Farmers Insurance Selects Guidwire to Improve Customer Experience and Internal Processes

By Michael Guta
TMCnet Contributing Writer

The multibillion-dollar insurance industry is large in every way imaginable. With hundreds of millions of individual and business customers, insurance companies have to manage an extremely complex ecosystem. As a whole, the industry is always looking for solutions that will introduce new levels of efficiency to improve overall operations. The development of information and communications technologies has introduced many solutions that has been deployed by insurance companies, and Farmers Insurance has selected Guidewire Software, Inc. a provider of software products to Property/Casualty (P/C) insurers, to improve its customer experience and for the simplification of internal processes.

With $18.6 billion in direct written premium in 2014, Farmers Insurance is one of the U.S.’s largest multiline insurers. Farmers was looking for a proven platform that can provide a solution that not only addresses customers, but also its agents and employees. It selected the Guidewire PolicyCenter and Guidewire Rating Management for its Personal Lines business.

“Farmers is focused on making customers smarter about their insurance decisions, and our investment in the right technology helps us keep that promise,” said Jeff Dailey, chief executive officer, Farmers Group, Inc. “We’re looking forward to working with Guidewire, and to putting additional technological muscle behind our customer-focused philosophy and practices.”

PolicyCenter supports the entire underwriting and policy administration lifecycle which will allow Farmers to underwrite risk and manage policies for personal and commercial lines with greater control. It supports policy lifecycle with core functions, including:

• Product definitions
• Underwriting
• Quoting
• Binding
• Endorsements
• Renewals

The benefits to Farmers use of PolicyCenter are cited as giving the insurer a more agile business, stronger customer focus, underwriting excellence and increased operational efficiency. Of note is that the platform is available as a standalone system or as part of the Guidewire InsuranceSuite. It can be integrated with legacy systems and third-party applications.

Rating Management is an add-module to PolicyCenter. It gives insurance companies the visibility and flexibility for more accurate control and responsiveness over rating and pricing to the product lifecycle. By providing this type of agility, products can be introduced to market much more quickly to cash on new opportunities. Additionally the operational efficiency it provides drives down costs without compromising quality.

“The Farmers brand, scale, breadth of products, national agent network and employees are great assets in adapting and succeeding in an ever more dynamic and digital future for the property and casualty industry,” said Marcus Ryu, chief executive officer, Guidewire Software.

The one thing ICT has done for the insurance industry, and indeed all industries, is introduce a more flexible operational model. The technology has allowed companies to assess their segment, make informed decisions and launch products to market faster than ever before. Guidewire is providing Farmers Insurance two solutions that will make this possible without compromising quality and customer service.