Wrapping Things Up

Well, here we are in the penultimate week of December with another year having flown by. At least once an orbit, we owe it to ourselves to have a look at what's transpired and where the trends will take us in the year to come. Here are my votes in core P/C (Property/Casualty):

• Global cross-pollination

I have the good fortune of hearing from leaders at insurance carriers from all over the world on a weekly basis. One thing's for sure: ideas that have taken shape in one market, or one corner of the planet, are now often being discussed by the next carrier I get to visit who invariably hails from some other continent. Information is being disseminated quickly, and everyone's watching everyone else much more closely. As competitive ideas propagate at "network speed," it's no longer going to be okay to stick with just the tried and true.

• PAS replacement is For Real

After decades of sputtering and false starts, it has become clear that not only is it necessary to break out of the legacy policy administration jail, but packaged software finally exists to permit doing so in a way that is Safe and Proven. We are seeing the beginning of a giant wave of transformation efforts that will wash over the entire industry. (Got your surfboard?)

• Data as competitive currency

As more and more of our customers enter production on their shiny new Guidewire core systems, they tell us they are ready to take the fine-grained, high-quality data streaming out of those systems and leverage it to the hilt. The good news is that there are lots of new software tools and computing infrastructures to apply to this problem. The even better news is that there are already proven practices and tools for gaining insights from this rich data; we are seeing carriers benefitting from embedding analytics in their new generation core systems to optimize business processes. No one has all the answers yet, but leading carriers will make deep pushes in this space in 2014. Stay tuned.

• Process to the people

News flash: people are willing to take matters into their own hands when they care about something. Like filing claims. And buying policies. Even beyond just personal lines, the drumbeat of demand for enhanced self-service capabilities and rich customer enablement is growing louder almost month by month. And new core systems help insurers put policyholders at the center of business processes, to tailor service experiences, and fine-tune product offerings more than ever before. I believe we'll see the majority of carriers focusing intensely on bringing core processes to the people in better, faster, and more intuitive ways in 2014.

Happy 2013, and see you in the new year!