"Implementing InsuranceSuite on Guidewire Cloud is a strategic milestone for Heritage. This platform provides the stability and scalability we need to grow while enhancing our responsiveness to the needs of our agents and policyholders."
Ernie Garateix, Chief Executive Officer, Heritage Insurance
Heritage Insurance
Heritage Insurance Holdings, Inc. is a super-regional property and casualty insurance holding company. Through its insurance subsidiaries and a large network of experienced agents, the company writes approximately $1.4 billion of gross personal and commercial residential premium across its multi-state footprint covering the northeast, southeast, Hawaii, and California excess and surplus lines. Founded in 2012 in Florida, the insurer specializes in high-exposure coastal and catastrophe risk markets across the United States, providing essential coverage against devastating hurricanes, tropical storms, convective storms, and wildfires. As the company expanded its footprint across 13 states, its reliance on legacy systems began to hinder its ability to innovate and scale effectively. The organization’s strategic vision required a fundamental shift from disconnected, manual processes toward a unified, cloud-native ecosystem that could handle the unpredictable volume of catastrophe seasons.
The transformation began in July 2022. Recognizing the immediate need for stability in catastrophe response, Heritage prioritized its claims migration first. Since going live with ClaimCenter on Guidewire Cloud in June 2023, the organization has navigated three years of peak seasons without technical challenges.
The new platform replaced a disjointed set of legacy applications supporting claims operations that often suffered from data disconnects. Adjusters and vendors now operate within a consolidated environment that eliminates redundant questions and improves the customer experience. Activities driven for the workflow have replaced manual spreadsheet management, enabling team leads to use real-time reporting to identify where attention is needed most.
“Our legacy claims environment was fragmented across disconnected silos with significant scalability constraints,” explained Sai Giridharan, Chief Information Officer. “The Guidewire implementation has transformed our claims operations, delivering a robust, unified platform that provides end-to-end claim visibility across Adjusters, Field Adjusters, Claim Support, Customer Service, and beyond. Complementing this, Guidewire Data Platform has dramatically accelerated financial close cycles — enabling month-end claims financials to be completed within one business day of period close.”
Following the claims success, Heritage expanded the rollout to PolicyCenter and BillingCenter across 13 states. The move addressed long-standing pain points in the finance department, where legacy system errors had created a cycle of constant inquiries.
“Longstanding challenges with billing and commission processing — persistent pain points under our legacy platform — have been substantially resolved,” noted Giridharan. “Beyond operational stability, the agility that Guidewire InsuranceSuite affords us in modifying underwriting rules and deploying rate changes, has meaningfully strengthened our ability to respond to evolving market conditions with speed and precision."
This modernization also revolutionized underwriting agility. Previously, rule changes required after-hours code deployments. With Guidewire’s configurable rules, Heritage underwriters can now adjust vendor distribution or tarping services in the middle of the day to meet sudden demand. While the backend was overhauled, the agent-facing workflow remained consistent to ensure zero disruption.
Heritage’s success was fueled by a partnership that not only included Guidewire, but also PwC, SmartComm, and Box. PwC led the implementation, helping Heritage optimize solution designs by sharing insights from other successful cloud migrations.
"These relationships are true partnerships,” said Giridharan. “Each partner worked through challenges with us. They gave input into what they've seen with other customers, and that helped optimize some of our solution designs."
The integration with SmartComm solved legacy document management challenges, such as single-threading bottlenecks found in previous tools. They didn't just build the forms; they trained the Heritage staff to be self-sufficient for all future changes. Simultaneously, the integration with Box streamlined content management, ensuring documentation is seamlessly accessible within the core suite.
With its core operations for personal lines now unified on Guidewire Cloud, Heritage is focused on converting its remaining policy base, implementing commercial lines on Guidewire Cloud, and leveraging advanced data analytics. The organization is now positioned to capitalize on market opportunities with a platform that delivers uncompromising stability and the agility to innovate at speed.
"Guidewire has proven to be an outstanding partner,” said Ernie Garateix, Chief Executive Officer. “It provides a robust and scalable core platform that underpins our operations and positions us for agile responses to market changes and future growth opportunities."
