Guidewire Software, Inc. (NYSE: GWRE), a provider of software products to Property/Casualty (P/C) insurers, recently hosted its 12th annual user conference, Connections 2016, in San Francisco, California. Connections 2016 provided a forum for the Guidewire community – customers, partners, and Guidewire employees – to come together to learn, collaborate, network and receive the latest information about Guidewire’s products.
Connections 2016 kicked off with Chief Executive Officer Marcus Ryu, sharing Guidewire’s perspective on the disruptive forces facing P/C insurers and commitment to shoulder more of the technology burden in the years ahead. He also discussed the company’s aspiration to provide an industry standard platform for P/C insurance, recapping its progress in that direction and sharing its high-level plans for the future. Marcus was followed by Guidewire’s Chief Product Officer Ali Kheirolomoom, and Product Marketing Director for InsuranceSuite Daniele Groves, who shared the company’s product-related accomplishments over the past year, including the launch of InsurancePlatform in June and the just-announced 2016.2 InsurancePlatform release with Data and Digital enhancements. They also highlighted Guidewire’s two acquisitions, as well as shared general product direction for the years ahead.
This year’s guest keynote speaker was Sir Ken Robinson, the most-watched TED Talk speaker on TED.com of all time. His TED2006 presentation, “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” has been watched more than 41 million times. In his keynote, Ken identified the three myths of innovation that hold many organizations back, and the basic practices that drive the most innovative organizations ahead of the pack, then presented a three-tier strategy to generate “systemic innovation” across the whole organization. He concluded by identifying the three core roles of creative leaders to make this happen.
Three Guidewire customers presented keynotes. Bob DiMuccio, President and CEO of Amica, described Amica’s success with the Guidewire InsuranceSuite™ in meeting the trends and challenges facing the insurance industry – as well as the expectations of its customers. David Stevens, CEO of Admiral UK, explained why flexibility is critical for the future of insurance delivery, and predicted which industry changes are most likely to be game changers and which will prove to be hype and hot air. Scott Wollney, President and CEO of Atlas Financial Holdings, talked about the possibilities realized and lessons learned along the way to improved pricing precision and claims-reserving decisions, customer satisfaction gains, and expense reductions, through the use of Guidewire Predictive Analytics™. On the final day of Connections, AXA Global, Endurance, and IAG participated in a customer panel discussion moderated by American Family, where they discussed their perspectives on aspects of their customer journeys, and how they are adapting and succeeding with innovative projects.
Over 150 hands-on workshops, roundtable discussions, expert panels, chalk talks, and educational breakout sessions were held during Connections, many involving or led by Guidewire customers. These sessions provided the opportunity for customers such as Aviva, Basler, Beazley Group, CNA, Endurance, Erie Insurance, Hartford Steam Boiler, Nationwide, QBE Australia, and Zurich Insurance plc to share their experiences, lessons learned, and best practices.
Connections 2016 was sponsored by the following Guidewire PartnerConnect™ Consulting and Solution partners: Blackcomb Consultants; Capgemini; The CastleBay Companies; Centric Consulting; CGI; Cognizant; Cynosure; Deloitte; DocuSign; Enterprise Rent A Car; EY; GMC Software Technology; HCL; IBM; IVANS Insurance Solutions; LexisNexis; Loss Control 360; Mitchell; OnBase by Hyland; OpenText Exstream; PwC; Smart Communications; Vertafore; and V-NEO – who were on hand to discuss their services/solutions with attendees. Platinum sponsors (indicated by *) participated with customers in presentations, and other sponsors moderated roundtable discussions.
For the 10th consecutive year, Guidewire honored the winners of its customer Innovation Awards program, and also introduced a new ‘Hero’ award to recognize individuals from customer project teams.
“We were honored this year to recognize our 10th annual Innovation Award winners, and for the first time, individual project heroes who were nominated by their companies for their extraordinary work above and beyond the call of duty,” said Brian Desmond, Chief Marketing Officer, Guidewire Software.
Desmond concluded, “Our customers continue to inspire us with stories of how they are using Guidewire InsurancePlatform™ to increase speed to market, improve engagement with policyholders and agents and lower operating costs in a rapidly changing marketplace. We thank our customers and partners for helping to make Connections such an enjoyable and useful experience.”