Hastings Mutual Selects Guidewire ClaimCenter as Enterprise Claims System

Hastings Mutual Insurance Company, a Midwest regional property and casualty insurance company, and Guidewire Software, a leading provider of claims solutions to property and casualty insurers, today announced that Hastings Mutual has selected Guidewire ClaimCenter as its new enterprise claims system.

As a trusted provider of insurance solutions to households, farms, and other businesses for over one hundred years, Hastings Mutual has a long history of providing prompt and fair claims service to policyholders and claimants. In selecting and deploying a new claims system, Hastings Mutual's top priority is providing its experienced claim adjusters with the best-in-class tools they need to provide consistent, reliable claims service. To this end, Hastings Mutual thoroughly reviewed over a dozen claims systems before selecting Guidewire ClaimCenter.

"In choosing a new claims system, we were principally guided by the need to improve our adjusters' working environment while providing consistent claims service to our customers," said Thomas Chmiel, vice president of claims at Hastings Mutual. "ClaimCenter gives us the ability to tailor our handling process to the individual requirements of each claim, helping us provide a differentiated level of service."

Guidewire ClaimCenter is built using the latest proven software technology and applies flexible business rules to implement customer-specific claim handling practices. This allows insurers to tailor the system to their unique business requirements.

Hastings Mutual plans to deploy ClaimCenter to the entire Hastings Mutual claims operation, supporting all lines of business, including personal, commercial, and farm policies. The system is being thoroughly configured to Hastings Mutual's precise requirements using XML instead of custom programming. Business rules are being written and managed by business end users to provide maximum ongoing flexibility.

"We think ClaimCenter provides the best combination of usability, control, and long-term flexibility of any claims system on the market today," said Robert Eshelbrenner, vice president of information technology at Hastings Mutual. "In addition, the system allows us to migrate to a modern technology architecture that will serve us for many years to come."

Guidewire ClaimCenter represents the next generation of claims systems, going beyond existing systems designed as static repositories for claim information and transaction processing. Some of ClaimCenter's innovative features include:

• Automated, rules-driven claim segmentation and assignment

• Continuous tracking and management of all claim handling activities

• Real-time, multi-party collaboration between different claim handlers

• Streamlined navigation to external tools

• Real-time supervisory visibility into individual and aggregate workloads

• Flexible exception flagging and handling to identify and act on important claims

• Extension and configuration of the data model and user interfaces using XML

"We are pleased that Hastings Mutual has chosen Guidewire ClaimCenter as its enterprise claims system," said John Raguin, chief executive officer, Guidewire Software. "We are confident that we will be able to help Hastings Mutual achieve its goals of increased efficiency and world-class customer service. Hastings Mutual will be able to configure ClaimCenter to meet its specific business requirements, while preserving the ability to adapt to changing needs in the future."

Guidewire ClaimCenter is a J2EE (Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition) application, written entirely in Java. At Hastings Mutual, ClaimCenter is being deployed on the Windows 2000 Server operating system, and will work in conjunction with the existing policy administration system.