Guidewire Early Access Benefits You—Whether You Know It or Not!

  • Darin Reffitt

May 03, 2021

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I have a confession to make: I’m one of those #Applefanboys about whom people post on Twitter—either proudly (in the first person) or disdainfully (in the third person), depending on their particular platform preferences. I love the simplicity of the Apple ecosystem, and continually find new ways to make my MacBook, iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and HomePods work together to make my life easier. I also like that I can sync my media and apps across all my devices, and they “just work.”

When the iPad launched in 2010, I vividly recall my pulse racing as I opened the box on launch day after a five-hour slog through Baltimore rush-hour traffic to get one. Less tech-savvy neighbors teased me as I arrived home—they viewed the iPad as a fad and couldn’t understand how it was any different than a laptop. But their eyes lit up when I showed them the Star Walk app and how it identified the constellations twinkling above us; I watched confusion change to fascination with their dawning realization that the device wasn’t just showing a camera view of the sky, but rather that the iPad knew exactly where we were based on GPS, and it could use its precise position in my hands to translate the stars above into a user-friendly map. Within a year, all of them had iPads, too.

Obviously, I’m all-in on Apple.

But there’s one Apple program in which I don’t participate: the Apple Beta Software Program. I just don’t have the free time available to dedicate to properly test new releases. I do, however, have quite a few friends who eagerly test each new release, and I know that I owe them and others my gratitude, since I benefit from the program in so many ways.

Insurance Software Early Access Program

Guidewire Early Access Program Overview

Similarly, Guidewire Early Access Program will be a benefit to all Guidewire customers, whether or not they actively participate. Officially introduced at Connections Reimagined during the Roadmap Preview sessions, Early Access (EA) is an invitation-only, closed beta program that enables participating customers to contribute to the development of new InsuranceSuite features and capabilities by evaluating them prior to General Availability (GA) release.

Benefits of Guidewire Early Access Program

While Guidewire Claims Autopilot is likely the EA product with which Guidewire customers are most familiar, there are actually dozens of features and capabilities currently available, grouped into four broad categories:

  • Cloud Early Access: ClaimCenter: Includes microservices, digital, and the latest base ClaimCenter features that are not yet generally available. Check out this claims management solution. 

  • Cloud Early Access: PolicyCenter: Includes microservices, digital, and the latest base PolicyCenter features that are not yet generally available. Learn more about Guidewire's insurance policy administration system.

  • Cloud Early Access: Analytics: Includes new capabilities built on Guidewire Data Platform that are not yet generally available. Discover the benefits of our insurance analytics software and underwriting solutions.

  • Early Access: Market Integration and Delivery: Includes new capabilities provided to support local market requirements that are not yet generally available.

Just as participants in Apple’s beta program help drive new functionality across the Apple platform, participants in Guidewire’s EA Program are helping drive the future of P&C insurance by collaborating with Guidewire to develop and refine innovative new products and capabilities.

Participants benefit by gaining advance exposure to the latest-and-greatest functionality coming soon in future releases, including for the upcoming Cortina (May 2021) and Dobson (November 2021) releases. But all Guidewire customers will benefit from knowing that new capabilities are fully tested prior to GA release, that the new functionality achieves business goals, and that the new market-specific features will be designed to address local regulatory requirements and specific customer demands. Guidewire has since added even more innovation through early access, as of our April 2023 release, Garmisch.

To learn more about Guidewire’s Early Access Program, or to schedule a private roadmap session, contact your Guidewire Customer Account Manager or Sales Representative, or email eaprogram@guidewire.com.