Santam, South Africa’s leading non-life insurer, and Guidewire Software, Inc. (NYSE: GWRE), a provider of flexible core system software to Property/Casualty (general) insurers, today announced that Santam has selected Guidewire PolicyCenter® as its new underwriting and policy administration solution. Santam has also selected Guidewire Rating Management™ to gain more precise control and responsiveness over rating and pricing, Guidewire Reinsurance Management™ to reduce excessive risk exposure and recoverable leakage while increasing operational efficiencies, and Guidewire Client Data Management™ to effectively manage customer contact data. PolicyCenter will be used initially for Santam’s personal lines business and thereafter for the company’s commercial lines as well.
As part of a broader core system update initiative, Santam was prompted to look for a new underwriting and policy administration system that would enhance its product and service offerings to its customers, both policyholders and brokers. Santam sought a system that would improve its ability to respond to the market more quickly from a product perspective, help it streamline and improve its processes and system infrastructure, and enable it to interact with its customers through a variety of channels.
“We selected Guidewire as our underwriting and policy administration operations transformation partner for a number of reasons,” said John Melville, executive head, Risk Services, Santam. “Because we are the first user of Guidewire in Africa, the diverse geographical footprint of Guidewire’s customers was extremely important to us. It was crucial that Guidewire had been successful in other first in country implementations because there are subtle differences in how things are done in the United States versus here in South Africa.”
Melville continued, “Based on how Guidewire handled our requests throughout the selection process, we were extremely confident that Guidewire would be a true partner to us and would take any concerns or challenges as seriously as we do.”
PolicyCenter will enable Santam to:
Achieve underwriting excellence by providing consistency in underwriting guidelines and business rules and implement new and innovative underwriting techniques;
Improve its productivity in a number of areas, enabling the company to focus more on value-added activities;
Manage its premium rating bases more dynamically; and
Increase the ease of doing business for brokers and policyholders.
“We are pleased that South Africa’s leading short-term (property/casualty) insurer, Santam, has selected Guidewire PolicyCenter as well as Guidewire’s Rating, Reinsurance, and Client Data Management add-on modules,” said Jeff Proudfoot, managing director, Guidewire Software, EMEA. “We are excited to expand our presence in Africa, and we are looking forward to working with Santam on the project.”
Guidewire PolicyCenter is a flexible underwriting and policy administration system that enables property/casualty insurers to grow business profitably by improving efficiency, while responding with agility to market opportunities and enhancing relationships with agents and customers. Designed to support both commercial and personal lines, PolicyCenter helps insurers streamline front and back office processes, from new business submission and quoting through policy renewals. PolicyCenter is available as a standalone system or as part of Guidewire InsuranceSuite™, and can be integrated to an insurer’s legacy systems or third party applications.
About Santam
Santam Limited (Santam) is South Africa’s leading insurance provider, offering short-term insurance products to commercial, corporate and personal markets. The company offers specialized products and services to specific markets through a network of brokers. It provides personal insurance, commercial insurance, agricultural insurance, corporate insurance, specialized insurance, risk finance and MultiSOS services to its customers. Santam also provides engineering, guarantee, liability, motor, accident and health, property, transportation and crop insurance policies. For more information about Santam, please visit www.santam.co.za.