific function lives architecturally is less important than the fact that it can be called as needed.”

The following are highlights of the new version of Guidewire InsurancePlatform, as described by the vendor:

• Guidewire Underwriting Management now integrates with Guidewire PolicyCenter to provide a unified underwriting experience for even the most complex submissions from intake through issuance and administration.
• Guidewire Explore for Underwriting, a new Guidewire Live Analytics app, streams data from Underwriting Management in real time and helps underwriting teams manage submission workloads and target the right submissions to profitably grow the business.
• Guidewire AppReader makes it easier and faster for insurers to deliver quotes back to agents by automatically reading PDFs of ACORD forms. Long integrated with Underwriting Management, AppReader is now available pre-integrated with PolicyCenter and stand-alone for use with other policy systems, and features a validation interface that allows underwriting staff to ensure data quality and completeness prior to upload.
• A new Commercial Property Underwriting Solution Pack that integrates Guidewire Predictive Analytics with PolicyCenter enhances profitability and conversion in commercial lines, helping retain profitable customers and reducing underwriting expenses.
• Guidewire Product Content Management Add-on Module to PolicyCenter is an industry-first solution that tracks, manages, and visualizes pre-configured ISO content. Release 2018.1 adds additional lines of business support benefitting insurers using Guidewire Standards Based Templates and ISO Electronic Rating Content (ISO ERC) to accept automatic ISO/NCCI product updates made in PolicyCenter.
• Guidewire Digital 8.0 includes commissions reports out of the box at account and policy levels to help agents, brokers, and producers measure and improve their performance. The 8.0 release also includes simplified configuration for Guidewire CustomerEngage Quote and Buy, Guidewire ProducerEngage, and Guidewire ServiceRepEngage to enable digital IT teams to make front-end framework changes easily. Features in these apps include moveable fields as well as footers, question sets, and tooltips that can be altered to suit insurers’ needs.
• Guidewire DataHub 9.3 and Guidewire InfoCenter 9.3 provide personal data protection (GDPR) support and a new DIAL (Data Integration and Automation Layer) operator that helps ETL developers better manage DIAL resources and troubleshoot issues.
• Guidewire InsuranceNow 3.1.2 includes the addition of personal data protection support, a new automated inspection workflow, and many other new features and technology improvements that further streamline operations and improve customer service.
• The Guidewire Marketplace offers more than 80 Ready for Guidewire validated accelerators, including 9 that have been added since last Fall’s 2017.2 release. Ready for Guidewire additions include Prelude Software (for ClaimCenter), Utilant (for PolicyCenter), Symbility Solutions (for ClaimCenter), Hubio (for PolicyCenter), and Mitchell (for Digital).

Seibels Deploys Guidewire Claims, Data and Digital Products