BearingPoint, Inc. (NYSE: BE), one of the world’s largest management and technology consulting firms, and Guidewire Software®, a leading provider of solutions to property and casualty and workers' compensation insurers, today announced a collaborative effort to implement, host and maintain a new claims system for CompWest Insurance Company, a San Francisco-based provider of workers’ compensation insurance serving the Western United States.
CompWest will use Guidewire ClaimCenter®, a 100% Web-based claims system, to enable it to better manage costs and drive efficiencies associated with claims handling and processing. The system will allow CompWest to expand adjusting capabilities, maximize operational efficiency and improve overall cost-effectiveness. BearingPoint will host the ClaimCenter application, enabling stricter and more efficient maintenance of the solution.
BearingPoint and Guidewire have developed a collaborative and scalable approach to ClaimCenter implementations, and are currently working on more than a dozen implementations. This latest collaboration builds upon the companies’ shared experiences implementing ClaimCenter, a unique approach to market that will benefit CompWest’s claims system project.
“Our company strategy of providing superior care to injured workers in the fastest, most efficient manner possible has allowed us to outperform other California workers’ compensation insurers by 38 percent in litigation avoidance and 48 percent in paid indemnity. Guidewire will enable us to maintain this operational excellence as we grow, and BearingPoint's integration and maintenance capabilities are a natural fit for our aggressive implementation goals and our customers' demanding service needs," said Steve Pogue, chief operating officer of CompWest. “By drawing on the collective strengths of these two best-in-class service providers, we will deliver the same results at a lower cost, resulting in premium savings for our customers and better care for our injured workers.”
The team will combine BearingPoint’s tested, proprietary delivery framework templates and project accelerators with ClaimCenter’s configuration flexibility and integration infrastructure to support an early 2008 “go-live” date for the system. Over the next several months, BearingPoint will be actively engaged in all aspects of the implementation process, from risk assessment and analysis to integration, design, testing and, ultimately, deployment of the interface.
Paul Lavin, BearingPoint managing director said, “This pairing combines both companies’ core competencies and gives BearingPoint and Guidewire the advantage of collaboratively going to market with a complete, end-to-end solution. With Guidewire, we recognized a clear opportunity to establish a strategic, repeatable implementation approach that would benefit insurance organizations worldwide.”
Priscilla Hung, vice president, alliances of Guidewire added, “BearingPoint is a valued Guidewire systems integrator and has developed a disciplined practice as well as the tools and training to kick-start and successfully deliver Guidewire products. This level of focus and experience makes them extremely well qualified and is a complementary approach to the solutions we provide. We are confident this strategic relationship will deliver the results CompWest expects.”
Guidewire’s standout performance has made the company a preferred technology provider for BearingPoint. Most recently, Financial Insights, an IDC Company, and Insurance Networking News in its InsureTopTech: Voice of the Market survey named Guidewire the 2007 “Overall Winner” and a top service provider across 4 of 9 categories, including the “Most Value Added,” “Keep the Business Operating” and “Up-and-Coming” categories.