(Lobby of Wynn Las Vegas, venue of Guidewire Connections 2017. Photo credit: Teri Ryan.)
Octo Telematics (London), a global provider of telematics solutions for the auto insurance industry, today announced the platform-to-platform integration of its digital smartphone, smart tag solution, Glimpse Plus (Smart Tag in Europe) with Guidewire’s (Foster City, Calif.) PolicyCenter policy administration system.
Jonathan Hewett, Chief Marketing Officer, Octo Telematics.
Glimpse Plus uses drivers’ smartphones to collect driving data through IoT-enabled tags and analyzes it with proprietary algorithms. As a result of the platform-to-platform integration of Glimpse Plus, insurers using PolicyCenter can now easily offer their clients Octo’s telematics offering, according to an Octo statement. “PolicyCenter automates underwriting and policy management exclusively for P&C insurers and manages the entire lifecycle of a policy from creation through to renewal,” the Octo statement says. “Guidewire and Octo can therefore provide a telematics-enabled, end-to-end automated policy management solution.”
Telematics is increasingly widespread and the benefits are more and more understood, says, Chief Marketing Officer, Octo Telematics. “UBI policies not only provide cheaper car insurance, but also play a major role in road safety by encouraging good driver behavior,” he asserts. “Making the technology easier to access by connecting it to the almost ubiquitous smartphone is important to continue to grow the industry by taking advantage of a society that is increasingly connected through their phones.”
“With Guidewire, we will be able to jointly provide insurers with simplified access to telematics data and analytics, simply by connecting at a platform level,” Hewett adds.
Insurers are increasingly offering telematics programs, owing to benefits such as up to an 18 percent improvement in combined ratio, according to a study by Ptolemus Group, which also predicts that the number of UBI policies will reach nearly 100 million worldwide by 2020; with global smartphone penetration set to reach 2.87 billion users in the same year.
Smart device-based telematics policies are popular with insurers owing the widespread consumer use of devices and its convenience and low cost—consumers enjoy the convenience, and insurers need not invest in expensive hardware platforms. Octo reports that it developed the Glimpse Plus solution to answer these needs. Glimpse Plus utilizes a sensor tag that the vendor says is easily placed in the vehicle and automatically paired with the driver’s smartphone. It then continuously monitors the vehicle operations and accurately reports trips, mileages and risky events for usage-based insurance (UBI) and Crash data for Claims Management. The overall low-cost solution makes insurance telematics accessible to all consumers, using drivers’ smartphones with the combination of high-quality data reliability guaranteed by Octo smart tags.
Brian Vannoni, VP, Product Marketing, Guidewire Software.
Access Point for UBI
“Guidewire is always looking for ways to help P&C insurers meet the evolving needs of their customers through technology and automation,” comments Brian Vannoni, Business Owner, Core Systems, Guidewire. “Insurance linked to user behavior, such as miles driven, increasingly helps customers find the right insurance product for them,” he says. “The integration of Glimpse and Guidewire PolicyCenter aligns with that vision by making it easier for insurers to offer usage-based insurance [UBI], and gives them an access point that they may not have had previously.”
The integration of Glimpse Plus with PolicyCenter forms Wave One of product integration between Octo and Guidewire, Octo says. Wave Two, scheduled for Q1 2018, will combine Octo’s telematics capabilities with Crash Center, providing Guidewire and its customers with automated First-Notification of Loss (FNOL) and claims administration support. The vendor also plans further integration with Guidewire products.