Meet Gore Mutual

Business Benefits

• Launched an entirely new operating model in personal lines automobile and a highly automated and scalable national contact center within 24 months
• Improved broker and customer experience by providing a streamlined process flow that would enable brokers to focus more on finding the right set of protections for the customer
• Redesigned its claims operating model by bringing deep specialization and standardization to that business, and in turn has had more than $20 million of recurring cost savings from its claims business

The Story

Established in 1839, Gore Mutual was one of Canada’s first property and casualty insurers. The company was founded on the idea of people working together to overcome adversity by protecting each other and their communities. That way of thinking is what has driven Gore Mutual’s ability to adapt to change over the years, and in turn, achieve growth.

Gore Mutual has been on a transformation journey since 2019. It had been 180 years since its founding and the insurer remained a regional insurance company. Company leaders had a vision to become a digitally-led, national insurer. That is where the Next Horizon strategy came in.

Next Horizon Strategy

Next Horizon is the insurer’s 10-year vision to transform every aspect of its technology and enhance its product and operating model. Only a few years in and Gore Mutual has already seen tremendous success.

“It had taken us a decade to try to replace our technology and we hadn’t been successful. We were able to transform our core platform with Guidewire in 18 months,” said CEO Andy Taylor.

A First for Canada

Gore Mutual became the first Canadian insurer to achieve a full InsuranceSuite go-live on Guidewire Cloud. Since that time, it has launched an entirely new operating model in personal lines automobile and a national contact center that is highly automated and scalable. It has completely redesigned its claims operating model, bringing deep specialization and standardization to that business. It has seen over $20 million of recurring cost savings coming out of its claims business.

Improving the Broker/Customer Experience

Brokers are key to the success of Gore Mutual’s business. As a part of its transformation journey, Gore Mutual put a focus on improving the broker experience and providing a streamlined process flow that would enable brokers to focus less on the mechanics of using the insurer’s system and more on finding the right set of protections for the customer. By doing this, it also improved the insured’s experience.

"We are doing work on purpose to create a unique value proposition to our customers,” Taylor noted. “Combining that with a high-performing business model gives us an opportunity to start to actually create an experience for our customers and brokers."

What's Next?

Gore Mutual expects to complete the entire replacement of its operating model and technology in 2022. Beyond that, Taylor says, “The future is all about growing and scaling this organization to become a purpose-driven, digitally-led national insurance company over the next decade.”