Insurance is one of those things you always wish you never have to use, if only in a particular way, and the providers of insurance are generally eager to find new and better ways to manage claims. The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) recently turned to Guidewire for several new tools, giving it a little more edge in the field. When it comes to insurance and its data management, that kind of edge might well prove an insurance policy of the TWIA's own.
TWIA turned to Guidewire for five new items; specifically, it went with Guidewire ClaimCenter as the new claims management tool; DataHub to support the launch of ClaimCenter; Claim Portal for Policyholders and Claim Portal for Agents to help make the overall customer experience better; and PolicyCenter and BillingCenter, which was actually an earlier acquisition just recently fully deployed.
ClaimCenter is billed as an “end-to-end claims management system”, which allows for plenty of customization to help make sure that property and casualty insurers have all the tools needed to take care of business and as few of those that aren't needed as possible. Thanks to a flexible rules structure, ClaimCenter can actually change as the insurer does, and as different claim practices emerge, companies can take advantage of these new practices to get the most efficient practices going. It's available by itself as a standalone system, or as part of the larger Guidewire InsuranceSuite, which allows it to successfully intermingle with a variety of other applications.
But that's not all Guidewire has to offer; it also boasts the Digital Portals system, which is an entire slate of portfolios that work with Guidewire InsuranceSuite. This allows for several new functions to be brought into play, and from there, several new options become available for insurance firms to put to work. This again offers the value of customization to deliver new value for insurers.
Considering the TWIA's area of expertise—it's actually the big insurance firm of last resort for Texas homeowners along the Gulf Coast, those likely to face windstorm issues—it's easy to see why it would want the best in insurance technology. There have been some reports suggesting that it may not have much longer to live as an entity—reports suggest that the enterprise is being targeted for de-funding by some elements of the Texas legislature—but given that it's picking up new tools and incorporating these into operations, it may be that the TWIA may have a lot longer to live than some expect. It also helps that the reports suggesting that the TWIA may be targeted for shutdown come from 2014, suggesting that at least some of the danger may have passed for the time being.
But the TWIA's commitment to improvement may well help it in the long run, as it focuses on greater efficiency and thus a better ability to not only help its clients, but also save money, making for a better value overall. Meanwhile, Guidewire is right there in the thick of it, helping provide that greater efficiency and better overall operations.