Guidewire Software, a provider of flexible core systems toproperty/casualty insurers, announced the availability of GuidewirePolicyCenter 7.0, the latest version of its underwriting andpolicy administration system.

“We are very excited about the new enhancements available withPolicyCenter 7.0 and are looking forward to using them,” said JimBussiere, senior vice president, sales and client services, AmicaMutual Insurance Company. “We want our front-line representativesto have state-of-the-art systems to complement their alreadysuperior service efforts. PolicyCenter 7.0 provides us with theintuitive and flexible foundation we need to continually improvehow we serve our customers.”

With PolicyCenter 7.0, P/C insurers can improve customer focus,underwriting performance, operational efficiency, and businessagility. Areas of enhancement include:

• Customer focus: Enhanced customercentricity provides P&C insurers with the visibility to betterunderstand their customers in order to provide more efficient,accurate service and better identify opportunities for cross- andup-selling. Insurers can view account and policy history, managerelationships between accounts, and handle complex changes.
• Underwriting excellence: PolicyCenter7.0 provides risk analysis and underwriting performancecapabilities to help increase insurer profitability. Thefunctionality includes third-party data integration to support riskanalysis, side-by-side quoting to help insurers quickly presentchoices to customers, and policy holds to limit or restrict policyactivity to support underwriting and regulatory compliance in theevent of a natural disaster or pending product change.
• Business agility: Insurers need to adapt to achanging environment and seize opportunities to improve.PolicyCenter 7.0 provides visibility, flexibility, and scalabilityto empower insurers to adapt and grow within their market. Usersacross the enterprise gain visibility into their product portfoliowith a clear, concise view of their products. PolicyCenter 7.0 alsoprovides flexibility in maintaining rates and forms. A ratetable workbench with a flexible user interface and import/exportsupport for Microsoft Excel facilitates business user creation andmanagement of rate factor tables, which is the most common andfrequent effort in maintaining rating. Additionally, formsselection rules are accessible for business users to define andmaintain.
• Reinsurance: Guidewire Reinsurance Management,a new companion product to PolicyCenter, delivers the automationneeded to manage ceded reinsurance processes. ReinsuranceManagement handles proportional as well as non-proportional treatyand facultative reinsurance agreements and helps insurers reducerisk exposure and leakage while increasing operationalefficiencies.

“With its evolution to a full, modern policy administrationsystem, PolicyCenter's rate of adoption by the market has beenbrisk,” said Chad Hersh, a partner in the insurance practice atresearch firm Novarica. “PolicyCenter 7.0 includesenhancements that round out the solution. The addition ofthis strong player into the market is also likely to have theeffect of increasing the number of system-replacement decisions,particularly for those carriers looking at complete suites.”

“We included major enhancements in the new release ofPolicyCenter and are very pleased with the market feedback receivedto date,” said Marcus Ryu, chief executive officer at Guidewire.“We are passionate about building great software with the largestdevelopment team among P/C insurance software vendors dedicated tothis task. I am very proud of our accomplishments inPolicyCenter 7.0, and deeply appreciative of our customers’contributions to its design.”

Guidewire PolicyCenter is a flexible underwriting and policyadministration system that enables property/casualty insurers togrow business profitably by improving efficiency, while responding with agility to market opportunities and enhancingrelationships with agents and customers.

Designed to support both commercial and personal lines,PolicyCenter helps insurers streamline front and back officeprocesses, from new business submission and quoting through policyrenewals. PolicyCenter is available as a standalone system or aspart of Guidewire InsuranceSuite, and can be integrated to aninsurer’s existing systems and third-party applications.