Just Call Me '1000'

Have you ever started a job and instantly been anointed with a nickname? I did. It’s ‘1000’, or ‘M’ – as in the Roman numeral for 1000.

I’m a Guidewire newbie… in fact I’m a milestone of sorts for Guidewire as I’m employee one thousand. The big 1,000. Mr. 1K. I wish it was tied to hits, or batting average, or something insanely athletic, but I digress… While I’m internalizing whether being known numerically is a good thing, it’s a great thing for Guidewire as it proves we’re growing and while we have a worldwide presence we are still focused on the one thing that counts: Property/Casualty insurance customers.

Given that, let me say that I’ve been here a few weeks and I’m impressed. Not just with the company and its culture (if you are a customer you know that you are already number one here), but with the product and specifically the Guidewire Live product. It’s amazing. Yep – I know what you are thinking… “Koooool-Aid”. “This new guy is really drinking the new hire Kool-Aid.” I agree, but for good reason – it tastes great!

I took this new role as a Guidewire Live Solution Consultant for a lot of reasons. First, the company has a core set of values that I firmly believe in. Second, the people are amazing! Lastly, the role allows me to do two things I love: show happy customers how to use this amazing technology and work in the insurance analytics space (is the latter item weird?).

Anyway, I’ve spent over 15 years in enterprise software and 10 of those have been spent in the analytics space for insurance. I’ve developed data warehouses, sold data warehouses, worked with insurers implementing data warehouses – everything under the sun… so I consider myself somewhat BI/Analytics knowledgeable in the insurance space. But coming to Guidewire made me realize something and I’ll refer back to my original statement – I’m a newbie. I was introduced to Guidewire Live and my passion for this type of stuff was rekindled. My eyes were opened! I’ve seen the light! Not to get biblical or anything, but what I’ve seen in Live is something the industry has needed forever, but couldn’t accomplish because of outdated source systems and limited vision in regards to how to harness the power of the cloud and analytics technology.

Delivering analytics of this type as quickly as we can for our InsuranceSuite customers is simply higher level. For example:

• You need to understand where/how to triage after a hurricane by location (wind strength, storm surge, etc…) and by policy location – Check!

• You want to compare yourself against your fellow competitors month over month, year over year, without waiting for industry surveys and their inconsistencies – Check!

• You want to determine what your loss per catastrophe is and where it hit you the most based on your policy base – Check!

• You need to know where your policies reside after several hail storms rolled through the Midwest so that you can triage and identify fraud – Check!

• On and On…. Check!

Umm, and did I mention that we can do all that for a Guidewire customer in as little as a week. Yep – a week! No more 6-12 month (or longer) projects, no more data modeling back and forth between IT and the business, no more ETL, report development, 3rd party weather contracts, 3rd party mapping contracts – none of it. To make sure you understand this isn’t the ‘be all, end all’ – we don’t replace your STAT reporting or Financial reporting…. But to make sure you’re getting the value, there’s also the free evaluation period – no risk.

So while I’m sure I’m drinking the new hire Kool-Aid, I’m honestly ecstatic about the places Guidewire Live is going and excited about where it already is. It’s non-stop game changer. So, please, let me pour you a glass of Kool-Aid and let’s talk about it.

I’ll blog about more of my exploits as I travel around and meet more of you – our customers.

PS – I’ll be at ACORD LOMA in the Guidewire booth (#465). If you're going, please drop by - we’ll be having some fun taking you from Guessing to Knowing with Guidewire Live! Want to reach me before then, drop me an email at 1000 guidewire.com (yes, my teammates got me an email alias to welcome me...)