Case Studies | 3 September 2020

With over 5,000 people employed and over five million customers with a wide portfolio of financial products to serve, this UK personal lines insurer is one of the biggest in the market – and soon to be an investor in Guidewire.

“We were impressed with the experience, depth of knowledge and quality of expertise that Business Agility provided.”   – Operations Director.

The Insurer had various challenges to overcome to ensure it remained competitive and compliant. Its processes and systems had to underpin and support its ambitious growth plans. After a large-scale analysis of its current working practices and infrastructure, it instigated a business transformation programme.

One aspect of this transformation programme was to implement a robust claims management system that standardised its claims handling to deliver enhanced efficiency and improve the speed and accuracy of payments.

The Insurer selected Guidewire’s ClaimCenter platform largely on the strength of the system’s flexibility to manage claims globally across a diverse product portfolio. Endava was selected as the system implementation partner because of its clear capability and track-record of success.

Guidewire System delivery

Over two implementation phases (one for Home and one for Motor) and as per Guidewire’s best practices for implementation, Endava delivered the project on-site using an Agile methodology and business-led approach. To ensure requirements were captured correctly, risks mitigated and budget adhered to, Endava worked closely with nominated stakeholders and business heads.

Guidewire Integration

Endava integrated the new system with an internal policy administration system and a number of external third party systems at both phases of the business transformation programme.

Phase one: Home insurance – both design and inception stages were delivered in 24 months (as planned and budgeted for). Integration included;

• A policy administration system (policy search, claims history, policy account details, endorsement, notes, etc)
• Oracle financials
• Davies (supplier)
• MI (management information system for reporting)
• Claims Underwriting exchange (CUE)

Phase two: Motor Insurance – both design and inception stages were delivered in 18 months (as planned and budgeted for). Integration included;

• A policy administration system (policy search, claims history, policy account details, endorsement, notes, etc)
• Oracle financials
• MI (Management Information system for reporting)
• Claims Underwriting Exchange (CUE)
• Motor Insurance Database (MID)
• Motor Insurance Anti-theft Fire and Register (MIAFTR)
• AUDA (Estimates for Repair)
• Repairer service
• Credit Hire
• Irwin Mitchell

Migration

• Policy data
• Claims data (active and inactive)

The Team

Endava’s Guidewire team consisted of;

• Guidewire Project Managers responsible for all resourcing, high level estimation, cost calculation and dealing with project stakeholders
• SCRUM Master responsible for facilitating effective scrum processes
• Technical Consultants responsible for designing, validating and delivering a feasible solution. This involved leading complex design sessions, providing detailed estimation and managing conflict resolution, as well as developing quality deliverables and mentoring the Insurer’s team. The Technical Consultant’s main involvement was with the SCM integration, authentication and single sign-on, distributed DMS for US and UK, data migration from legacy claim systems into ClaimCenter, ClaimCenter-BizTalk integration
• Functional Consultants responsible for defining and delivering appropriate UI and workflow for existing/future business process. Configuration work covered all lines of business: First Notification Of Loss, policy data validation, claims data validation, document production, financials processes, validation and reporting

The Insurer’s team was comprised of:

• A dedicated Product Owner
• Business Analyst
• Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
• Test Manager and Test Team
• Project Management Office
• Project Sponsors

The commitment to success from these resources was also augmented by a Quality Assurance Specialist provided by Guidewire.

Read more about our Guidewire expertise here.

Benefits realised and challenges faced

The investment in Guidewire demonstrated the UK insurer’s commitment to a ‘willingness to pay’ claims philosophy. In addition to this, it is taking advantage of the benefits that a ‘state of the art’ claims management system brings. The insurer has an enriched standard of service and a more reliable, efficient and robust claims process.

“We were impressed with the experience, depth of knowledge and quality of expertise that Business Agility provided.”   – Operations Director.

Endava is proud to have been the key for this successful implementation; delivering the project on time and under budget.

With this success in mind, it is important to note that complex projects can throw up various issues and challenges, especially when large-scale change and transformation is involved. Endava prides itself on a positive, problem-solving ability. Some examples of challenges and their resolutions:

Integration with third parties services/products

During Phase Two: Motor insurance, there were a number of third party integrations which caused a few challenges.  These issues were based on the third party services/systems not meeting the Insurer’s requirements such as error handling (AUDA), security (Irwin Mitchell), poor documentation (MIAFTR), Repairer Services (Requirement change), MID (System was not ready) etc.

The Endava team ably addressed these issues by liaising directly with the third parties and adapting alternate technical workarounds and solutions to overcome technical limitations.

Multiple lines of business

The Insurer had several separate lines of business, each potentially needing their own method of capturing data. Agreeing on a common way of capturing and using the system was critical. This is a common challenge seen when dealing with multiple departments and it is one that Endava has a great deal of experience managing. Any potential problems were dealt with swiftly because of the Insurer’s and Endava’s culture of sharing best working practices. Users from the Home and Motor departments all worked together in an agile engagement with Endava Team to achieve and reach everyone’s goals.

The Insurer’s Operations Director commented: “We were impressed with the experience, depth of knowledge and quality of expertise that Endava provides. We were looking for a reliable partner that shares our core values and focuses on excellence in delivering first class solutions. Importantly it is Endava’s in-depth knowledge of the Guidewire products and technology that this project will rely on.”