This morning at Guidewire Software’s Connections 2013 user group meeting in San Francisco, the vendor announced availability of its InsuranceSuite 8, the latest release of its core system suite for P&C insurers.
Characterizing InsuranceSuite 8 as the culmination of 500 developer-years of work, Guidewire touts the new version as a business transformation platform that makes it easier for insurers to replace legacy core systems. The latest release includes major new functionality and architectural and performance improvements, and also deepens integration between the suite’s component applicationsPolicyCenter, BillingCenter, and ClaimCenter, according to the vendor.
Suite-level improvements available with InsuranceSuite 8 include what Guidewire calls an enhanced look and feel, with better navigation and personalization, and improved inline editing that will deliver greater end user effectiveness and efficiency. The new Service Tier feature allows insurers to precisely tailor the service experience across underwriting, policy administration, billing and claims to individual policyholders, according to the vendor. InsuranceSuite also provides enhanced capabilities for insurers focused on the London Insurance Market or operating across international borders, according to a Guidewire statement. Those capabilities include broader support for multiple currencies and region- and country-specific formats, as well as improved support for large commercial risks, particularly those involving long schedules of locations or exposures.
“With this release, we are deepening our commitment to legacy replacement and to delivering a platform that helps our customers transform and augment their businesses in ways that were previously too expensive to contemplate,” comments Jeremy Henrickson, Guidewire’s VP of development. “We are proud of what our customers are achieving and look forward to serving them for decades to come.”
Guidewire highlights the following new features corresponding to the component applications of InsuranceSuite 8:
PolicyCenter:
– Product Designer supports business agility by providing an easy-to-use interface for business users to manage product offerings.
– Enhanced Account Holder Summary screen for faster, more accurate service – quickly view a complete picture of the customer relationship and tailor interactions in the moment.
– Policy Import / Export for risk and coverage data is one of several enhancements designed to make PolicyCenter 8 even more commercial lines-friendly.
BillingCenter:
– Agency Bill Management brings together the new UI and a redesigned workflow to streamline the agency bill process while increasing the insurer’s flexibility to process payments in the way agents would like to do business with them.
– Policy-level cash management enhancements enable insurers to optimize their customer relationships by maintaining accurate and precise tracking of all payments made at a policy level.
ClaimCenter:
– Vendor Management crystallizes best practices from working with our global customer base into a new capability that help claims professionals provide a more customer centered experience by finding the best qualified vendor to perform a service, manage vendor progress, and measure vendor performance – all without leaving ClaimCenter.
– Weighted Workload claim assignment process added because all claims are not created equal. Some types of claims are inherently more complex and time-consuming to adjust. Insurers now have the ability to assign claims based on pre-defined “weight” values helping them more realistically balance their adjuster workloads.