Report Celent Na Policy Administration Systems 2020 Property Casualty Edition 202006

POLICY ADMINISTRATION
SYSTEMS: NORTH AMERICA

PROPERTY CASUALTY
EDITION:
2020 XCELENT AWARDS, POWERED BY VENDOR MATCH
Karlyn Carnahan and Donald Light

18 June 2020
This is an authorized excerpt from a Celent report profiling Policy Administration vendors. The reprint was prepared
for Guidewire but the analysis has not been changed. For more information about the full report, please contact
Celent at [email protected].
CONTENTS
Executive Summary ............................................................................................................ 1

Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 2
Policy Administration Systems: Definition and Functionality .............................................. 3
Report Method .................................................................................................................. 13
Celent’s ABCD Vendor View ............................................................................................. 15
Vendor Profiles .................................................................................................................. 18
Guidewire Software: Guidewire InsuranceNow ................................................................ 21
Guidewire Software: Guidewire PolicyCenter ................................................................... 37
Concluding Thoughts ........................................................................................................ 51
Leveraging Celent’s Expertise .......................................................................................... 52
Related Celent Research .................................................................................................. 53
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report provides an overview of the policy administration systems available in North
America for property and casualty insurance carriers. The report profiles 31 policy
administration solutions, providing an overview of their functionality, customer base, lines
of business supported, technology, implementation, pricing, and support. Of those
solutions, 14 qualified for Celent’s ABCD rankings. Their profiles include customer
references and a Celent opinion of the solution. Those solutions are also ranked in the
ABCD Vendor View. Another 20 solutions did not qualify to be ranked in the ABCD
Vendor View, and those profiles do not include a customer reference or a Celent opinion.
Some vendors also appear in companion reports profiling these systems in Asia Pacific,
Europe/Middle East/Africa, and Latin America. Vendors that qualified are ranked in the
ABCD Vendor View grids.
Guidewire received the following two XCelent designations:
• XCelent Technology for the leading Advanced Technology score:

Guidewire PolicyCenter
• XCelent Customer Base for the leading Customer Base score:

Guidewire PolicyCenter
INTRODUCTION
This report is part of a series on policy administration systems (PAS) in North America,
Latin America, EMEA, and the Asia-Pacific. It profiles the majority of the property
casualty policy administration systems available in North America today. It uses Celent’s
ABCD vendor view, which is our standard representation of a vendor marketplace,
designed to show at a glance the relative positions of each vendor in four categories:
Advanced Technology, Breadth of Functionality, Customer Base, and Depth of Client
Services. Insurers should consider which of these factors are most important to them and
review the detailed profiles in this report to assess vendor suitability.
This report includes 14 systems that fully met the inclusion criteria for Celent’s ABCD
Vendor View as described in the “Report Methodology” section of this report. It also
profiles 17 additional vendors that did not meet the ABCD criteria. These vendors are
either new market entrants or, for a variety of reasons, did not fully meet the inclusion
criteria.
This report should help insurers define their core systems requirements and, where
appropriate, create a short list of vendors for evaluation. Expanded PAS functionality and
improved technology mean that insurers continue to have a wide spectrum of systems
and vendors to consider when they are looking for a solution to fit their needs. Insurers
should leverage their access to the authors through analyst access calls to learn more
about the vendors.
Chapter: Introduction
2
POLICY ADMINISTRATION SYSTEMS: DEFINITION AND
FUNCTIONALITY
DEFINITION
In one sense, the definition of a policy administration system (PAS) is very simple—it is
the system of record for all policies that an insurance company has written. At this most
basic level, a PAS is a repository of policy-level data related to objects of insurance,
coverages, limits, conditions, exclusions, duration of the policy, endorsements, and so
forth. A permanent policy record is created at the time a policy is issued, and it includes
the complete history of the policy through renewal, termination, cancellation, and/or
reinstatement.
In actual practice, an insurer uses a PAS—either by itself or closely integrated with

specific point solutions—to execute a number of core processes, and relies on several
types of supporting capabilities. All modern core policy systems provide basic
functionality for the most standard processes of quoting, issuing, endorsing, and
renewing a policy. However, there is significant variation in the way the solutions handle
these functions.
TRANSACTIONAL SERVICING FEATURES

A variety of features are available to handle the day-to-day transactional activities of
quoting, issuance, endorsements, renewals and cancellations.
Scheduling/calendar/diary: A wide variety of tools are available to help the underwriter

manage their workload. Underwriter desktops typically include an area where new
business quotes, policies needing issuance or renewal, endorsements, and other
assigned tasks are easily found. User interfaces can vary widely but often include
features such as the ability to sort by clicking on columns, to filter columns, and to drag
and drop and rearrange columns. All solutions include search, but some include sounds-
Chapter: Policy Administration Systems: Definition and Functionality

like search, partial word search, Boolean search, or wildcards. Most systems allow
underwriters to create manual diaries, tasks, and notes and to easily see their work in a
calendar format. Many are integrated with email, allowing an underwriter to send an email
from the desktop. Many include a policy or account summary that contains the most
important information about a policy or account and is available at a glance from any
location within the policy. Some solutions allow the underwriter to customize their own
workspace, choosing which modules they want displayed, selecting a color scheme, or
adding links to commonly used third-party websites. Other capabilities such as
configurable help text, hover-overs, and wizards can help an underwriter easily navigate
through the task.
Quick quote and full quote. Agents and underwriters often want to get a quick
indication of risk acceptability and price and to compare the price of different options.
Quick quote functionality allows a price to be generated with minimal data entry. The data
entry screen contains only those questions needed to calculate a rate or to determine the
basic terms and conditions of the policy. Sometimes the questions will include basic risk
acceptability questions, but quick quote is not usually intended to handle the full
underwriting of the policy. Many solutions support dynamic questions that expand and
change based on the answers to specific questions, allowing the system to prompt the
broker or underwriter to get more detailed information based on insured’s responses.
Multiple versions of the quote can be generated to see the impact of different terms,
conditions, and product choices. Some solutions handle side-by-side quoting by opening
separate windows. Some allow different quote versions to be saved. More and more are
offering side-by-side quoting in a single window. Once a quote is generated, some
solutions allow for multiple side-by-side views of different options. The user can change a
3
deductible in version one, or a limit in version two. Some solutions use drop downs to
show the different available options, with the price difference for each option shown next
to the label within the drop down itself. Most solutions include the ability to create and
display rating worksheets (a detailed listing of how the premium was calculated). Some
have the ability to show simplified versions to the brokers and detailed versions to the
underwriters.
ACORD upload: ACORD applications are the most commonly utilized form of application
in the industry. The data is commonly contained in the agents’ or brokers’ agency
management systems. Rather than requiring the broker to reenter the data on the
application, many systems allow brokers to upload an ACORD application and have the
data prepopulate the appropriate fields, retaining a copy of the ACORD application
elsewhere in the system.
Data upload: specialty and commercial lines policies often include large schedules of
drivers, locations, vehicles, or equipment. Many systems allow these schedules to be
imported or uploaded from an Excel spreadsheet. Some systems require that the
spreadsheet be formatted in a particular order. Some allow mapping of the spreadsheet
as the spreadsheet is being uploaded.
Data services: Underwriters rely heavily on third-party data or reports from external data
services. Most systems have some level of pre-integration with the most common data
service vendors. Some require the underwriter to manually request the external data.
Others use business rules to automatically send the data request and retrieve the data or
report. Some can take the data retrieved and populate the specific field; others store the
data as a record that the underwriter can review, and the underwriter can then enter the
data into the correct field in the policy record.
Automated underwriting: Many solutions have the ability to use business rules to
automate the underwriting process. The solutions use business rules to determine if the
transaction can proceed without human intervention, or if intervention is required, a task
is generated for the underwriter to review and act on. Some solutions can handle basic

yes/no questions only. Others can perform very sophisticated underwriting. The
capabilities are heavily influenced by the level of sophistication of business rules and
workflow capabilities.
Underwriter assignment: While some carriers still assign work manually, more and
more carriers are looking for automated support in the underwriting process. Solutions
handle underwriter assignment in a variety of ways, for example the ability to assign
policies/quotes to a team or individual using a round-robin capability, or the ability to
assign tasks to specific individuals based on specific criteria. Some solutions can assign
a transaction very granularly, based on line of business, agent, geography, and workload.
Most systems allow multiple underwriters to be assigned to work on a single account
handling different policies. Carriers also look for capabilities for manual assignment or
reassignment for both bulk transactions and single policies or accounts.
Automated renewals: Most solutions have the ability to handle no-touch automated
renewals. If the policy meets the carrier’s defined requirements, the information from the
original policy carries over to the renewal, and the policy is issued. Some allow business
rules to be used to apply an inflation factor automatically or to make other bulk changes
on policies as they renew. Those policies that do not meet the requirements are popped
out of the renewal cycle and assigned to an underwriter for intervention. Along with
automated renewals, look for automated non-renewals. Some solutions allow a policy to
be marked for non-renewal. Others allow business rules to be used to determine whether
an underwriter will allow the policy to renew. In the case of an automated non-renewal,
the system can generally send out the appropriate documents in the right time frame
according to the jurisdictional requirements of the policy.
4
Endorsements: All systems can handle endorsements. Almost all systems can handle
out-of-sequence endorsements as well. When it comes to out-of-sequence
endorsements, there are a variety of techniques in place. Some alert the underwriter to
the fact that the policy change is out of sequence. Each affected endorsement is
identified, and the underwriter can select which to back off and which to roll back on.
Others handle the back off and roll on automatically, only highlighting conflicts for an
underwriter’s intervention. At least one solution can handle multiple policy changes with
different dates on a single endorsement. Mid-term broker of record changes can often be
handled as a bulk transaction, but some systems require the changes to be implemented
policy by policy. Some allow a lot of flexibility as to when commission changes occur, and
some allow the commission to begin accruing to the new broker immediately. Others
begin commission accrual at the time of renewal.
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES

In addition to transactional capabilities, a policy administration system is the primary
repository for the product rules, rates, and forms attachment logic for all products.
Product design tools: The product architecture is a key component of a policy

administration system. Often when implementing a new system, this is an area that
requires significant work on the part of a carrier, such as redesigning their products to
match the architecture inherent in the policy administration system. Look for a base set of
insurance products that can be leveraged for building new lines or new products. Some
solutions allow easy cloning of product/rating rules and structures. Many solutions have a
product architecture that is depicted as a tree, which allows inheritance across
jurisdictions for common features. Some include color-coding that helps a carrier easily
identify where a product does not conform to the nationwide version. Some keep their
product architecture in an Excel or Excel-like format, which can be easy for the business
to maintain. Some solutions include wizards that make it very easy for a business user to
make basic parameter-driven product updates. Some include a self-documenting product
dictionary. The dictionary is the source of complete, reusable insurance product
definitions, including rates, underwriting rules, calculations, specifications, integration
definitions, and data for managing forms so each piece can be defined as reusable

components that can be rapidly adapted to form new products or enhancements. Some
product dictionaries are very business-user-friendly with natural language definitions.
Rating: Most, but not all, solutions include rating engines as a key feature. As vendors
create more sophisticated configuration tools, rate changes can be done by business
analysts rather than developers. The rate tables, rules, and algorithms are externalized
from the programming code. There are wide variations in the level of sophistication of the
rating engines. As carriers have moved to more complex rating algorithms, rating engines
have expanded their ability to support complex rating algorithms, including multivariate
rating and by-peril rating. The more precise an algorithm, the more precisely a risk can be
priced. As insurers extend their use of predictive models, they need algorithms that can
accommodate these models. Look for the ability to easily create subroutines; built-in
functions to handle minimum premiums, rate capping, or prorating; and the ease of
ordering the expression. Interpolation of rates is sometimes needed, like when a specific
rate is not provided in a rate table. Some tools include interpolation capabilities out of the
box. Rounding is another area to look at closely to ensure the ability to round with the
right level of granularity at any place in the expression. Most allow multiline, multilocation
rating on a single quote or policy. Many also allow multistate rating. Look for the ability to
use external party information sources (e.g., credit score, loss data, property data,
predictive scores etc.) in the rate algorithms during real-time calculation. Other features
to look for include the date management capabilities—the ability to manage multiple
dates based on the versions of the rate, table, or algorithm changes. Some solutions
require the versioning dates be embedded in the code or script. Others provide fields to
enter the dates. Some allow different versions or effective dates for renewals versus new
business.
5
Rating maintenance tools: For the easiest management and maintenance, rate tables
should be kept separate from the algorithms, and business rule definition and
management (e.g., automatic driver assignment) should be maintained separately from
the rating algorithms. It’s also helpful to keep deviations in a separate layer. Most
solutions allow the import or export of rating tables to or from spreadsheets. Look for how
the tool handles multidimensional tables. Look for the tools necessary to create the
algorithm—some have graphical Visio-like tools. Lastly, reusable rating components are
helpful, especially if there is a prebuilt library of product and rating rule components. Even
better is to have a repository of rules that is searchable and version controlled.
Testing, modeling, and analytical tools: Some solutions include very robust tools for
handling the rate analysis function. Testing, modeling, and product analysis tools that
allow an insurer to do an impact analysis to calculate the overall impact of a rate change
or a displacement analysis to identify the number of policyholders that will be affected are
included. Some include tools that make it easy to compare current rates against
proposed rates. Not all vendors have these types of tools built in. Some vendors have
business intelligence tools included and can set up reports that can provide some level of
analysis as well. Some solutions do not include any functionality for handling rate
analysis or testing. This is an area that is rising in priority for insurers. For more
information, see the report New Tools for Product Management: Four Tips for Getting It
Right.
Bureau support: Most developed markets globally have local definitions of products,
rates, and standards that inform the majority of the products in the market. In some
cases, this is imposed or managed by a particular distribution channel, in some it is
agreed to by a standards body, and in others is simply local convention. Increasingly it is
the distribution channels that are increasing product diversity and speed of change as
distribution partners impose standards of other parties. Examples include having to adopt
price comparison site data standards to appear on their lists or adopting a data standard
on a blockchain to participate in specific international marine opportunities, as seen in
InsurWave 1.

In the United States almost all commercial lines insurers rely on ISO or NCCI for rates,
rules, and forms. There are several ways in which vendors provide ISO rating support to
their clients.
Vendor interpretation: Some vendors have their own teams of people that
support ISO content. Employees read the ISO circulars, interpret them, and send
the information to the insurer to determine if they wish to adopt the change. If the
insurer wishes to adopt the change, the vendor then loads the changes into the
policy administration system. The cost for this service is typically loaded on top of
the vendor’s annual maintenance fee for its solution. Some vendors provide
service-level guarantees to ensure the vendor does not miss a filing date.
ISO ERC support: The most significant option for rating engines is the ISO
Electronic Rating Content (ERC). With ERC, ISO offers its rating content in an
electronic format. This service has many features—all of which are intended to
streamline the process for insurers, allowing them to take revisions faster. ISO
provides all circulars in an electronic format. They provide loss costs, rules, and
forms attachment logic in both XML and Excel formats. ISO includes a reporting
utility that helps insurers identify and understand the differences between the
circular revisions and the insurer’s current rating structure, including their
program deviations. Insurers can subscribe to ISO ERC, but to get full value,
https://insurwave.com/
1
6
their policy administration or rating system needs to be able to absorb the XML
stream or Excel files.
Vendors that are ERC-enabled have invested in technical capabilities that allow
the rating solution to receive the ISO ERC changes from ISO. The vendor
creates a utility that receives the changes and transforms the data into the
solution’s data model. Typically, the solution provides additional tools to allow the
insurer to identify what changes were made and modeling tools to understand
the impact of those changes. Look for how many major and minor lines have
been enabled and how many are actually in production. For more information
about the benefits of ISO ERC, see our report Does ISO ERC Deliver the
Goods?
Price optimization, machine learning, and artificial intelligence: Systems may

include price optimization tools (in jurisdictions where this is legal). Some include artificial
intelligence capabilities. In some cases, the integration is simply allowing models and
other data sources to inform the rating, underwriting rules, and pricing. Increasingly,
however, both actuaries and pricing leads are leaning more and more on advanced
analytics, machine learning, and AI to inform rating and pricing. This requires building a
data science pipeline into the rating and pricing capability to create, update, and realize
the utility of these models at run-time. For more discussion on the data science pipeline
and DataOps, see Demystifying Artificial Intelligence in Insurance: The Tools Supporting
Data Science and the Rise of DataOps.
Fraud at quote: Fraud analytics at the point of sale is another new area we are starting
to see, particularly in markets with significant fraud issues. Many policy administration
systems can integrate with a third-party solution in this area. Some are beginning to work
on creating this capability themselves.
Reinsurance: One of the newer areas that vendors have begun to invest in is
reinsurance capabilities within the policy administration system. Most solutions do not
include this functionality. The most robust solutions allow for full program definition.

Carriers can identify multiple treaties based on perils, lines of business, geographies, or
other dimensions. Treaties can be assembled into programs with specific inurements
identified. The solution will create bordereaux reports tracking the exposures, the
commissions, and the premiums back to the reinsurer. Some allow an underwriter to
manually mark a policy as reinsured with some basic information about any facultative
contracts. Some have set up reports that allow for basic reporting on policies that meet
basic treaty requirements.
COMMON FUNCTIONALITY
There are a variety of functions that are not specific to underwriting or product
management, but can generally be found in a policy administration system.
Workflow: Some solutions serve more as data capture tools. Workflow is simulated with
screen flow. Other solutions have true workflow capabilities—the ability to automatically
generate and assign tasks based on event changes in a policy, time lapse, or data
changes in a field. Some of the solutions profiled have the capability to visualize the
workflow through graphical depictions. Some have a graphic design environment, with
automated background code generation. This means graphical depictions are
actionable—clicking on a step allows the carrier to modify that step, or steps can be
dragged and dropped to rearrange the sequencing. It is not uncommon for a software
vendor to use a third-party or open source tool to manage the workflow requirements.
Document creation: Most of the solutions include some sort of correspondence or forms
library for the most common forms and letters. Many integrate to third-party solutions to
provide additional capabilities because many of the built-in solutions are not robust
7
enough to handle production-level policy generation. Look for standard templates out of
the box. Many of the solutions will come preloaded with ISO, NCCI, or Bureau forms. The
forms attachment logic is typically included as part of the product definition, and the
templates themselves are included in the document creation tools. In addition to policy
forms, many systems can automatically generate correspondence using business rules
and task generation capabilities. When an event occurs, or the data within a field
changes, the solution can automatically create correspondence that can often be
delivered using a variety of mechanisms: mail, email, or SMS.
Document management: Some systems contain a document management capability

allowing for storage of internally generated documents and external documents such as
photos, videos, and other media. Many integrate to external third-party solutions to
provide more scalability. Look for the level of granularity in indexing forms being created.
When a policy file holds hundreds of items, being able to rapidly sort to find the document
needed can save time. Look for not just the ability to search the metadata about the
document, but also the ability to search within the document.
Reporting: Reporting capabilities vary widely across solutions. Virtually all solutions
integrate to a third-party reporting tool. Some include a third-party reporting tool out of the
box. Some solutions use open source reporting tools, and some have solutions built in-
house. Most include some level of prebuilt standard reports that can be subscribed to or
scheduled. Standard reports typically deliver operational reports, performance measures,
and some level of financial reporting. Look for the number of reports included out of the
box. Ad hoc capabilities vary widely. Some are quite easy to use, with the ability to drag
and drop data elements and build a report very simply. Many include dashboards with
graphical views of data, and many of those include drilldown capabilities.
Mobile/multichannel access: Almost all solutions are browser-based and so are

available via a tablet or mobile device for an underwriter in the field. More and more have
been optimized for a mobile device using HTML 5 or responsive design. Some solutions
come with mobile applications out of the box meant for a potential policyholder to access
their policy, pay their bill, or get proof of insurance.

TECHNICAL FUNCTIONALITY
While assessing features and functionality is a critical step in selecting a policy
administration system, there are a number of technical considerations to be considered
as well.
Configuration tools: A general trend in insurance software is to create tools that allow
carriers to do more modifications of the system through configuration tools rather than
through code. The most robust tools allow carriers to easily add data elements, create
business rules, modify workflows, create forms, create screens, modify the user interface,
and even map interfaces, all using configuration tools. Some tools are extremely intuitive
with drag-and-drop and point-and-click capabilities. Others require knowledge of a
scripting language to make the changes. Many vendors are moving toward a dual
development environment with simplified tools and wizards meant for business analysts
to use to make general changes and a more robust environment meant for technical staff
to utilize.
Business rules: Look for the ability to design and execute business rules and
underwriting rules that are separate from the core program code. Carriers should assess
the ability to reuse and share rules. Some tools are extremely intuitive and use natural
language; others require knowledge of scripting. Some have visualization tools that allow
a carrier to use a Visio-like tool to build business rules. Some solutions include a
searchable and version-controlled rules repository. A few solutions offer tools to help
carriers conduct impact analysis of the rules or traceability tools to help them understand
how and when rules are being used. Since many carriers create hundreds or thousands
8
of rules, there should be a strong rules management environment with a well-organized
repository, version control and version storage, etc.
Data: Data is more and more important for carriers, and software vendors are
acknowledging this by building in more tools to help carriers with their data needs. Some
solutions deliver a certain number of extra fields that users can modify for their own use.
More common are configuration tools that allow the easy creation of data elements,
including the ability to mask data, encrypt data, add context-specific help text, and also
allow for modification of the data model. Self-documenting data dictionaries are available.
Some solutions come with an ODS out of the box and may even include a data
warehouse with the appropriate ETL tools. Most solutions are built on an industry
standard model such as ACORD.
Release management: Some solutions include workflow capabilities to handle the

release management within the policy admin system. Some feature full ticket
management. Look for the ability to package a group of changes or filings together that
you can manage as a release, as well as the ability to assign and track the work packets.
Versioning and change control: Versioning and update management is a critical

component for a policy admin system. Rating plans may be used for new business on
one date and a different date for renewals. Effective dates may differ by jurisdiction or
product. Look for multiple date-management capabilities, for example, new, renewal,
effective, available, expiration, and so on.
The easiest solutions to use are those that have fields to enter the type of date and the
actual date by product or state. Some tools require the developer to enter the date in
XML. These are harder to audit.
Tools are available in some solutions that allow for auditability of versioning, and version
comparison reports come out of the box for some solutions. And, of course, look for
controls to manage concurrent changes on a release, e.g., locking out changes when
another is working on it.

Change control functions include the ability to track and document changes that are
made, who made the change, and the reasons for making the change. Some
automatically document the activity and changes to allow for easy traceability. Some
include the ability to see which fields, formulas, and tables are being used.
As systems use more real-time data enrichment and models in their pricing, version and
change control will increase in complexity, as will audit requirements from regulators.
These capabilities may start to stretch into models and integrations that support changes
in the products.
Security: Security is becoming increasingly important to insurers, especially as policy

administration solutions are frequently accessed by web quoting applications. Ask about
the security standards the vendor complies with and which certification and assurance
methods are used. Take a look at how the system handles security for managing APIs for
application-level integration. While many policy admin systems don’t need to be PCI
compliant, some are. Look at which authentication capabilities the system leverages for
internal and external users. There is a broad range of capabilities, ranging from one-time
passwords, security tokens/PINS, multifactor authentication, and federated identity
support up to biometric security support. With regards to cybersecurity, look for whether
the software has penetration security and how the system has been tested.
Scalability: While we typically think of scalability in terms of the number of policy

transactions, or the number of users, an additional area to examine is how the system
9
handles multiple locations or vehicles on a policy. Performance as the system scales is
another important consideration.
Integration: Policy administration systems integrate to large numbers of third-party

systems and external data sources. Most solutions have been designed with a service-
oriented architecture and have a variety of ways of handling integration, with many
settling on the use of RESTful APIs as the common standard. Most systems have some
kind of accelerator, or experience integrating to the most common third-party data
sources and the most common general ledgers. With the rise of insurtech, new data
platforms, and the position of rating as a participant in a wider ecosystem, fast integration
capability will be a deciding factor in insurers’ agility.
Implementation: Vendors use a wide variety of implementation methodologies. Some

prefer to handle all of the implementation themselves. Others prefer to work with third-
party system integrators. More and more vendors are moving to an agile or hybrid
methodology. Look to see what methodology the vendor uses and how it aligns with your
own preferred methodology. Some vendors are very good at helping carriers transition to
an agile approach. Look for the artifacts they have available for gathering requirements
documenting the product architecture and capturing the business rules. Vendors claiming
very fast implementation timeframes may indeed have better artifacts and more
configurable solutions, or they may be touting very simple single product implementation
with little or no configuration. Be sure to do customer reference checks to understand
how well the vendor handles project management, knowledge transfer, and scope creep
with carriers of a similar size and complexity as your company.
Cloud: Few technologies are as talked about as cloud computing. Cloud-enabled

solutions are on the rise, with most of the responding vendors reporting that they have
cloud-enabled core systems. When it comes to the term “cloud,” there are many different
variations available. Most vendors offer a hosted version of their software. The software
is licensed by the carrier and is hosted by the vendor either in its own data center, in a
private data center like Rackspace, or in a public data center like Amazon or Microsoft.
Look for the level of managed services available if you are interested in this option.

SUITE CAPABILITIES
Celent has limited the definition of a PAS to include a set of core processes and key
supporting capabilities. However, vendors do not necessarily limit their definitions of a
PAS in the same way, and many have attempted to build out some or all of the end-to-
end components that an insurer might need. Some insurers are just looking for a best-of-
breed PAS to work with other core systems already installed, but other insurers may be
looking for a vendor who can offer broad solutions for multiple areas of their insurance
operations.
Some of the additional end-to-end components defined here are also listed as core
processes of the PAS. This is not a contradiction. A vendor might bundle a component
with their PAS (for example, rating), but also consider it (and also sell it as) a separate,
stand-alone product. Alternatively, a vendor might provide a basic level of functionality in
one area, but also have an upgraded, higher-cost product or an ISV partnership with a
different vendor to provide an advanced solution (e.g., document creation).
In order to help insurers with their comparison of different solutions, each profile in this
report has a table summarizing whether the vendor in question offers one or more of the
following end-to-end components and whether the components are part of the base
offering or sold as a stand-alone system. We use the description “Yes—integrated into
the policy admin module” to mean that the functionality is part of a monolithic code base.
We use the description “Yes—separate module available from this vendor” to mean there
is a separate module available that has been integrated with the policy administration
system.
10
Table 1: Suite Components
SUITE AVAILABILITY
CLAIMS ADMINISTRATION A system to record and transact all matters relating

to a claim from first notice of loss through final
settlement.
BILLING A system to create invoices and handle collections

from producers and policyholders. It typically
handles basic commission processing as well. It
may include deductible billing.
CRM Allows the aggregation of data on a customer or at

an account-level view and provides utilities that
streamline the communication and management of
customer data. Typically includes lead management
and campaign management in addition to tracking
the demographics of the customer.
REINSURANCE A system to record any reinsurance contract related

to a policy or set of policies and a claim or set of
claims. The solution typically will calculate the
bordereaux, manage inurements, calculate claims
reimbursements, and manage the financial and
reporting interactions with reinsurers and brokers
including commissions.
RATING ENGINE A stand-alone rating engine should be capable of

handling complex pricing algorithms and should
integrate easily with multiple policy administration

systems. They typically include more robust rate
analysis tools and can usually operate on a
headless basis if required.
DIGITAL TOOLS Digital tools can be thought of as software or

applications that augment the core system to
provide additional digital capabilities. For example,
chat bots, digital marketing tools, and video
communication would all be considered digital tools.
DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT A system that manages the compliance aspects of

agency management, including onboarding of
agents and tracking the licenses and appointments
as well as complex compensation transactions
across multiple policy administration solutions,
including incentive compensation.
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE Designing, storing, and accessing reports ranging

from simple lists to multidimensional calculated
variables. In general, reports are used to monitor
activities by a user and by all levels of management.
Tools generally allow standard reports with
scheduling tools and ad hoc reporting.
11
SUITE AVAILABILITY
ETL TOOLS ETL tools allow any organization to extract data from
numerous databases, applications, and systems,
transform the data into a usable format, and load the
data from all of these sources into a single
database, data mart, or data warehouse for
reporting, analysis, and data synchronization.
DATA HUB A data hub is a centralized service that connects an

insurer’s IT system, including core systems, IoT
devices, web applications, IoT devices, or other
applications in use. The data hub manages the
connections to each of the systems and
orchestrates the data flow among them.
DATA WAREHOUSE A data warehouse is a system that pulls together

data from many different sources within an
organization for reporting and analysis.
Source: Celent
12
REPORT METHOD
CRITERIA FOR INCLUSION

Celent actively reviews vendor systems in the insurance software market. Some solutions
qualified for profiles that include customer references and a Celent opinion of the
solution. These solutions are also ranked in the ABCD Vendor View.
Celent’s ABCD Vendor View analysis is used to highlight vendors that have attained
success selling their systems in the North American market. In general, in order to have a
full profile and be included in the ABCD Vendor View grids, a policy administration
solution had to have:
• At least one new sale to one new customer in the region within the last 24 months.
• At least three live customers per region, at least one of which must be an insurer.
• Participation by at least three reference customers.
There are 14 solutions that meet these criteria and are included in this report with ABCD
profiles.
Even if a vendor is not included in the ABCD Vendor View, Celent provides a system
profile of many other solutions. Solutions that did not qualify to be ranked in the ABCD
Vendor View do not include a customer reference or a Celent opinion. There are 17
solutions that meet these criteria and are included in this report but are not included in
the ABCD Vendor View grids.
It is important to note that the information available in this report is also available through
Celent’s online resources. Prior to relying on the information for a particular vendor,
Celent suggests reviewing their online company and product profiles, which may be more
current.
ABOUT THE PROFILES

Each profile is structured the same way. Profiles present information about the vendor
and its policy administration system offerings, its geographic presence, and its client
base. Charts are used to provide more detailed information about specific features such
as lines of business supported, technology, and partnerships.
The profiles are presented in alphabetical order.
LIMITATIONS
Celent believes that this study provides valuable insights into current offerings in policy
administration solutions. However, readers are encouraged to consider these results in
the following context. The vendors self-reported. Participants in the study were asked to
indicate which policy administration capabilities are provided in addition to providing
generic information about their client base. While this information was supplemented with
Chapter: Report Method
publicly available information where possible, Celent did not confirm the details provided
by the participants.
EVALUATION PROCESS
To analyze the capabilities of policy administration solutions that are active in the
insurance marketplace, Celent sent an invitation to participate in this year’s report to a
broad set of PAS vendors. There was no cost for vendors to participate.
13
Each participating vendor completed an online RFI in Celent’s VendorMatch/RFX
platform. The RFI requested information about the features provided in the solution, the
technology and architecture, the current client base, the pricing models, and the vendor
itself. RFIs were completed on 31 products for North America.
After Celent received completed RFIs from the vendors, each vendor was evaluated for
meeting the criteria for inclusion in the ABCD Vendor View analysis. Those vendors that
qualified for Celent’s ABCD evaluation provided a briefing and demo for Celent focusing
on usability and functionality for everyday users; product and rules configurability for IT
and system administration users; and the overall architecture of the system.
Celent also asked references provided by each vendor in the ABCD Vendor View
analysis to complete an online survey in order to obtain their view of the system’s
business and technology value.
The RFIs, the demos/briefings, and the reference surveys provided quantitative and
qualitative data that was used in the ABCD analysis of these vendors. This process is
described in the next section.
Vendors had an opportunity to review their profiles for factual accuracy and to provide
their own perspectives but were not permitted to influence the evaluation.
Some of the vendors profiled in this report are Celent clients, and some are not. No
preference was given to Celent clients for either inclusion in the report or in the
subsequent evaluations.
It should be noted that although a particular system is shown as implemented in only one
major line, it still may be capable of supporting both commercial and personal business.
For example, an insurer looking for a personal lines solution may wish to contact a
particular commercial lines vendor because of that vendor’s technology or delivery
capabilities.
Chapter: Report Method
14
CELENT’S ABCD VENDOR VIEW
Celent has developed a framework for evaluating vendors. This is a standard

representation of a vendor marketplace designed to show at a glance the relative
positions of each vendor in four categories: Advanced and agile technology, Breadth of
functionality, Customer base (i.e., relative number of customers), and Depth of client
services. The Celent Vendor View shows relative positions of each solution evaluated
and does not reflect an abstract evaluation. Each vendor solution is judged relative to the
others in the group.
While this is a standard tool that Celent uses across vendor reports in many different
areas, each report will define each category slightly differently. For this report, some of
the factors used to evaluate each vendor are listed in Table 3. Celent’s view of the
relative importance of each factor and of the solution and vendor’s capabilities also
contributes to the final rating.
Table 2: Examples of Possible Factors Used in Celent Policy Administration System ABCD
ABCD CATEGORIES POSSIBLE FACTORS
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY (AND Platform and codernity (Code base, platform, databases, localization
FLEXIBLE TECHNOLOGY) capabilities, etc.)
UI (ease of use, mobility)
Data and adaptability/extendibility (openness of application, code

base, data model, etc.)
Integration (web services, APIs, reference comments)
Scalability and cloud (cloud readiness, largest installations, etc.)
Ease of change (change tooling, debugging capabilities, etc.)
BREADTH OF FUNCTIONALITY Functions and features provided in base offering
In production lines of business and number of deployments for each
User experience
CUSTOMER BASE Number of live insurers using the system for personal, commercial, or
specialty lines of business
New client momentum
DEPTH OF CUSTOMER SERVICE Size of professional services and support team in region Chapter: Celent’s ABCD Vendor View
Insurers’ post-implementation experiences
Source: Celent
THE XCELENT AWARDS

Within this framework, the top performers in each of the ABCD dimensions receive a
corresponding XCelent Award:
• XCelent Technology for the leading Advanced Technology score

• XCelent Functionality for the leading Breadth of Functionality score
• XCelent Customer Base for the leading Customer Base score
• XCelent Service for the leading Depth of Service score
15
XCELENT TECHNOLOGY AND XCELENT FUNCTIONALITY
Figure 2 positions each vendor along two dimensions: the vertical axis displaying the
relative rankings for Advanced Technology and the horizontal axis showing relative
Breadth of Functionality rankings. The XCelent Advanced Technology winner is
Guidewire PolicyCenter.
Figure 1: XCelent Technology and XCelent Functionality
Guidewire
Guidewire InsuranceNow
PolicyCenter
Breadth of Functionality
Advanced Technology
Source: Celent
Chapter: Celent’s ABCD Vendor View
16
XCELENT CUSTOMER BASE AND XCELENT SERVICE
Figure 3 positions each vendor along two dimensions: the vertical axis displaying the
relative level of depth of customer service and the horizontal axis displaying the relative
customer base. The XCelent Customer Base award is given to Guidewire PolicyCenter.
Figure 2: Customer Base and Depth of Customer Service
Guidewire
PolicyCenter
Depth of Client Service
Guidewire
InsuranceNow
Client Base
Source: Celent
Celent advises insurers to consider past vendor results but not to compare the placement
of vendors in the charts from prior years, because not only is the market changing, but so
has our analysis. The criteria used to determine the A, B, C, and D rankings in this report
are broadly similar, but not identical, to the criteria used in the previous Celent PAS
vendor report published in 2018. For example, in this report, we are considering new
criteria in Advanced Technology related to microservices and integration approaches.
Chapter: Celent’s ABCD Vendor View
The market is also evolving due to acquisitions and partnerships, solutions development,
and alternative delivery models.
We suggest that insurers consider their specific needs and each vendor for what it offers.
Although they are very successful in one or more of the criteria, the XCelent Award
winners may or may not be the best match for an insurer’s specific business goals and
solution requirements.
17
VENDOR PROFILES
ABOUT THE PROFILES

Each of the profiles presents information about the vendor and solution; professional
services and support capabilities; customer base; functionality and lines of business
deployed; technology and partnerships; and implementations and cost. If a system was
included in the ABCD Vendor View analysis the profile also includes customer feedback
and Celent’s opinion of the system in regards to usability, product configuration, and
workflow abilities as well as summary comments.
The profiles also include a list of in production and supported lines of business and a
table showing specific functionality capabilities. Additionally, the profiles include a table of
technology options.
If included in the ABCD Vendor View analysis, the vendor’s reference feedback gathered
through the use of an online survey is presented in the profile. Customer feedback
sections include a diagram that displays the average ratings given to the vendor in five
categories. Each average rating includes up to eight underlying ratings shown in Table 4
scored by the customer on a scale of one to five, where one means poor and five is
excellent. Open-ended comments regarding the system and the vendor are also included
in the feedback section.
Table 3: Customer Feedback Ratings
DIAGRAM AVERAGE
(QUESTION ASKED) RATINGS INCLUDED IN AVERAGE*
FUNCTIONALITY
(How would you rate the features and New business quoting/issuance
functions you are currently using?)
Underwriting support
Policy transactions—endorsements, renewals, cancellations
Excess layers and reinsurance
Product design tools
Rating and rate calculations
Underwriter desktop
Underwriter assignment
Document creation
Document management
Multi-channel capabilities—e.g., portal, mobile, etc.
Supervisory tools (e.g., ability to assign work, vacation rules, etc.)

Chapter: Vendor Profiles
Workflow/task generation
Notes, diaries, calendaring
Reporting, business intelligence
Statistical reporting (e.g., ISO)
18
USER EXPERIENCE End users—e.g., underwriters or underwriting assistants
(Do the following users find this system Supervisors/managers

easy and efficient to use? Using a 1 to
5 scale, where 1 is very difficult to use Actuaries
and 5 is very easy to use.)
IT staff
TECHNOLOGY Ease of system maintenance
(How would you rate the technology of Flexibility of the data model
this solution on a scale of 1 to 5, where
1 means very poor and 5 means Scalability of the solution
excellent?)
Vendor's timing in improving technical performance through new
releases and fixes
Configurability of the solution
Overall satisfaction with the technology
IMPLEMENTATION Responsiveness (handling of issue resolution)
(If you are familiar with the original Project management (estimations, scope creep, etc.)
implementation of this system at your
company, how would you rate this Implementation completed on time
vendor in the following areas?)
Implementation completed on budget
Knowledge of your business
Knowledge of their solution and relevant technology
Continuity with the implementation team—did the core team stay

engaged through to implementation?
Overall project success
SUPPORT Responsiveness (handling and speed of issue resolution)
(After implementation, how would you Project management (estimations, scope creep, etc.)
rate the vendor's professional services
staff in the following areas?) Work completed on time
Work completed on budget
Knowledge of your business
Knowledge of their solution and relevant technology
Communication—proactive communication of issues and changes
Staff turnover
Consistently meeting service level agreements
Roadmap delivery
Customer feature requests heard and responded to
Overall quality of professional services

Source: Celent
*Scale 1 to 5, where 1 is poor and 5 is excellent. Not applicable or no opinion not included in average.
Concerning implementation costs and fees, Celent asked vendors to provide first-year
license and first-year other implementation costs (work by the insurer, vendor, or third
parties) for two hypothetical insurance companies:
• Insurance Company A, a small insurer, with a direct written premium (DWP) of

US$250 million.
19
• Insurance Holding Company B, with four operating companies, writing multiple lines
of business in five or more states, with a total combined direct written premium
(DWP) of US$2.1 billion.
When discussing insurance customers of the various solutions, the profiles may use the
terms very small, small, medium, large, and very large insurers.
• Very small insurers (tier 5) have under US$100 million in annual premium
• Small (tier 4) have US$100 million to $499 million
• Medium (tier 3) have US$500 million to $999 million
• Large (tier 2) have US$1 billion to $4.9 billion
• Very large (tier 1) have US$5 billion or more.
20
GUIDEWIRE SOFTWARE: GUIDEWIRE INSURANCENOW
COMPANY
Guidewire Software is a public company headquartered in San Mateo, California with
sales and professional services personnel located throughout North America. The
company has 2,355 employees, of whom 781 are in professional services and 198 in
technical support and licensing operations.
Guidewire InsuranceNow has 47 customers. Since being acquired by Guidewire in 2017,

there have been five major releases of the product. In that same timeframe, Guidewire
has roughly doubled the size of the professional services team that implements and
supports InsuranceNow.
InsuranceNow is a critical component of the broader Guidewire InsurancePlatform and is

targeted to customers in the U.S. who may be constrained by limited IT resources and
need a ready-to-go, core solution that is complete, not complex.
Future development plans and roadmap initiatives include:
• Auto-generated digital experiences—Based on insurance product and front-end

meta-data.
• Low-code configuration—InsuranceNow visual configuration tool configures nearly
everything—product, rating, forms, UI, etc.
• Embedded business intelligence—More analytics embedded in the system to fuel the
right decision in the moment.
• Embedding dashboards and additional reports directly into InsuranceNow to make it
easier for users to immediately access the information they need to make more
informed decisions.
• New InsuranceNow consumer sales portal—This will be built on the company’s new
API and will be an out-of-the-box sales portal included in the InsuranceNow
subscription that will support quoting and issuance of personal auto and homeowners
products.
Chapter: Guidewire Software: Guidewire InsuranceNow

• Extending nusiness user configuration capabilities—Providing a provisioning portal
for the visual configuration tool InsuranceNow Studio. This capability enables non-
technical business users to contribute meaningfully to the creation and maintenance
of InsuranceNow configurations.
• Additional New UI/UX Work—Significant improvements to the user experience in the
claims area. New claims screens and more intuitive navigation and workflow provide
a much richer experience and increased efficiency for claims users.
• Availability of next set of modern APIs—policy servicing and tasks APIs that support
policy management functions for agents such as endorsements, renewals,
cancellations, etc., and that support task-related functions such as the creation and
execution of tasks and update of task statuses and task attributes.
Guidewire will also continue its strategic relationship with Amazon to optimize its core
cloud services for the AWS cloud infrastructure.
Guidewire’s spend on R&D over the past two years has been approximately 40% of
license and maintenance revenues. Guidewire does not report on revenue or expense by
product.
Guidewire offers an annual user conference or customer event
21
Table 102: Company Snapshot
YEAR FOUNDED 2001
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 2,355
REVENUES (USD) Total corporate revenue: $719.5 million (FY 2019)

Product revenue: they do not report on revenue by
product.
FINANCIAL STRUCTURE Company financial structure: public company

NYSE: GWRE
Source: Guidewire
Table 103: Product Snapshot
NAME Guidewire InsuranceNow
YEAR ORIGINALLY RELEASED/DEPLOYED 1994/1900
CURRENT RELEASE AND DATE OF 2019.2/2019

RELEASE
UPGRADES Client can skip multiple versions (e.g., go directly from

version 4.0 to version 7.0)
They support current versions and more than two priors
but not all versions.
TARGET MARKET Guidewire InsuranceNow is best suited for U.S.-based

P&C insurers who may be constrained by limited IT
resources and need a ready-to-go, core solution that is
complete, not complex, and one that is in the cloud,
managed by Guidewire. These insurers typically have
limited IT support and are looking to free up these
resources from the routine system maintenance type
work associated with hosting a system on-premise so

they can focus more on the business. They are also
looking for a full suite to be deployed as such, not in a
modular way. InsuranceNow is also ideally suited for
greenfield opportunities within larger insurers, where they
are looking to quickly spin up new products or a new
business.
INSTALLED BASE North America: United States: 47
NEW CLIENTS SINCE 2017 North America: United States: 8
NOTABLE CLIENTS Andover, Farmers Union Mutual Insurance, Nationwide

Private Client
REVENUE FROM PRODUCT/SERVICE They do not report on revenue by product.
FTES PROVIDING PROFESSIONAL 781

SERVICES FOR PRODUCT
USER CONFERENCES/PRODUCT WORKING The vendor offers an annual user conference or customer
GROUPS event.
Source: Guidewire
22
CELENT OPINION
InsuranceNow is an all-in-one solution with functionality for policy administration, billing,
claims, reinsurance, data reporting and visualization, portals, and other services. This
profile addresses the policy administration functionality within InsuranceNow.
InsuranceNow is currently available only within the US.
During 2019 Guidewire did a significant revamp of InsuranceNow’s UI. Navigation and
access to information within InsuranceNow policy administration is a strong point of the
solution. Clicking on items in a constantly-present side navigation panel enables access
to all major sets of information and processes within the life cycle of a claim. There is also
a set of context-sensitive go-to buttons on the right side of many screens.
Usability features include: highlighting requested coverages that exceed an agent’s or an

underwriter’s authority, an endorsements table that clearly displays out of sequence
endorsements, and the ability to generate quick quotes for auto coverage using partial
VINs through integration with ISO VINMASTER. Business users can create and
manipulate BI displays using Looker, which is bundled with InsuranceNow.
Configuration is done in two environments: Studio for users with business analyst skills,
and any Java IDE (such as Eclipse) for developers. In Studio products, rules and tasks
can be created and managed in a well-designed tree and menu structure set of screens.
Once created, rates are displayed in Excel files. Tasks are typically associated with
product versions. InsuranceNow does not have a graphic workflow design environment.
More complex rating algorithms or product structures are typically created by developers
in their IDE.
In summary, InsuranceNow provides well-designed, broad policy administration

functionality for insurers writing low to mid-level complexity business and who want a fully
integrated end-to-end suite.
OVERALL FUNCTIONALITY
Guidewire Software offers the following modules in the core system application.
Guidewire InsuranceNow is available on a standalone basis.
Table 104: Component Snapshot

SUITE AVAILABILITY
BILLING Yes—integrated into the policy admin module
CLAIMS Yes—integrated into the policy admin module
CRM Yes—through a formal partnership with another vendor
REINSURANCE Yes—integrated into the policy admin module
RATING ENGINE Yes—integrated into the policy admin module
DIGITAL TOOLS Yes—integrated into the policy admin module
DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT Yes—integrated into the policy admin module
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE Yes—integrated into the policy admin module
ETL TOOLS Yes—integrated into the policy admin module
Source: Guidewire
23
OVERVIEW
Guidewire InsuranceNow is purpose-built for U.S. P&C insurers constrained by limited IT
resources. InsuranceNow provides insurers the freedom to focus on innovation and
service with a ready-to-go core system that is complete, not complex. Its all-in-one design
leads to rapid implementation and regular upgrades, keeping the client’s technology
current and its business agile.
The figure below shows Guidewire Software’s functionality and the production status of
key features for policy administration and servicing (PAS) systems.
Figure 26: Key Functionality

Supported but Not
In Production with in Production with
Function Clients Clients Not Supported
Desktop
User desktop/workbench 
Policy detail overview 
Can display flags and alerts on policies 
Data Services
Upload ACORD app 
Integration and prefill with third-party data 
Can upload or import data from Excel (e.g., locations,

drivers)
Documents
Includes a correspondence and forms library 
Automated rendering of forms and correspondence 
Can attach documents, emails, phone calls, or notes 
Includes a content repository and document

management
Notes
Includes a notes facility 
Can search text within notes and diaries 
Other
eSignature 
Consumer portal 
Agent portal 
Supervisory tools
Escalation based on authority


Dashboard to manage employee’s workload 
Underwriter/adjuster assignment
Automated underwriter assignment 
Out of office/vacation rules 
Workflow
Automatic task generation/workflow 
Quote
Multiline, multi-location rating on a single quote or

policy
Supports non-binding quoting (quick quote)
functionality that only includes rating/risk acceptability- 
related questions
Side by side quotes 
Underwriting
Automated STP underwriting 
Includes underwriting analysis tools such as loss

analysis
Consolidated view of all policies of a single

policyholder
Endorsements, Renewals and Other Transactions
Supports automated cancellations 
Handles out of sequence endorsements 
24
Supported but Not
Supports automated renewals 
Excess, layers and reinsurance
Can document the layer, coverage, and limits when
other insurers are also covering parts of the total 
exposure
Can indicate any reinsurance contracts which apply 
Product Design Tools

Base insurance product (templates) 
Inheritance of product and rating rules 
Rate Calculations
Supports complex rating algorithms 
Can use third-party data gathered real time as an

input to the rate calculation
If legal in clients’ territory, the system provides price

optimization features
Rating Maintenance
Rate table design and update management tools 
Testing, modeling and analysis tools

Includes testing, modeling and product analysis tools 
Versioning and Change Control

Versioning and update management 
Expiry mechanism for products to ensure that quotes

are up to date
Change control functions 
 = Available out of the box  = Configurable through a scripting  = Under development/On

language/coding roadmap
 = Configurable using simple tools  = Available with integration to a  = Could develop—would be
for business user third-party solution considered customization
 = Configurable using simple  = Available with integration to a  = Not available/Not applicable

tools for IT user separate module provided by this
vendor
Source: Guidewire
INTERNATIONALIZATION

InsuranceNow cannot support languages other than US English or currencies other than
the US dollar. International addresses are supported within InsuranceNow.
25
CUSTOMER BASE
Guidewire InsuranceNow has 47 total customers.
Figure 27: Guidewire InsuranceNow client base by geography, line of business, institution type, and
deployment mode
Geographic Distribution Insurer Type Distribution

110% 100% Reinsurance Companies
100%
TPA/BPO service…
90%
80% Self-insureds of any size
70% Agents/Brokers
60%
Tier 5 50%
50%
40%
Tier 4 36%
30% Tier 3 10%
20% Tier 2 5%
10% Tier 1
0%
NA EMEA APAC LATAM 0% 50% 100%
Line of Business Distribution Deployment Type Distribution

P&C:
P&C: Workers Specialty, On-premise at the
Compensation, 3% customer, 23%
3%
P&C:
Comme
rcial
Lines,
44%
P&C: Personal Public

Lines, 50% cloud, 77%

Source: Guidewire
26
CUSTOMER FEEDBACK
Figure 28: Customer Feedback
Customer average rating

(1=very poor; 5=excellent)
5
Functionality, 3.86
4
Support, 4.33 Technology, 4.50

2
Implementation, 3.96 Integration/APIs, 3.80
Source: Celent 2019/20 PC PAS Customer Feedback Survey
Three clients provided feedback on Guidewire InsuranceNow. One client has been using
the system more than five years, one for one to three years, and one for less than one
year. Two have a mix of personal and commercial lines, and one has mostly personal
lines.
Clients rated Guidewire InsuranceNow favorably overall. For functionality, respondents

appreciated the new business quoting/issuance features. Within technology, flexibility of
the data model was scored the highest.

Clients felt the solution integrated most easily with their data warehouse. Regarding their
implementation experience, the implementers’ knowledge of the solution and relevant
technology received the highest marks. Finally, in the area of ongoing system support,
knowledge of their solution and relevant technology received the highest score.
LINES OF BUSINESS SUPPORTED

Table 105: LoB Support
P&C LOBS AVAILABILITY
Personal Auto 
Homeowners/Home 
Renters/Contents 
27
Umbrella 
Commercial Auto 
Commercial Property 
Commercial Liability 
Workers’ Compensation 
Medical Professional Liability 
Other Professional Liability 
Business Owners Policy (BOP) 
Surety and Fidelity 
Excess Policies 
Directors and Officers Liability 
Legend: = Supported and in production;  = Supported but not in production; X = Not supported
Source: Guidewire
TECHNOLOGY
Guidewire hosts all new InsuranceNow customers in Amazon Web Services (AWS). The
preferred technology stack for InsuranceNow includes the Amazon Linux AMI operating
system, Apache Tomcat 8 application server, Amazon Aurora database for operational
data, and Amazon Redshift database for reporting.

The last major technology change involved rewriting the product in Java as a Web-based,
J2EE compliant enterprise suite with configurable business rules and role-based security.
InsuranceNow Version 3.0, which included a major user interface update, was released
in 2010. An additional user interface update was made in 2018.
The primary UI for business users, developers, and configurators is 100% browser based
and provides a touch screen interface. The vendor does not have plans to change the
framework in the future.
Technology details for Guidewire InsuranceNow are provided in the table below.
28
Table 106: Technology options
CODE BASE Core technology: Java: 100%
OPERATING SYSTEMS The system is implemented in Java
JEE/Java version support: InsuranceNow has now

standardized on Amazon Corretto 8 to replace Oracle
JDK 8.
Available operating systems: Unix—Linux
SERVERS SUPPORTED The system uses/supports Java servers Tomcat, JRun,

other
DATABASES Databases available: Aurora (for operational data),

Redshift (for reporting)
INTEGRATION METHODS Available integration methods: Web services, XML, not

through web services, HTML, HTTP, RESTful HTTP
style services, JSON format, MQSeries, JMS or similar
queue technology, custom APIs, flat files, native
messaging, other
Public API integrations: Google Maps
The vendor does provide training for API integrations.
CORE CODE MODIFICATION Core modifications are the exception to the rule.
% of total cost from core code/development

modifications in recent implementations: 1
Recent core code modifications include Manage

customer-specific reinsurance treaties; change a base
java class for custom logic.
SCALABILITY Scalability metrics: The latest scalability testing

demonstrated the ability to process inputs from 1,500–
2,500 users all in the system at the same time with
split-second response times. In their claims testing, the
average response time across 435,000 requests was
123 milliseconds. Put another way, testing found
InsuranceNow can handle the throughput of some
15,000 claims per hour. Underwriting performance was

equally impressive. In homeowners quoting, policy
issuance, billing, and endorsement testing, the average
response time across 487,500 requests was 219
milliseconds. So, based on a typical year of 50 work
weeks at 5 days per week and 6 hours per day, the
platform can easily support an annual workload of 37
million quotes, 7.5 million policies, and 3.8 million
endorsements. The tests did not suggest that any
maximum scalability limits have been reached.
System performance: InsuranceNow is highly

scalable—there are no known limitations on the
system's scalability. Guidewire hosts all InsuranceNow
customers in AWS and uses AWS tools and services to
monitor performance and scale the system as
necessary to meet performance benchmarks.
Guidewire regularly performs scalability studies to
ensure that the system can scale as needed during
high volume events such as named storms or other
catastrophes.
29
DEPLOYMENT MODELS NA: public cloud:
InsuranceNow includes these managed cloud services:
Managed Upgrades (1/yr.)—One software upgrade a

year is included with the subscription. They help clients
stay current by ensuring clients are on the latest
version of the software, so clients’ business can benefit
from the latest features and functionality available
Daily/Monthly Operations—all necessary batch jobs are

run and handled for clients by their team
Patch Management—patches are applied to the

software automatically, eliminating any need to involve
resources on clients’ side
Bureau Stat Reporting Admin—they will extract files for

stat reporting, hand them off to make sure they get
where they need to go
Product Consulting/Q&A—they include consulting to

help with business and configuration questions to make
sure clients are using the system the way it was
designed to be used.
SOC 1 Type II, SOC 2 Type II and PCI Compliance—

they complete SOC and PCI audits and they publish
their audit reports to clients.
On demand infrastructure—the system can grow to

meet the demand placed on it by clients’ business.
Clients don’t have to worry about provisioning hardware
during usage spikes.
System Security and Audits—making sure clients’ data

is secure, audited, compliant so clients don’t have to
24/7 Monitoring and Performance Tuning—they are

always monitoring the health of clients’ system and
making sure it is running the way it should be.
Disaster Recovery plan and infrastructure—Clients’

applications and data are in the AWS cloud and backed
by their comprehensive disaster recovery plan,
ensuring business continuity for clients. With automatic
failover and multiple availability zones, clients can rest

assured clients’ business will not be interrupted.
PUBLIC CLOUD OPTIONS Public cloud options supported: Amazon AWS
Source: Guidewire
DATA
The InsuranceNow data model is proprietary, object-oriented, easily extensible, and
based on the ACORD standard.
The solution supports industry standard data model schemas by ACORD. The database
was designed from the ground up for this product. Clients can change the data model
through XML metadata. The data model can be released to the client, can be easily
published to a client's data model, can map to an intermediate format (such as an
industry standard) to share with a client.
INTEGRATIONS
Guidewire Software provides Web services, XML, not through web services, HTML,
HTTP, RESTful HTTP style services, JSON format, MQSeries, JMS or similar queue
30
technology, custom APIs, flat files, native messaging, and others as integration methods.
InsuranceNow can support a variety of methods for interfacing with external systems.
API details for the vendor are as follows: API is documented; external systems can
trigger an event in the system that can be responded to by a workflow or business rules
system; API management supports local or global standards such as ACORD application
creation and rendering; API sample codes are available to clients; API developer portal is
available for support and descriptions; API testing portal and the ability to use scripts on
website is available; the system allows API publishing in SOAP, REST, JSON, and XML
style services as APIs; API version management is available; access to the APIs is
managed and use of APIs tracked by developers; Guidewire Software provides
documentation and training for API integrations. The vendor does provide training for API
integrations. InsuranceNow currently comes out of the box with over 120 JSON-based
web service APIs. All business processing within InsuranceNow is designed as a Web
Service that can be exposed as an API.
InsuranceNow includes comprehensive API documentation and examples within the

menu of the InsuranceNow application. Administrators can manage API whitelists for
access to their instance of InsuranceNow.
The table below shows available products pre-integrated with Guidewire InsuranceNow.
Table 107: Insurance Pre-Integrations
INTEGRATION
NCCI: Workers’ Compensation Rates, Rules and Forms
Payment processing systems: Authorize.net
Other (integration type: vendor): ISO ClaimSearch
Other (integration type: vendor): OneSpan (e-signature)
Actuarial modeling tools or software: Guidewire Predictive Analytics
Address verification tools: Service Objects DOTS Address Validation and Geocode,
Analytics solutions: Guidewire Predictive Analytics, Google Analytics,

Billing systems: InsuranceNow includes an integrated Billing module,
Claims management systems: InsuranceNow includes an integrated Claims module,
Distribution management systems (e.g., commissions and licensing): InsuranceNow includes integrated
commissions and licensing, document creation systems: DocOrigin, Smart Communications,
Document management systems: InsuranceNow includes an integrated Document Management module,
eApplications: InsuranceNow includes support for electronic applications through AppReader
eSignature systems: OneSpan
Fraud analytics software: InsuranceNow includes a fraud scoring framework
General ledger: Guidewire GL Interface Framework
Policy administration systems: InsuranceNow includes an integrated Policy module
Product configurator: InsuranceNow includes Studio, a tool to configure products and other system behavior
Reinsurance systems: InsuranceNow includes an integrated reinsurance module
Underwriting workbench/new business underwriting systems: InsuranceNow includes an underwriting

workbench and new business underwriting
Workflow/BPM systems: InsuranceNow includes integrated workflow
31
INTEGRATION
Credit/finance databases for both individuals and businesses: LexisNexis Insurance Score
Drivers/driving history databases for both individuals and businesses: LexisNexis MVR, Softech MVR
Insurance experience databases for both individuals and businesses: LexisNexis CLUE Auto and Property
Location/property databases for both individuals and businesses: Google Places, Clue Property Data Report
Medical databases for both individuals and businesses: Medicare 111 Query and Reporting through Perr &
Knight
Vehicle databases for both individuals and businesses: Verisk VINMASTER
Other (integration type: vendor): LexisNexis Current Carrier
Other (integration type: vendor): Google Analytics
Other (integration type: vendor): Guidewire Lockbox Import
Source: Guidewire
CONFIGURATION
InsuranceNow provides true end user configuration for rates and rating using Excel, a
business user configuration toolkit called Studio, and a technical configuration platform
for more experienced developers. True end users can set up rating algorithms and rates
using a standard Excel workbook. Business users can use Studio to perform product
configuration including the roll-out of new states and versions and business rule
configuration. Technical users can perform configuration using the InsuranceNow Eclipse
or IntelliJ IDEA JAVA integrated development environments (IDE), where they can
directly change the metadata files. Additionally, configurations that are made frequently
and are technically trivial—such as adding/removing an authority role for a user—can be
made directly in the InsuranceNow application by any authorized user. Guidewire
provides certification courses on configuration through Guidewire Education on all three
of these approaches.
The system supports reusable components that can be referenced in any product as
required for reuse. In addition, it supports cut and paste between products and
inheritance from a country-wide to a state level and between products for creation of
package products, etc.

Guidewire Software's approach to change tooling is through providing specific tools for
versioning parts of the configuration/code.
They use open source tools to build automated functional tests (AFTs) including
Fitnesse, Selenium, and JUnit. Guidewire uses a continuous build framework utilizing
Hudson/Jenkins to facilitate and automate regression testing for their own development
with either continuous integration or continuous delivery. Impact analysis support for
developers is provided by the configuration and development user interface which helps
analyze these changes. Developers can analyze dependencies using tools in the IDE
including the ability to analyze module, backward, or cyclic dependencies. Developers
can also analyze references to any class, variable, method, or parameter.
For auditability, the system maintains a complete audit trail of all transactions and data
changes with before and after values, date, user, and time stamp.
The following changes require a restart of the server to take effect: change to a
document, change to user interface, change to underlying data model, new product
creation, product modification/configuration, new web service or integration point, screen
configuration/change, workflow change.
32
Table 108: Approach to System Changes
APPROACH TO SYSTEM CHANGES AVAILABILITY
Business rule definition Configurable using simple tools targeted for a

business user
Data definition Configurable using tools targeted for an IT user
Table maintenance, list of values, etc. Configurable using simple tools targeted for a
business user
Interface definition Coding required
Product definition (insurance or banking products) Configurable using simple tools targeted for a
business user
Role-based security, access control, and Configurable using simple tools targeted for a
authorizations business user
Screen definition Configurable using tools targeted for an IT user
Workflow definition Configurable using simple tools targeted for a

business user
Source: Guidewire
SECURITY
InsuranceNow conforms to SOC 1 Type II, SOC 2 Type II and PCI. To maintain these,
Guidewire undergoes a number of third-party audits throughout the year. Guidewire
Software is PCI compliant. One-time passwords, flexible user permissioning, out of band
identification, security tokens/pins, multi-factor authentication, and federated identity
support are available as authentication factors for internal and external users.
For cybersecurity arrangements, Each InsuranceNow customer has an isolated

production Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) in Amazon Web Services (AWS), which acts as a
secure network for all aspects of system access. Instances of the Amazon Elastic
Compute Cloud EC2 (computing capacity), Elastic File System EFS (files and logs),

Apache Tomcat Application Server, and Aurora Relational Database Service (RDS) are
contained within a private subnet within the VPC. AWS Elastic IP addresses, designed
for dynamic cloud computing, provide access to the VPCs and have their own firewalls to
control IP address authentication. Security groups, which act like a firewall, are also
defined for each EC2 instance. Secure access to the application is defined via HTTPS.
SSL with 256-bit encryption is used. Data is encrypted in transit using TLS 1.2 and
encrypted at rest in the database.
33
PARTNERSHIPS
Table 109: Partnerships
TYPE OF PARTNERSHIP PARTNER VENDOR
SYSTEM INTEGRATORS Guidewire Professional Services manages all

implementations of InsuranceNow. Guidewire works
with certified business partners such as CastleBay,
Cognizant, ITS Data Services, Ernst & Young, and
Perr&Knight to supplement implementation teams
with additional skills (e.g., data migration or
regulatory reporting). Third-party vendors go through
a vendor selection and certification process that
includes InsuranceNow training.
CONVERSION PARTNERS Guidewire works with ITS on some projects that

require conversions,
FUNCTIONALITY PARTNERS Guidewire PartnerConnect Solution partners provide

software, technology, and data solutions as well as
insurance support services. Their solution partners
help drive business value by developing and
delivering additional integrations, extensions, and
other complementary solutions for Guidewire
Software. Guidewire views these add-on products as
integral to the overall value of the Guidewire
solution. Their relationships with these providers
allow them to recommend best of breed technology
that complements and integrates well with Guidewire
InsuranceNow. Their relationships are varied and
are delivered as both OEM and Accelerator
offerings. For example, they utilize Looker
Visualization tools as part of their BI solution. They
work closely with the major database providers on a
global basis to insure compatibility with their
offerings. They partner with document and
communication ,anagement providers such as Smart
Communications and DocOrigin. They maintain
partnerships with the major providers of statistical,
actuarial, and underwriting claims information for
insurance insurers including ISO, Lexis Nexis, and
NCCI. They also partner with other software

providers to add additional functionality in the
system, like Authorize.Net to provide simple, secure
credit card payment capabilities and Service Objects
for address verification services. Please note that
this is not an exhaustive list.
TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS InsuranceNow is a Java web application that is

hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and
managed by Guidewire on behalf of its customers.
FINTECH PARTNERS Nine
ACCREDITATIONS AND CERTIFICATIONS Guidewire is a compliant Payment Card Industry

(PCI) service provider and has completed AICPA
SOC1 and SOC2 audits. Guidewire is ISO 27001
certified for its Cyence product. In addition,
Guidewire is preparing to acquire the ISO 27001
certification for its InsuranceSuite, Guidewire Digital
and DataHub and InfoCenter products in Q1 2020.
As part of preparation for the ISO 27001 audit,
Guidewire has implemented an Information Security
Program that aligns with the ISO 27001, AICPA
SOC and PCI DSS requirements.
Source: Guidewire
34
IMPLEMENTATION, AND SUPPORT
Table 110: Implementation and Support
FUNCTION APPROACH
EMPLOYEES AVAILABLE /AVERAGE Guidewire Software has 979 staff with 15 average years of
EXPERIENCE LEVEL (YEARS) experience providing professional services/client support for
this solution.
The average number of customers per professional
services/client support staff is 19.
LOCATIONS OF EMPLOYEES Guidewire Software has employees across the world, with
1,472 employees in the United States and 883 employees
internationally.
If implementation resources need to be sourced from
different countries, the vendor applies specific rates by
location.
RESOURCE BREAKDOWN (VENDOR, Typical implementation team size: 11 to 15

CLIENT, SYSTEM INTEGRATOR) Vendor: 40% Client: 60% SI: 0%
USE OF THIRD PARTIES They regularly work with third-party system integrators.
Conversion options: vendor or third-party.
AVERAGE TIME TO IMPLEMENTATION Initial implementation: 7 to 12 months

Second and subsequent LOBs: four to six months
Second and subsequent states/jurisdictions: four to six
months
PREFERRED IMPLEMENTATION The InsuranceNow guided implementation approach

APPROACH includes these phases: Customer Assessment (establishes
customer readiness and resource requirements for the
project), Project Kickoff (align expectations, deliver
statements of work, prepare client and Guidewire services
teams), Standard Design and Configuration (gather product
definition and requirements and stand up the initial
insurance product(s) in InsuranceNow), Advanced Tuning
(workflow and other tweaks based on feedback during user
acceptance testing), Production Readiness, and State
Rollout.

SLA AVAILABILITY Service scope included in base SLA: 24x7 service hours
Services available for additional fee: extended service
hours (beyond 9 am to 5 pm)
Features typically included in SLA: incident status updates
based on priority level of incident, metrics and reports,
ticket prioritization, upgrades
System availability: 96 to 100%
Source: Guidewire
35
PRICING
Table 111: Pricing Models
PRICING MODELS AVAILABLE: Pricing models available: subscription-based license,

other pricing model not listed
FACTORS USED TO DETERMINE PRICING Usage-based factors: None

Tier-based factors: None
Source: Guidewire
Table 112: Five-Year Pricing Estimates
INSURER SCENARIO LICENSING IMPLEMENTATION ALL OTHER
AVERAGE YEAR 1 US$500,001 to US$1 US$1.01 million to 0

COSTS million US$5 million
AVERAGE YEAR 2 US$500,001 to US$1 0 0

AND BEYOND million
REMAINING COSTS
Source: Guidewire
36
GUIDEWIRE SOFTWARE: GUIDEWIRE POLICYCENTER
- Advanced Technology
- Customer Base
COMPANY
Guidewire Software is a public company headquartered in San Mateo, California with
sales and professional services personnel located throughout NA, EMEA, APAC, and
LATAM. The company has 2,355 employees, of whom 781 are in professional services
and 198 in technical support and licensing operations.
With each major release of Guidewire’s InsuranceSuite and its associated products
PolicyCenter, BillingCenter, and ClaimCenter, Guidewire has upgraded the application,
underlying tools, third-party libraries, Java versions, and required application stack
options, often expanding the list of vendors supported.
Future development plans include:
• Broadening user base (and serving digital channels)

• Business agility
• Intelligent claim handling and analytic insight.
Guidewire’s spend on R&D over the past two years has been approximately 40% of
license and maintenance revenues. Guidewire does not report on revenue or expense by
product.
Guidewire offers an annual conference.
Table 113: Company Snapshot
Chapter: Guidewire Software: Guidewire PolicyCenter

YEAR FOUNDED 2001
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 2,355
REVENUES (USD) Total corporate revenue: $719.5 million (FY2019)
Product revenue: They do not report on revenue by

product.
FINANCIAL STRUCTURE Company financial structure: public company
NYSE: GWRE
Source: Guidewire
Table 114: Product Snapshot
NAME Guidewire PolicyCenter
YEAR ORIGINALLY RELEASED/DEPLOYED 2005/2006
37
CURRENT RELEASE AND DATE OF 10.0.3/2020
RELEASE
UPGRADES Client can skip multiple versions (e.g., go directly from

version 4.0 to version 7.0)
They support current versions and more than two priors

but not all versions.
TARGET MARKET Mid to large sized property and casualty insurers and
personal and commercial lines of business including
workers’ comp.
INSTALLED BASE North America: Canada: 16, United States: 68
EMEA: Belgium: 3, France: 2, Germany: 3, Italy: 2,

Poland: 1, Russia: 2, Switzerland: 2, United Kingdom: 8,
South Africa: 1
APAC: Australia: 8, Japan: 3, New Zealand: 3
LATAM: Argentina: 3, Brazil: 2, Colombia: 1, Peru: 1,

Uruguay: 1
NEW CLIENTS SINCE 2017 North America: Canada: 10, United States: 35
EMEA: Denmark: 1, Finland: 2, France: 2, Germany: 5,

Italy: 2, Russia: 2, United Kingdom: 3
APAC: Australia: 3, Japan: 1, New Zealand: 1
LATAM: Argentina: 1
NOTABLE CLIENTS Nationwide; The Hartford; Farmers Zurich; Aviva; PZU

Sompo Japan; Icare; QBE Caixa; Pacifico Seguros;
Seguros SURA Columbia
REVENUE FROM PRODUCT/SERVICE They do not report on revenue by product.
FTES PROVIDING PROFESSIONAL 781

SERVICES FOR PRODUCT
USER CONFERENCES/PRODUCT WORKING The vendor offers an annual user conference or customer
GROUPS event.

Source: Guidewire
CELENT OPINION
Guidewire’s PolicyCenter has had a significant revamp of its UI. The most significant
addition is a left side, context sensitive navigation pane that provides relevant actions,
indicators for sequences to be completed, and links to pages for other information or
functions. Other features supporting ease of use include: a quick quote wizard having
pre-defined (and modifiable) coverage levels, an indicator of missing or erroneous data
that pops-in from the right margin, an easy to use table format for resolving out of
sequence endorsement issues, and options for making renewals automated or manually
processed.
There are also several effective add-ins to PolicyCenter. ProducerEngage and

CustomerEngage are digital portals for agents, prospects, and policyholders.
CustomerEngage has a graphic timeline showing the time-stamped sequence of actions
related to a policy before and after issue. There is also a profitability predictor for a given
policy quote. Using predictive analytics, it shows the projected profitability for a given
policy configuration on a 1 to 1,000 scale where 500 is average profitability. That
38
projection changes as coverages, limits, deductions and other product characteristics
change. Additional license fees are required for all of these add-ins.
Configuration has been significantly changed with the introduction of PolicyCenter’s

Advanced Product Designer tool, which utilizes XMind’s mind mapping software.
Essentially, XMind’s drag-and-drop UI allows a product designer to gather product
requirements visually. Using the Advanced Product Designer tool, the product designer
can go through three designated stages to conceptualize, visualize, and finalize any new
or modified product. Guidewire believes that using Advanced Product Designer makes
the product design process significantly faster than the design processes in earlier
PolicyCenter versions. PolicyCenter’s rules configuration environment also has some
usability enhancements. Workflow can continue to be graphically mapped in Studio’s
IDE.
In conclusion, PolicyCenter continues to be one of the leading policy administration

systems—as evidenced by its upgraded UI, its various usable improvements, and its
introduction of the Advanced Product Designer component.
OVERALL FUNCTIONALITY
Guidewire Software offers the following modules in the core system application.
Guidewire PolicyCenter is available on a standalone basis.
Table 115: Component Snapshot
SUITE AVAILABILITY
BILLING Yes—separate module available from this vendor
CLAIMS Yes—separate module available from this vendor
CRM Yes—separate module available from this vendor
REINSURANCE Yes—integrated into the policy admin module
RATING ENGINE Yes—separate module available from this vendor
DIGITAL TOOLS Yes—separate module available from this vendor

DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT Yes—through a formal partnership with another vendor
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE Yes—separate module available from this vendor
ETL TOOLS Yes—separate module available from this vendor
DATA HUB Yes—separate module available from this vendor
DATA WAREHOUSE Yes—separate module available from this vendor
Source: Guidewire
OVERVIEW
Guidewire PolicyCenter™ enables property and casualty insurers to meet the needs of a
rapidly changing industry with more effective underwriting, agile policy and product
management, and excellent customer service.
PolicyCenter embodies 10 years of innovation through partnerships with more than 100
property and casualty insurers. Insurers leverage this experience and Guidewire’s
39
commitment to gain market-driven innovation in customer service, underwriting decision-
making, and policy management.
The figure below shows Guidewire Software’s functionality and the production status of
key features for policy administration and servicing (PAS) systems.
Figure 29: Key Functionality

Supported but Not
Desktop
User desktop/workbench 
Policy detail overview 
Can display flags and alerts on policies 
Data Services
Upload ACORD app 
Integration and prefill with third-party data 
Can upload or import data from Excel (e.g., locations,

drivers)
Documents
Includes a correspondence and forms library 
Automated rendering of forms and correspondence 
Can attach documents, emails, phone calls, or notes 
Includes a content repository and document

management
Notes
Includes a notes facility 
Can search text within notes and diaries 
Other
eSignature 
Consumer portal 
Agent portal 
Supervisory tools
Escalation based on authority 
Dashboard to manage employee’s workload 
Underwriter/adjuster assignment
Automated underwriter assignment 
Out of office/vacation rules 
Workflow

Automatic task generation/workflow 
Quote
Multiline, multi-location rating on a single quote or

policy
Supports non-binding quoting (quick quote)
functionality that only includes rating/risk acceptability- 
related questions
Side by side quotes 
Underwriting
Automated STP underwriting 
Includes underwriting analysis tools such as loss

analysis
Consolidated view of all policies of a single

policyholder
Endorsements, Renewals and Other Transactions
Supports automated cancellations 
Handles out of sequence endorsements 
Supports automated renewals 
Excess, layers and reinsurance
Can document the layer, coverage, and limits when
other insurers are also covering parts of the total 
exposure
Can indicate any reinsurance contracts which apply 
40
Supported but Not
Product Design Tools
Base insurance product (templates) 
Inheritance of product and rating rules 
Rate Calculations
Supports complex rating algorithms 
Can use third-party data gathered real time as an

input to the rate calculation
If legal in your territory, the system provides price

optimization features
Rating Maintenance
Rate table design and update management tools 
Testing, modeling and analysis tools

Includes testing, modeling and product analysis tools 
Versioning and Change Control

Versioning and update management 
Expiry mechanism for products to ensure that quotes

are up to date
Change control functions 
 = Available out of the box  = Configurable through a scripting  = Under development/On

language/coding roadmap
 = Configurable using simple tools  = Available with integration to a  = Could develop—would be
for business user third-party solution considered customization
 = Configurable using simple  = Available with integration to a  = Not available/Not applicable

tools for IT user separate module provided by this
vendor
Source: Guidewire
INTERNATIONALIZATION
Guidewire Software can support multiple currencies, with USD, GBP, EUR, AUD, CAD,
JPY, and RUB currently in production. Guidewire Software can support multiple
language, with English, French, German, Dutch, Japanese, Spanish, Chinese,
Portuguese, Italian, and Russian currently in production.
CUSTOMER BASE

Guidewire Software has 113 total customers globally.
Figure 30: Guidewire Software client base by geography, line of business, institution type, and
deployment mode in North America
Geographic Distribution Insurer Type Distribution

70% 66%
Reinsurance Companies
60% TPA/BPO service…
50% Self-insureds of any size
Agents/Brokers
40%
Tier 5 21%
30% Tier 4 33%
19%
20% Tier 3 13%
10% 7% 7% Tier 2 21%

Tier 1 13%
0%
NA EMEA APAC LATAM 0% 20% 40%
41
Line of Business Distribution Deployment Type Distribution
P&C: Specialty,
9% Public cloud,
P&C: Workers
30%
Compensation,
8%
P&C: Private
Commercial cloud,
Lines, 34% 3% On-premise at the
customer, 68%
P&C: Personal
Lines, 48%
Source: Guidewire
CUSTOMER FEEDBACK
Figure 31: Customer Feedback
Customer average rating

(1=very poor; 5=excellent)
5 Functionality, 4.27
Support, 4.21 2 Technology, 4.33
Implementation, 4.25 Integration/APIs, 4.40 Chapter: Guidewire Software: Guidewire PolicyCenter
Source: Celent 2019/20 PC PAS Customer Feedback Survey
Three clients provided feedback on Guidewire PolicyCenter. One client has been using
the system for three to five years, one for less than one year, and one is still
implementing it. Two clients have all or mostly personal lines and one has a mix of
personal and commercial lines.
Clients rated Guidewire PolicyCenter favorably overall. For functionality, respondents

appreciated the new business quoting/issuance features. Within technology,
configurability of the solution was scored the highest.
42
Clients felt the solution integrated most easily with their claims. Regarding their
implementation experience, the implementers‘ knowledge of the solution and relevant
technology received the highest marks. Finally, in the area of ongoing system support,
knowledge of the insurer’s business received the highest score.
LINES OF BUSINESS SUPPORTED

Table 116: LoB Support
Personal Auto 
Homeowners/Home 
Renters/Contents 
Umbrella 
Commercial Auto 
Commercial Property 
Commercial Liability 
Workers’ Compensation 
Medical Professional Liability 
Other Professional Liability 
Business Owners Policy (BOP) 
Surety and Fidelity 

Excess Policies 
Directors and Officers Liability 
Legend: = Supported and in production;  = Supported but not in production; X = Not supported
Source: Guidewire
TECHNOLOGY
Guidewire applications are built exclusively for the J2EE platform from a clean-sheet
design: they contain no legacy code. Each application runs as a standard three-tiered
architecture with a web client on the front end, an application server hosting the
application, and a database storing the content. Each layer of the application is built
using modern, proven technology. The applications run as clustered instances deployed
on the J2EE Server and connect to the Database via standard JDBC. All application
functionality is provided through a web browser interface, making it simple to provision
and update the application for internal and external users.
43
Guidewire’s technology core is based on the requirements of Guidewire’s customers.
Although each carrier is unique, they have a standard set of base requirements that need
to be addressed by the technology. Layered on top of the technology core is the base
functional content, in this instance, the PolicyCenter application. The final layer is the
customer-configured content, which is created using the tools from the technology core.
The underlying technology stack has always been a standard Java Enterprise Edition
(Java EE) server application server. Each Guidewire application is built and deployed as
a Web Application Archive (WAR) or Enterprise Application Archive (EAR) file to the
application server. It contains all the configuration, operational data, and data definition
files necessary to execute the application. The operational data for the Guidewire
application is stored inside a relational database. Only the versions of the underlying
databases and application servers have changed to stay current.
The primary UI for business users is 100% browser based. For developers and
configurators it is 100% browser based, thick client installed on a desktop. The vendor
does not have plans to change the framework in the future.
Technology details for Guidewire PolicyCenter are provided in the table below.
Table 117: Technology options
CODE BASE Core technology: Java: 86%; GOSU: 13%
OPERATING SYSTEMS The system is implemented in Java and JEE.
JEE/Java version support: The current release of

PolicyCenter, 10.0.3 utilizes Java 11.
Available operating systems: Unix—Linux, Unix—Other,

Windows
SERVERS SUPPORTED The system uses/supports Apache Tomcat, JBoss

Enterprise Application Platform, IBM WebSphere
Application Server and Oracle WebLogic
DATABASES Databases available: Microsoft SQL and Oracle
INTEGRATION METHODS Available integration methods: Web services, XML, not

through web services, HTML, HTTP, RESTful HTTP
style services, JSON format, MQSeries, JMS or similar
queue technology, custom APIs, flat files, native
messaging, other
Public API integrations: PolicyCenter's flexible

integration platform is integrated with hundreds of third-
party systems across their customer base. Google
Maps, Facebook, and Bing are common integration
points.
The vendor does provide training for API integrations.
CORE CODE MODIFICATION Core modifications are the exception to the rule.
% of total cost from core code/development

modifications in recent implementations: 0
No modification of the core product has occurred in any

Guidewire implementations. Guidewire supports the
customer's tailoring and extension of application
functionality and behavior via the use of included
configuration tooling. Guidewire does not provide
access to the source code for the core application.
44
SCALABILITY Scalability metrics: Guidewire has performed extensive
load and stress testing on Guidewire PolicyCenter™ 9
modeling the demands of high-volume insurers. Current
results include successful testing at over 20,000,000 in-
force policies and 20,000 concurrent users.
System performance: PolicyCenter is designed to scale

to the needs of the largest property and casualty
insurers. The same Guidewire Platform underlies each
of the applications in the InsuranceSuite and provides
much of the functionality to support scaling to high
levels. Clustering logic built into the system enables
multiple Guidewire application instances to be joined
together to form a cluster, allowing the spreading of
load across a greater pool of logical Guidewire
application nodes. In addition to the horizontal scaling
provided by the integrated clustering, customers can
also scale vertically via the use of more powerful
individual application nodes. Each node in the cluster
can be designated to perform specific roles such as UI
presentation, batch processing, or third-party
messaging, ensuring the applications continue to
perform for both end users and automated processes.
DEPLOYMENT MODELS NA: On-premise at the customer, on-premise at a

partner, private cloud, public cloud
EMEA: On-premise at the customer, on-premise at a

APAC: On-premise at the customer, on-premise at a

LATAM: On-premise at the customer, on-premise at a

Guidewire PolicyCenter has been architected to operate

in the cloud or on-premise. Cloud deployment options
include private, public, and hybrid cloud
deployments. Guidewire offers PolicyCenter via
Guidewire Cloud, a fully managed SaaS offering that is
deployed and managed by Guidewire and hosted on
Amazon Web Services. Customers can also choose to
manage PolicyCenter directly or through a Guidewire
partner as a managed service within a system
integrator of their choice.

The Guidewire Cloud offering is a cloud-based, single
vendor solution that combines Guidewire’s software
products with their implementation and production
management services. In this model, Guidewire
Software takes program level ownership and
accountability of the initial implementation effort. Upon
go-live, the Guidewire Cloud Services team handles all
operational and application support functions required
to care for the production system. This solution allows
carriers to focus on the business of insurance and to
better manage risk by transferring much of it to
Guidewire.
PUBLIC CLOUD OPTIONS Public cloud options supported: Microsoft Azure,

Amazon AWS, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Alibaba
Cloud, IBM Cloud/Bluemix, Oracle Cloud, Salesforce
Cloud, Force.com, AppExchange
Source: Guidewire
DATA
Guidewire Software's data model is designed by Guidewire. These models have been
designed to support the full policy and billing lifecycles with excellent run-time
45
transactional performance and can be easily extended on a per-carrier basis using the
included configuration tooling. During an implementation project, carriers are free to map
the data to industry models (such as ACORD) for data exchange in integration.
PolicyCenter includes out of the box functionality to process an ACORD FNOL XML file
to populate into an initial policy.
The PolicyCenter data model is purpose-built to the Guidewire PolicyCenter business

case, which currently serves over 240 P&C carriers. It is built to balance third normal
form purity and is tuned for accessibility and scale at some of the largest carriers globally.
Guidewire contains data model imports for ACORD, ISO, and other industry standard
formats. The PolicyCenter data model also allows carriers to extend the system with their
own fields, tables, foreign keys, and data structures supported by third normal form
relational database platforms to meet their custom needs through their configuration tool,
Guidewire Studio. The configuration is maintained in an upgrade-safe configuration layer,
which allows support for future compatibility.
The database was designed from the ground up for this product. Clients can change the
data model using the included Guidewire Studio configuration tool. Customers never
modify the application source code for any reason. The data model can be released to
the client, can be easily published to a client's data model, and can map to an
intermediate format (such as an industry standard) to share with a client.
PolicyCenter is designed to allow customer extension of the application's base data

model. Editors within the Guidewire Studio configuration tool enable insurers to extend
the base data model, adding new fields to existing entities as well as defining entirely
new entities. The data model editor persists the data model descriptions as XML files.
The applications read these files during application deployment, and automatically
generate and issue any DDL required to update the database schema to reflect the
customer-defined data model extensions.
INTEGRATIONS
Guidewire Software provides Web services, XML, not through web services, HTML,
HTTP, RESTful HTTP style services, JSON format, MQSeries, JMS or similar queue
technology, custom APIs, flat files, native messaging, other as integration methods.
PolicyCenter's integration platform can integrate with any third-party system. They
recommend a more loosely coupled approach using Web services or specific sets of
Guidewire-provided integration APIs.

API details for the vendor are as follows: API is documented; external systems can
trigger an event in the system that can be responded to by a workflow or business rules
system; API management supports local or global standards such as ACORD application
creation and rendering; API sample codes are available to clients; API developer portal is
available for support and descriptions; the system allows API publishing in SOAP, REST,
JSON, and XML style services as APIs; API version management is available; access to
the APIs is managed and use of APIs tracked by developers; Guidewire Software
provides documentation and training for API integrations.
The table below shows available products pre-integrated with Guidewire PolicyCenter.
46
Table 118: Insurance Pre-Integrations
INTEGRATION
Medical bill review systems: Mitchell SmartAdvisor
State FROI reporting (United States only): Mitchell SmartAdvisor
Payment processing systems: Prelude PayPilot, InsurPAY
Other (integration type: vendor): Claims History: ISO ClaimSearch
Other (integration type: vendor): FNOL Reporting: Safelite
Address verification tools: USPS
Agency/broker management connectivity solutions (those that manage the data transfer between a carrier's
systems and an agent/broker's systems): Vertafore TransactNOW
Agent portal software: Guidewire ProducerEngage
Agent/broker management systems: IVANS
Analytics solutions: Guidewire InfoCenter, Guidewire Live (Explore)
Billing systems: Guidewire BillingCenter
Business intelligence systems: IBM Cognos
Claims management systems: Guidewire ClaimCenter
CRM solutions: Salesforce for Financial Services
Data warehouse: Guidewire DataHub
Document creation systems: Smart Communications SmartComm
Document management systems: Hyland OnBase
Enterprise risk management (ERM) systems: Oracle Financials
eSignature systems: DocuSign
Fraud analytics software: FRISS Fraud Detection, Guidewire Predictive Analytics
Loss control or premium audit systems: Utilant LC360; Guidewire Checking Audits
Policy administration systems: Guidewire PolicyCenter, Price optimization tools: Guidewire Predictive
Analytics

Product configurator: Guidewire Studio, Guidewire Product Designer
Reinsurance systems: Guidewire Reinsurance Management
Stand-alone rating systems: Guidewire Rating Management
Underwriting workbench/New business underwriting systems: Guidewire Underwriting Management
Credit/finance databases for both individuals and businesses: LexisNexis Consumer Credit Score
Demographic/consumer databases for both individuals and businesses: LexisNexis Consumer Credit Score
Drivers/driving history databases for both individuals and businesses: LexisNexis MVR
Insurance experience databases for both individuals and businesses: LexisNexis C.L.U.E.
Location/property databases for both individuals and businesses: CoreLogic® RCT Express
Medical databases for both individuals and businesses: ODG
Vehicle databases for both individuals and businesses: LexisNexis MVR
Source: Guidewire
47
CONFIGURATION
Guidewire Software provides specific tools for versioning parts of the configuration/code.
Guidewire provides testing tools that help evaluate the impact of change. Configuration
changes to the application will follow a build, test, deploy process. Customers typically
have multiple test environments in which impact testing can be performed before moving
changes to production. Guidewire Studio, built on JetBrains’ IntelliJ IDEA software, offers
a wide variety of refactoring options to track down and update any configured code
reference automatically. Refactoring options such as changing of class signatures,
encapsulating fields or methods, and move, migrate, replace options can be easily
accessible using the Refactor context menu within Studio. Additionally, Guidewire
provides a merge tool during the upgrade process to highlight files that have been
modified by the customer or modified with new content by Guidewire. A customer then
has the option of taking on the latest changes from Guidewire or maintaining their current
configuration.
Table 119: Approach to System Changes
APPROACH TO SYSTEM CHANGES AVAILABILITY
Business rule definition Configurable using simple tools targeted for a

business user
Data definition Configurable using tools targeted for an IT user
Table maintenance, list of values, etc. Configurable using tools targeted for an IT user
Interface definition Configurable using tools targeted for an IT user
Product definition (insurance or banking products) Configurable using simple tools targeted for a
business user
Role-based security, access control, and Configurable using simple tools targeted for a
authorizations business user
Screen definition Configurable using tools targeted for an IT user

Workflow definition Configurable using simple tools targeted for a
business user
Source: Guidewire
SECURITY
Guidewire InsuranceSuite Cloud (including PolicyCenter) and Cyence products are ISO
27001 certified. Guidewire has demonstrated that it meets the Payment Card Industry
(PCI) standard and has completed AICPA SOC1 and SOC2 audits. One-time passwords,
flexible user permissioning, out of band identification, security tokens/pins, multi-factor
authentication, and federated identity support are available as authentication factors for
internal and external users.
Each customer has isolations for all their environments enforced at the network, compute
and storage level by combination of firewalls, software defined networks and container
technologies. Guidewire Cloud Platform enables end-to-end encryption with TLS 1.2 and
all systems are fully hardened. Additional security precautions are taken for DDoS and
malware protection. SOC 2 compliant logging and runtime scanning of containers is
enabled to find and mitigate vulnerabilities. Guidewire Cloud Platform systems have
48
encryption at rest, endpoint security, threat intelligence and cyberattack response
services for its operators.
PARTNERSHIPS
Table 120: Partnerships
TYPE OF PARTNERSHIP PARTNER VENDOR
SYSTEM INTEGRATORS There are currently more than 10,000 system

integrator consultants who have been trained or are
experienced on Guidewire applications.
CONVERSION PARTNERS For a complete listing of partners, please visit

https://www.guidewire.com/partnerconnect.
FUNCTIONALITY PARTNERS Their solution partners help drive business value by

developing and delivering additional integrations,
extensions, and complementary solutions for
Guidewire products. Smart Communications,
Hyland, OpenText, DocuSign, Mitchell, Perr &
Knight, and FRISS, to name a few.
TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS Guidewire extends their solution footprint by working

with third-party technology and business advisory
companies that complement their solutions and
provide significant customer value. They continue to
form new partnerships in the technology arena to
ensure their customer’s eco-system needs are
fulfilled. Furthermore, they also have relationships
with platform companies like IBM, Microsoft, and
Oracle to ensure their technologies are ported and
optimized on their infrastructure. They maintain
membership in and relationships with Standards and
Industry groups such as ACORD-LOMA, ISO,
IAIABC, and others.
FINTECH PARTNERS Universal Payment, Prelude, and InsurPay
ACCREDITATIONS AND CERTIFICATIONS Guidewire InsuranceSuite Cloud (including

PolicyCenter) and Cyence products are ISO 27001
certified. Guidewire has demonstrated that it meets

the Payment Card Industry (PCI) standard and has
completed AICPA SOC1 and SOC2 audits.
Source: Guidewire
IMPLEMENTATION, AND SUPPORT

Table 121: Implementation and Support
FUNCTION APPROACH
EMPLOYEES AVAILABLE /AVERAGE Guidewire Software has 979 staff with 15 average years of
EXPERIENCE LEVEL (YEARS) experience providing professional services/client support for
this solution.
The average number of customers per professional
services/client support staff is 7.
49
FUNCTION APPROACH
LOCATIONS OF EMPLOYEES Guidewire Software has employees across the world with
1,472 employees in the United States and 883 employees
internationally
If implementation resources need to be sourced from
different countries, the vendor applies specific rates by
location.
RESOURCE BREAKDOWN (VENDOR, Typical implementation team size: 20 to 30

CLIENT, SYSTEM INTEGRATOR) Vendor: 10% Client: 50% SI: 40%
USE OF THIRD PARTIES Third-party system implementors do most of their

implementations.
Conversion options: vendor or third-party.
AVERAGE TIME TO IMPLEMENTATION Initial implementation: 7 to 12 months

Second and subsequent LOBs: four to six months
Second and subsequent states/jurisdictions: four to six
months
PREFERRED IMPLEMENTATION Guidewire uses an Agile methodology approach for rapid

APPROACH configuration and deployment of their products.
SLA AVAILABILITY Service scope included in base SLA: 24x7 service hours
Services available for additional fee: extended service
hours (beyond 9 am to 5 pm)
Features typically included in SLA: incident status updates
based on priority level of incident, metrics and reports,
ticket prioritization, upgrades
System availability: 96 to 100%
Source: Guidewire
PRICING
Table 122: Pricing Models
PRICING MODELS AVAILABLE: Pricing models available: term license, enterprise

license, subscription-based license, other pricing

model not listed
FACTORS USED TO DETERMINE PRICING Usage-based factors: None
Tier-based factors: None
Source: Guidewire
Table 123: Five-year pricing estimates
INSURER SCENARIO LICENSING IMPLEMENTATION ALL OTHER
AVERAGE YEAR 1 US$500,001 to US$1 US$1.01 million to 0

COSTS million US$5 million
AVERAGE YEAR 2 US$500,001 to US$1 0 0

AND BEYOND million
REMAINING COSTS
Source: Guidewire
50
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
FOR INSURERS
There is no single best policy administration solution for all insurers. There are a number
of good choices for an insurer with almost any set of requirements. An insurer seeking a
new policy administration system should begin the process by looking inward. Every
insurer has its own unique mix of lines of business, geography, staff capabilities,
business objectives, and financial resources. This unique combination, along with the
organization’s risk appetite, will influence the list of vendors for consideration.
Some vendors are a better fit for an insurance company with a large IT group that is
deeply proficient with the most modern platforms and tools. Other vendors are a better fit
for an insurance company that has a small IT group and wants a vendor to take a leading
role in maintaining and supporting its applications.
Most policy administration systems bring some level of out-of-the-box functionality for
various lines of business and operating models. Many systems offer powerful
configuration tools to build capabilities for both known and future requirements. We’re
increasingly seeing a growing focus on integration strategies, including a shift to a
microservices architecture.
We recommend that insurers that are looking for a policy administration system narrow
their choices by focusing on four areas:
• The functionality needed and available out of the box for the lines of business and
states desired. Check to see what is actually in production.
• The technology, including the overall architecture, the integration framework, and the
configuration tools and environment.
• The vendor’s stability, knowledge of, and investment in the solution.
• Implementation and support capabilities and experience.
FOR VENDORS
As a group, vendors continue to make significant investments in their policy
administration systems. The solutions are delivering more functionality, improving
configuration tools, and are more connected, with a new focus on integration. Although
these trends are all very good news for insurers, they do make the competitive
challenges facing vendors that much more daunting.
Celent recommends vendors differentiate themselves by:
• Focusing on improving usability for both new and experienced users and managers.
• Making implementation faster and less expensive.
Chapter: Concluding Thoughts
• Continue to move to open APIs and other integration frameworks to drive the easy
orchestration of processes and data across external digital capabilities.
• Continuing to build out configuration environments to put change controls in the
hands of the carriers.
Was this report useful to you? Please send any comments, questions, or suggestions for
upcoming research topics to [email protected].
51
LEVERAGING CELENT’S EXPERTISE
If you found this report valuable, you might consider engaging with Celent for custom
analysis and research. Our collective experience and the knowledge we gained while
working on this report can help you streamline the creation, refinement, or execution of
your strategies.
SUPPORT FOR FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

Typical projects we support related to policy administration systems include:
Vendor short listing and selection. We perform discovery specific to you and your
business to better understand your unique needs. We then create and administer a
custom RFI to selected vendors to assist you in making rapid and accurate vendor
choices.
Business practice evaluations. We spend time evaluating your business processes,

particularly in policy administration, rating, and claims. Based on our knowledge of the
market, we identify potential process or technology constraints and provide clear insights
that will help you implement industry best practices.
IT and business strategy creation. We collect perspectives from your executive team,
your front line business and IT staff, and your customers. We then analyze your current
position, institutional capabilities, and technology against your goals. If necessary, we
help you reformulate your technology and business plans to address short-term and long-
term needs.
SUPPORT FOR VENDORS

We provide services that help you refine your product and service offerings.
Examples include:
Product and service strategy evaluation. We help you assess your market position in
terms of functionality, technology, and services. Our strategy workshops will help you
target the right customers and map your offerings to their needs.
Market messaging and collateral review. Based on our extensive experience with your
potential clients, we assess your marketing and sales materials—including your website
and any collateral.
Chapter: Leveraging Celent’s Expertise
52
RELATED CELENT RESEARCH
Digital Transformation in Insurance

November 2019
API and Affinity in Insurance: Revisiting our SOA Predictions and Path Forward
August 2019
Preparing for Digital: Laying the Foundation for Success

May 2019
Data, Data, New Data Everywhere: Property/Casualty Edition

November 2018
Digitizing the Customer Experience: A New Framework

May 2018
The New Architecture for Core Systems: What It Is and How Quickly Vendors Are
Adopting It
March 2018
The New Build Vs. Buy Debate

February 2018
The New Recipe that Is Changing Insurance

February 2018
Honey I Shrunk the Microservices

December 2017
Reinventing Underwriting: New Ingredients for the Secret Sauce

June 2016
Chapter: Related Celent Research
53
Copyright Notice
Prepared by
Celent, a division of Oliver Wyman, Inc.

Copyright © 2020 Celent, a division of Oliver Wyman, Inc., which is a wholly owned
subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies [NYSE: MMC]. All rights reserved. This report
may not be reproduced, copied or redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form or by any
means, without the written permission of Celent, a division of Oliver Wyman (“Celent”) and
Celent accepts no liability whatsoever for the actions of third parties in this respect. Celent
and any third party content providers whose content is included in this report are the sole
copyright owners of the content in this report. Any third party content in this report has been
included by Celent with the permission of the relevant content owner. Any use of this report
by any third party is strictly prohibited without a license expressly granted by Celent. Any
use of third party content included in this report is strictly prohibited without the express
permission of the relevant content owner. This report is not intended for general circulation,
nor is it to be used, reproduced, copied, quoted or distributed by third parties for any
purpose other than those that may be set forth herein without the prior written permission
of Celent. Neither all nor any part of the contents of this report, or any opinions expressed
herein, shall be disseminated to the public through advertising media, public relations,
news media, sales media, mail, direct transmittal, or any other public means of
communications, without the prior written consent of Celent. Any violation of Celent’s rights
in this report will be enforced to the fullest extent of the law, including the pursuit of
monetary damages and injunctive relief in the event of any breach of the foregoing
restrictions.
This report is not a substitute for tailored professional advice on how a specific financial
institution should execute its strategy. This report is not investment advice and should not
be relied on for such advice or as a substitute for consultation with professional
accountants, tax, legal or financial advisers. Celent has made every effort to use reliable,
up-to-date and comprehensive information and analysis, but all information is provided
without warranty of any kind, express or implied. Information furnished by others, upon
which all or portions of this report are based, is believed to be reliable but has not been
verified, and no warranty is given as to the accuracy of such information. Public information
and industry and statistical data, are from sources we deem to be reliable; however, we
make no representation as to the accuracy or completeness of such information and have
accepted the information without further verification.
Celent disclaims any responsibility to update the information or conclusions in this report.
Celent accepts no liability for any loss arising from any action taken or refrained from as a
result of information contained in this report or any reports or sources of information
referred to herein, or for any consequential, special or similar damages even if advised of
the possibility of such damages.
There are no third party beneficiaries with respect to this report, and we accept no liability
to any third party. The opinions expressed herein are valid only for the purpose stated
herein and as of the date of this report.
No responsibility is taken for changes in market conditions or laws or regulations and no
obligation is assumed to revise this report to reflect changes, events or conditions, which
occur subsequent to the date hereof.
For more information please contact [email protected] or:
Karlyn Carnahan [email protected]

Donald Light [email protected]
AMERICAS EUROPE ASIA
USA France Japan
99 High Street, 32nd Floor 1 Rue Euler The Imperial Hotel Tower, 13th Floor
Boston, MA 02110-2320 Paris 1-1-1 Uchisaiwai-cho
75008 Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0011
Tel.: +1.617.262.3120
Fax: +1.617.262.3121 Tel.: +33.1.45.02.30.00 Tel: +81.3.3500.3023
Fax: +33.1.45.02.30.01 Fax: +81.3.3500.3059
USA United Kingdom Hong Kong
1166 Avenue of the Americas 55 Baker Street Unit 04, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10036 London W1U 8EW Central Plaza
19 Harbour Road, Wanchai
Tel.: +1.212.541.8100 Tel.: +44.20.7333.8333
Fax: +1.212.541.8957 Fax: +44.20.7333.8334 Tel.: +852 2301 7500
USA Italy
Four Embarcadero Center, Suite 1100 Galleria San Babila 4B

San Francisco, CA 94111 Milan 20122
Tel.: +1.415.743.7900 Tel.: +39.02.305.771

Fax: +1.415.743.7950 Fax: +39.02.303.040.44
Brazil Switzerland
Rua Arquiteto Olavo Redig Tessinerplatz 5

de Campos, 105 Zurich 8027
Edifício EZ Tower—Torre B—
26° Andar Tel.: +41.44.5533.333
São Paulo SP 04711-904
Tel.: +55 11 3878 2000

Report Celent Na Policy Administration Systems 2020 Property Casualty Edition 202006

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Report Celent Na Policy Administration Systems 2020 Property Casualty Edition 202006

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Report Celent Na Policy Administration Systems 2020 Property Casualty Edition 202006

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

POLICY ADMINISTRATION

SYSTEMS: NORTH AMERICA

Karlyn Carnahan and Donald Light

Executive Summary ............................................................................................................ 1

Guidewire received the following two XCelent designations:

• XCelent Technology for the leading Advanced Technology score:

• XCelent Customer Base for the leading Customer Base score:

In actual practice, an insurer uses a PAS—either by itself or closely integrated with

TRANSACTIONAL SERVICING FEATURES

Scheduling/calendar/diary: A wide variety of tools are available to help the underwriter

Chapter: Policy Administration Systems: Definition and Functionality

Chapter: Policy Administration Systems: Definition and Functionality

PRODUCT MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES

Product design tools: The product architecture is a key component of a policy

Chapter: Policy Administration Systems: Definition and Functionality

Chapter: Policy Administration Systems: Definition and Functionality

Price optimization, machine learning, and artificial intelligence: Systems may

Chapter: Policy Administration Systems: Definition and Functionality

Document management: Some systems contain a document management capability

Mobile/multichannel access: Almost all solutions are browser-based and so are

Chapter: Policy Administration Systems: Definition and Functionality

Release management: Some solutions include workflow capabilities to handle the

Versioning and change control: Versioning and update management is a critical

Chapter: Policy Administration Systems: Definition and Functionality

Security: Security is becoming increasingly important to insurers, especially as policy

Scalability: While we typically think of scalability in terms of the number of policy

Integration: Policy administration systems integrate to large numbers of third-party

Implementation: Vendors use a wide variety of implementation methodologies. Some

Cloud: Few technologies are as talked about as cloud computing. Cloud-enabled

Chapter: Policy Administration Systems: Definition and Functionality

CLAIMS ADMINISTRATION A system to record and transact all matters relating

BILLING A system to create invoices and handle collections

CRM Allows the aggregation of data on a customer or at

REINSURANCE A system to record any reinsurance contract related

RATING ENGINE A stand-alone rating engine should be capable of

Chapter: Policy Administration Systems: Definition and Functionality

DIGITAL TOOLS Digital tools can be thought of as software or

DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT A system that manages the compliance aspects of

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE Designing, storing, and accessing reports ranging

DATA HUB A data hub is a centralized service that connects an

DATA WAREHOUSE A data warehouse is a system that pulls together

Chapter: Policy Administration Systems: Definition and Functionality

CRITERIA FOR INCLUSION

ABOUT THE PROFILES

The profiles are presented in alphabetical order.

Chapter: Report Method

Celent has developed a framework for evaluating vendors. This is a standard

ABCD CATEGORIES POSSIBLE FACTORS

UI (ease of use, mobility)

Data and adaptability/extendibility (openness of application, code

Integration (web services, APIs, reference comments)

Scalability and cloud (cloud readiness, largest installations, etc.)

Ease of change (change tooling, debugging capabilities, etc.)

BREADTH OF FUNCTIONALITY Functions and features provided in base offering

In production lines of business and number of deployments for each

New client momentum

THE XCELENT AWARDS

• XCelent Technology for the leading Advanced Technology score

Figure 1: XCelent Technology and XCelent Functionality