Guidewire Announces Banff Release and Vision for the Future of P&C Claims

SAN MATEO Calif. , November 16, 2020

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Banff introduces P&C industry’s first closed-loop analytics platform

Autopilot for ClaimCenter will set new baseline for P&C claims automation and efficiency

New CloudDirect program enables customers to upgrade directly to Guidewire Cloud

Guidewire Software, Inc. (NYSE: GWRE), the platform P&C insurers trust to engage, innovate, and grow efficiently, today announced availability of Banff, the latest release of its market-leading cloud insurance platform. Banff will be unveiled at Connections Reimagined, Guidewire’s customer conference on November 18 and 19. To register, visit connections.guidewire.com.

In addition to the Banff release, Guidewire will also outline its vision for the future of P&C claims at Connections Reimagined. “Guidewire believes that claims handling is entering a new era with automated claims being the default, even for complex claims. Adjusters can focus their skills and experience where they can have the most impact on customer satisfaction,” said Reshma Mani, senior director, Product Management, Claims, Guidewire. “Over the last year we’ve worked on a major innovation, called Autopilot, which demonstrates this vision.”

Autopilot, an innovative new framework in Guidewire Cloud Platform, takes an automation-first approach to claims handling in ClaimCenter. Leveraging AI, analytics, and digital technologies, claims are piloted through complex business processes quickly, enabling insurers to deliver significantly better customer experiences while lowering their operating expenses.

In June, Guidewire announced Aspen, a pivotal release, which reimagined insurance core platforms and introduced the Guidewire Cloud Platform.1 Banff, Guidewire’s second bi-annual release, builds on Aspen to introduce the industry's first closed-loop analytics platform to make insurance professionals “brilliant in the moment,” by providing the insight to make better decisions as they work in their core workspace. Guidewire now enables insurers to leverage their own data through Guidewire Data Platform, enrich insights with the Cyence data listening engine and use of syndicated data, embed predictive analytics scores in core workflows, and learn continuously with A/B testing and portfolio performance tracking.

Other Banff highlights include:

  • CloudDirect—A new program combining tools and upgrade expert services to enable self-managed Guidewire InsuranceSuite customers to upgrade directly to Guidewire Cloud, reducing upgrade costs and streamlining planning.

  • InsuranceSuite Cloud API and InsuranceNow API—New APIs enabling insurers to easily connect with third-party systems and services, reducing integration costs and accelerating innovation.

  • Product Editions—An enhancement to Advanced Product Designer (APD) enabling product changes to be made based on effective dates, increasing insurers’ ability to respond to customer preferences and market dynamics.

  • Cloud-native services—Building on the cloud-native services introduced in Aspen for rating and business rules, new cloud-native services (including inbound payments and disbursements) increase business agility while simplifying IT operations.

  • Cyence risk insights—New features (including support for small business general liability and enhanced support for cyber risk assessment with Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) Exposure Signal) plus technology preview of targeted ransomware event modeling, enable insurers to deliver more profitable growth.

  • developer.guidewire.com—A new developer program that brings articles, blogs, videos, and more to the world-wide community of developers working on the Guidewire platform, enabling them to drive innovation and creatively address business objectives.

  • Marketplace apps for InsuranceNow—Guidewire PartnerConnect Solution partners can now build apps for Guidewire InsuranceNow customers, which will significantly reduce integration costs and provide new options to innovate and improve operational efficiency. Four partners are unveiling apps for InsuranceNow at Connections Reimagined: Cloverleaf, LexisNexis, One Inc, and OneSpan.

  • Consumer sales portal for InsuranceNow—A new consumer sales portal included in InsuranceNow enables rapid deployment, increased customer engagement, and new business growth.

“We’re excited to share our latest innovations with our customer community at Connections Reimagined. Banff builds on the momentum we began in Aspen to reimagine P&C core platforms by delivering closed-loop analytics, new cloud-native services and capabilities, and APIs to empower business and IT,” said Diego Devalle, chief product development officer, Guidewire. “In addition to unveiling Banff, we’re excited to outline our vision for claims. We’ve worked with a group of our customers on our design of Autopilot and believe it will be a game-changer for the industry.”

Guidewire was recently positioned as a Leader for the sixth consecutive time in Gartner, Inc.'s “Magic Quadrant for P&C Core Platforms, North America1” for InsuranceSuite” and was named a Challenger for the fourth consecutive time in the same report for InsuranceNow. In addition, Guidewire has been positioned as a Leader in Gartner, Inc.’s most recent “Magic Quadrant for Non-Life Insurance Platforms, Europe,2” for the third consecutive year for InsuranceSuite.

1 Guidewire Cloud Platform is a cloud-native foundation of Guidewire Cloud leveraging common cloud services, like provisioning and observability, built to deliver the full power of Guidewire.

2 Gartner, Magic Quadrant for P&C Core Platforms, North America, Venkatesh Padmanabhan, James Ingham, Sham Gill, October 20, 2020

3 Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Non-Life-Insurance Platforms, Europe, Sham Gill and Manav Sachdeva, September 21, 2020

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