A Business Agility Guide

Guidewire ClaimCenter Upgrade Considerations

Business Agility is the leader in specialist development and integration services to the
London Market and General Insurance industry.
Table of
contents
3

• Upgrading Guidewire
ClaimCenter..............................................P4

• ClaimCenter V9: Key features to

consider......................................................P6

• Considerations and recommendations ..

.....................................................................P8

• Rolling out your upgrade......................P9

• Lessons learned .....................................P12

• Conclusion ..............................................P13

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Upgrading Guidewire ClaimCenter
The implementation and running of core
insurance systems is a substantial undertaking.
The investment made needs to yield a significant
return and, when implemented correctly, Guidewire
products can certainly deliver that return. However,
as new product versions are released and wider
functionality offered, insurers need to evaluate the
benefits of upgrading systems against the choice
of not upgrading.
Insurers seeking higher levels of technology ROI,
as well as environments that support operational
excellence will benefit from robustly evaluating
their need to upgrade.
Guidewire V9’s recent release creates a scenario
for all existing (and potential) Guidewire customers
to evaluate whether an upgrade would help them
drive further efficiency, cost savings and increase a
competitive edge.
As only the three latest versions of the Guidewire
software are supported at any one time, upgrades
are key and vital. Not upgrading such essential
systems when they’re available can lead to issues
with security and capability, which can cost the
business significant losses in revenue.
Upgrade evaluation or core systems provides an
opportunity to re-evaluate and re-assess their
position on claims data and claims processing.
It also provides analysis on how the customer/
end-user experience can be improved. In the long
term it can bring down costs in managing claims,
and gives insight on detailed analytics that can
influence business decisions to essentially bring in
new market opportunities.
The insights and recommendations in this
guide reflect Business Agility’s unparalleled
implementation track record and our close,
collaborative strategic alliance with Guidewire on
successful upgrade programs.
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The latest version of ClaimCenter (v9) has number of
new features to support various digital demands. These
are scalable on the Cloud and have other functionalities
that will enable efficient claims processes.

Upgrades can be critical to ongoing operational

effectiveness (as well as remaining on a supported
version), therefore insurers must seek an effective
approach for the upgrade process.

An onus on delivering an ‘Out of the Box’ system is

important as decisions made about configuration and
customisation during implementation will have a direct
impact on how well the upgrade process will run. Robust
planning, preparation and scoping can lead insurers to
select the optimal version of the software for their needs
and objectives, define specific business and technical
requirements, and confirm the best upgrade deployment
options and timeline.

The value when it comes to upgrading is that insurers

experience an efficient, low-risk process that enables
them to boost the return on their investment in industry-
leading Guidewire applications.

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 ClaimCenter V9: Key features to consider

6
Straight-through Invoice Processing
Straight-through invoice processing automatically initiates Did you know?
payments for invoices without any manual involvement needed.
The right claim is matched up with the correct invoice, and Clients using ContactManager to
the business can then decide which invoices should be paid maintain contacts, should consider
automatically via set rules. upgrading ContactManager as
If a particular invoice doesn’t meet the set rules, it is marked for
part of the ClaimCenter upgrade
the adjuster to manually accept and pay. This way, productivity is for seamless integration between
increased as the adjuster can spend their time on more intricate ClaimCenter and ContactManager.
cases that can take more time to resolve.

Business rules for activities

Occasionally, conditions that require a change to the claims process involves an IT request first. Sometimes
such requests may not take priority or get missed along the way. Due to this, the opportunity may be lost
by the time the changes are made. Business rules for activities gives users the permissions to change what
activities are created on a claim. Users can change everything – from when they are created through to whom
they are assigned to. The benefit of this is the users have more power to do what needs to be done without
unnecessary coding or additional burden on IT’s schedule. E.g. During a catastrophe, claims may need to be
changed at a moments’ notice; therefore a certain line of business
or geographical rules can be set by the users themselves.
Did you know Business Agility
Viewing documents associated with Vendor has....
Contacts • Delivered more projects in the UK than
Another example of the improved flexibility given to users in
any other Guidewire partner
ClaimCenter V9 is the ability to use vendor documents capabilities
within the claim. You can view documents associated with the
• Achieved the highest ever technical
claim at vendor level such as service-level agreements or pricing
review scores in a Guidewire audit
documents. (NB, this feature requires ClaimCenter be integrated
with ContactManager).

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Improved subrogation capabilities
Improved subrogation capabilities in ClaimCenter V9 offer better automated identification of potential
subrogation opportunities and the ability to select which exposures should be subrogated, which means
company guidelines are more consistently followed.

The ability to assign a subrogation owner provides improved tracking and gives subrogation team supervisors 7
better insight into team workload and performance.

Support or ‘Going Digital’

Portal solutions help Insurers to modernise their current offerings, address changing, market needs, and
achieve superior business results around customer centricity, business agility, and profitability. ClaimCenter V9
integrates seamlessly with Guidewire Digital Portals which can enable and provide real-time information about
the Claim and associated transactions. Portals provide greater visibility and transparency throughout claim
processing that satisfies policy holders and eases workloads dealt with through contact centres.

Able to roll out in Cloud environment

Deploying core insurance systems in the Cloud has been a highly anticipated idea. ClaimCenter V9 is
deployable in the Cloud, and you’ll find growing number of Guidewire products are available as Cloud-
based solutions. There are several advantages to Cloud-based deployments. These include transforming
certain capital expenditures into variable costs, rapid provisioning of computing and storage resources, nearly
unlimited scalability, shorter development cycles for both initial implementation and ongoing maintenance,
minimising latency across widely dispersed user locations, improved business continuity and disaster recovery,
and others.

Other technical benefits include being able to load balance batch process and messaging destination across
servers in the cluster environment. This architecture removes the need for having exclusive batch servers and
helps to distribute workload across the servers for better performance.

Did you know Business Agility delivered Guidewire’s

• First European Implementation

• First Russian Implementation

• First European ClaimCenter V8 upgrade

• First London Market Extension Pack

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 Considerations & recommendations

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It is essential to time your upgrade correctly. As much as it should be a priority, you also have other factors
you need to consider if it’s going to be a successful project. Significant planning is involved when upgrading
software – and the following needs to be taken into consideration:

Choose the right version of the application

There will be various versions of the application out there depending on what you are currently using.
Understand your needs (reflected in your TOM) and select what works best for your architecture.

Ensure your scope is clearly defined

A defined scope for the upgrade programme of work is imperative, as it dictates the intricacies of the upgraded
system. A focused upgrade will lead to better results. The risk of increased scope, either planned or unplanned
(i.e. scope creep), can lead to delays in deployment and longer overall upgrade project time-lines.

Ensure the latest version delivers all the functionality needed

With the right planning, you will be able to remove the reliance on customisation and extra configuration.
Outline what your most important needs are early on, align them to the Out of The Box model and adhere
to them.

Engage the right resources both internally and externally

When planning an upgrade to your environment, it can be necessary to shift resources around in order to
make the project a success.

Consider future versions - is this a Functional Upgrade or a Technical Upgrade

Ensure you have a view on Guidewire’s proposed product roadmap – is this a functional upgrade or a technical
upgrade?

Understand the impact of the upgrade process

You’ll need to take into consideration how long the upgrade is estimated to take (and then add on any extra
time to allow for potential unexpected issues). Will there be any business interruption during the upgrade? If

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so, outline when this is likely to be and for how long. Have a
contingency plan in place in case there’s more disruption than
you originally thought.

Understand the full project lifecycle for upgrade

1. Upgrade assessment stage
2. Upgrade preparation & Optional Business Consultation
3. Inception phase
4. Design and Development phase CLAIMS
5. Stabilisation phase
6. User Acceptance Testing
7. Production deployment
8. Post deployment support

Adopt the Agile Methodology for delivery

We would recommend your upgrade project be delivered true
to the Agile methodology; providing greater transparency and
alignment of business requirements. Your delivery partner
should to be on-site for certain phases and regular updates
(e.g., testing should be completed on-site (esp UAT), as the
focus will mainly be on regression testing).
Did you know Business Agility
has....
Select the right implementation partner • Implemented more London Market
To get the job done correctly and efficiently, we recommend
ClaimCenter projects than any other SI
that you choose a delivery partner with deep experience with
Guidewire upgrade programmes. Business Agility will make
• Implemented the first ClaimCenter
recommendations, provide best practices, and ensures that no
project in Europe (and the second)
stone is left unturned.

Business Agility Consulting Ltd

 Rolling out your Upgrade

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Our approach for upgrade is based on vast amounts of experience gained in implementing Guidewire
products across insurance domains and lessons learnt from various successful implementations. As part of the
upgrade process we:

• Analyse and recommend the most beneficial upgrade version after doing a ‘deep dive’ into the current
application in place.

• Access and define necessary changes that are needed in the underlying software and hardware that are
needed for the infrastructure to support upgrade versions.

• Resolve code upgrade conflicts by updating to use recommended data model changes and buy-in from
the business to utilise the change in workflow and user interface that is available in the upgraded version.

• Update depreciated plug-in methods and classes by re-factoring the code to use recommended APIs and
integration architecture in the upgraded version.

• Review external systems and possible impact of the upgrade project. An upgrade may require changes to
external systems as well. (For example, latest ClaimCenter supports WS-I but not RPC anymore.)

• Support test team to carry out functional testing, regression testing, End to End testing, performance testing
and user acceptance testing.

• Help our clients to update the training manual to capture the new changes to the workflow and user
interface.

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Every business is different, and the way you manage the upgrade process can be vital to how successful the
process is. We have some final tips to ensure your upgrade process is seamless:

• Have test scripts in hand before doing an upgrade to the baseline current version and that can be executed
as and when required to validate and benchmark upgrade changes.

• Understand outstanding issues in the current version and explore possibilities of resolving the issues by using
new features.

• Engage the infrastructure team right from the inception phase to avoid delays in rolling out infrastructure
changes to support the upgrade.

• Identify balancing and reconciliation reports for key integrations, especially those that involve financials.

• It’s beneficial to compile a unified list of integrations before an upgrade project begins. This inventory
should include a brief description of each integration point, the type of integration (inbound, outbound,
bidirectional), and the mechanism (adapter, web service, flat file, template).

Business Agility Key Guidewire facts

• Recipent of the highest Partner Healthcheck scores

• Award recognition: Guidewire Technical Innovation Of The Year (Connections 2013)
• First European Partner
• Only UK partner recommended by Guidewire for QA roles
• 31 ClaimCenter projects to date – all on time and on budget

Business Agility Consulting Ltd

 Lessons learned

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When it comes to upgrading, we recommend you see it as an essential to successfully progress your digital
journey. The value in upgrading is that insurers experience a well-organised, low-risk method that allows them
to increase the return on their investment in industry-leading Guidewire applications. Upgrading can be costly,
but with the right amount of planning and resource management, it can be one of the best investments your
business makes.

With the right tools, Guidewire ClaimCenter V9 can give your business the control it needs to effectively
manage the claims process. Blockers in the system that may be causing you problems now may be eliminated
by implementing the upgrade. Blockers are a good reason to upgrade; as they can cost the business lots
of time and money. The insurance industry may be a slowly moving one, but it’s also highly competitive. It’s
imperative to be ahead of the game where your digital development is concerned.

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Conclusion

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We were Guidewire’s first partner in Europe and, in 2006, we delivered the first European Guidewire ClaimCenter
system. Since then we have successfully engaged with clients from Los Angeles to Moscow to Japan to Europe
and the UK.

Our experienced consultants have deep Property and Casualty (P&C) industry knowledge and apply this
to each and every project. We partner with our clients to assist them with program mobilisation, program
management, iteration planning/management, process and requirements definition, systems integration, test
automation and execution, data migration, reporting/analytics and deployment. In conjunction with Guidewire,
we have a wide array of accelerators that can be used to expedite implementation and reduce cost.

If you’d like to know more about how we can support your Guidewire ClaimCenter upgrade, get in contact
with us and we’ll be happy to help.

Business Agility Consulting Ltd

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Contact us for support and advice on Guidewire

Implementation and Upgrades
info@business-agility.com

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 Business Agility Consulting Ltd
Spirella Building
Bridge Road
Letchworth Garden City SG6 4ET
01462 470 160
info@business-agility.com