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Insurance company speeds time to market with Guidewire Cloud migration

Insurance company speeds time to market with Guidewire Cloud migration

GFT helps Canadian insurer with rapid Guidewire Cloud migration to quickly harness new features

Insurance company needed to quickly take advantage of new features by migrating to Guidewire Cloud – but with the platform several versions out-of-date, it needed an experienced IT partner to help tackle this huge challenge. GFT worked closely with Guidewire and the client as part of a large team to rapidly build a strong Cloud platform for the company’s future.

Simplifying complexity

GFT’s skills and expertise made sure this large, complex project was successful and on time.

Access new features faster

Regular, smaller updates allow new capabilities to be adopted more quickly.

Stronger customer offerings

Up-to-date features allow for more appealing products to be launched speedily.

Challenge

Bring a critical platform up to date

The canadian insurer needed to undertake a critical upgrade of its Guidewire platform which underpins all of its products and services. The organisation was currently using Guidewire version 8 on-premise, making it a significant step to move to Guidewire version 10 Cloud. At this point, the company made the decision to migrate to Guidewire Cloud to remain competitive.

A large, complex upgrade

Moving from an obsolete version of Guidewire to the cloud was a massive and complicated undertaking. The project had a very wide scope, and included PolicyCenter, ClaimCenter, ContactManager, DataHub and CustomerEngage, and integration with around 50 external services.

The huge Guidewire upgrade would provide the insurance company with access to valuable new features and functionality, such as data analytics, helping it to provide more compelling products and services to its customers.

An important implementation

This implementation of BillingCenter on Guidewire v10 Cloud aimed to replace the legacy system, enhancing efficiency and modernizing the billing processes for better operational performance.

Engagement

Deep expertise to support a complicated project

For such a large, challenging project, the insurance company needed a partner with deep knowledge of Guidewire and strong experience in the sector. The organisation had already worked with GFT on previous projects and had built a good level of trust with both the company and its people. They chose it as a partner for this migration project due to GFT’s Guidewire expertise, skills, and excellent cultural fit.

The project was delivered through a strong three-way partnership between the insurance company, Guidewire and GFT. GFT played a key role, helping with program management, working on wider integration beyond the Guidewire platform, and assisting with code optimisation and document production. The project began in late 2021 and went live early in 2024, with the stabilisation phase continuing until the end of the year.

“Now that the project is complete, the client will benefit from regular updates that introduce valuable new functionality. It will be able to access these new capabilities with minimal time and effort so they can be brought to market quickly.”

Frédéric Renaud

Executive Vice-President

GFT Technologies

Benefit

The right people and skills for the challenge

Skills and resources

With a small IT team, the insurer needed the right partner to effectively complete the migration. GFT was able to provide the key skills, certifications and manpower that were essential for making the project a success.

With such a complex project, GFT’s deep Guidewire knowledge and expertise helped significantly with anticipating the issues and finding solutions to the many challenges along the way.

Collaboration for a timely delivery

Around 500 people from all three partners worked on this sizeable project within a short period of time.

High levels of collaboration and communication were essential. Inspiring all participants to continued commitment to the project in the face of obstacles - as all sides tried to find the best solutions to the multiple technical and business problems - was also critical. GFT’s strong program management and excellent working relationship with Guidewire made a significant difference when synchronising, supporting and managing the different teams and elements involved in the project.

All three partners committed to a high level of transparency and accountability which contributed directly to the project’s successful outcome.

Conclusion

A foundation for the future

The successful delivery of the project allows the insurance company to update its Guidewire platform more easily and enjoy new functionality as it is delivered. This provides a foundation for future developments to be rolled out faster, and for compelling products and services to be taken to market more quickly and easily.