Meet Santam

Business Benefits

• Became the first user of Guidewire in Africa
• Simplified and rationalized core processes

The Story

John Melville, Head of Risk at Santam Insurance, describes the South African economy in which Santam operates, as “the world in one country,” a combination of established and emerging fiercely competitive markets. The Santam Group actually competes globally (in South Africa and internationally), providing a diversified range of general insurance products and services to commercial, corporate, and personal markets and specialized products and services to specific markets through a network of more than 3,600 intermediaries and direct channels.

This aggressive business agenda requires a technology foundation that will allow Santam to respond to its various markets more quickly from a product perspective, help streamline and improve its processes and system infrastructure, and enable it to interact digitally with its disparate customers through a variety of channels.

In 2012, as part of a core systems refresh, Santam successfully deployed Guidewire PolicyCenter, Guidewire BillingCenter, Guidewire Rating Management, Guidewire Reinsurance Management, and Guidewire Client Data Management to effectively manage customer contact data.

The first user of Guidewire in Africa, Santam collaborated with team members from Guidewire Software, Cognizant, and Nihilent Technologies. Santam experienced immediate and long-term benefits from the large implementation project, such as a boost in operational efficiencies, greater agility to address and respond to market changes, improved underwriting, a new strategic platform for data and reporting across the business, and a solid foundation for insurtech and best-of-breed solutions for quicker time to market. Further, the new core platform enabled brokers to improve how they sell and service customers with a unified, easy-to-use system.

With a modern core systems foundation in place, Santam created a path toward claims digitalization in the future, selecting Guidewire ClaimCenter as its platform for claims management for its Personal and Commercial lines of business across direct and intermediated distribution channels. The insurer also selected Guidewire DataHub and Guidewire InfoCenter for its enterprise-wide data management and business intelligence, solidifying its capability to tailor products to the company’s wide range of customers in specific segments and offer them through a variety of channels.

"The expansion of our Guidewire relationship supports Santam’s strategic focus to simplify and rationalize our core processes,” said Kevin Wright, CIO at Santam.

"Guidewire’s Insurance Platform will support us in delivering modern products and services to our clients. In addition, the Guidewire Marketplace will allow us to access validated accelerators built by Guidewire’s partner ecosystem to heighten our innovation and help us achieve TCO reduction."