Amica Mutual Insurance Company Deploys Guidewire ClaimCenter

Business Wire, Sept 16, 2008

State-of-the-art claims handling system helps award winning carrier continue to provide excellent customer service

LINCOLN, R.I. & SAN MATEO, Calif. -- Amica Mutual Insurance Company (Amica), a direct writer of personal lines insurance, and Guidewire Software[R], a leading global provider of solutions to property casualty insurers, today announced that Amica has fully deployed Guidewire ClaimCenter[R] as its new claims system. ClaimCenter is now the system handling all new claims for Amica's auto, homeowners, marine, and personal excess liability lines of business. Amica has a total of 2,500 active ClaimCenter users in-production with the system, including underwriters, support teams, and 1,100 claims professionals.

Quality service has always been considered a key component in Amica's success. The company has been ranked the highest in customer satisfaction among national auto and homeowners insurers, nine and six years in a row respectively, by J.D. Power and Associates. Though known for claims excellence, Amica wanted to "do it better" which required overcoming the limitations of its old claims handling systems, and paper-based claims files. Amica implemented Guidewire ClaimCenter to upgrade its technology foundation and claims handling capabilities. This has enabled Amica to further enhance policyholder service, gain more visibility into its claims operation and enhance the capabilities of its claims professionals.

Guidewire ClaimCenter and its flexible integration framework forms the backbone of Amica's transformation to a fully paperless claims environment and enables the sharing and receipt of data from internal and external systems - including seamless integration to a variety of external vendors. The Electronic Claim File project and accompanying integrations have simplified the loss reporting process, eliminated redundant data entry, provided seamless work routing based on branch/staff volumes, reduced new hire training times; and provided adjusters additional time and tools to concentrate on the claims adjusting activities most critical to serving policyholders needs.

Amica had a very clear set of objectives going into the project and recognized early in the process that buying its new claims system (instead of building it) would give it the quickest time to value, as well as the most cost effective solution. "ClaimCenter met virtually all of our needs from the start and Guidewire worked diligently with us to develop the additional functionality we wanted," said Jim Will, senior assistant vice president, Amica Mutual Insurance Company. "Selecting Guidewire to help make us successful was the right decision for Amica - the quality of the ClaimCenter application, the Guidewire team, and our partnership is simply outstanding."

Amica claims handlers now use one web-based system for all of their claims handling activities - and both claims handlers and claims management have gained real-time visibility into claim operations allowing Amica to quickly fine tune additional areas of improvement. "Our claims handlers can now provide faster, quicker service; and claims are handled and closed in record time," added Jeff Gagnon, director, training and development, Amica Mutual Insurance Company. "Our internal 'it's your system' approach with end users throughout system implementation has served us well. Our employees see immediate benefits from the system they had a hand in developing."

Amica made it a priority from the start in this project to incorporate end-user feedback every step of the way. This was made possible by the company's use of the Agile development methodology. "Our use of Agile enabled us to rapidly develop and demonstrate new system functionality in short 22 day 'sprints'. This allowed Amica business users to see and give feedback on 'their system' each step of the way, which got them excited about what was coming," said William Vandervelde, business application section manager, Amica Mutual Insurance Company. "This is a powerful way to achieve project success quickly and we have adopted it for other Amica projects as well."

Projects of this scale involve numerous complex system integrations. "ClaimCenter was integrated with more than 20 internal and external systems requiring varying degrees of sophistication," said Robert Bergeron, section manager, Integration Competency Center, Amica Mutual Insurance Company. "Guidewire's technology, integration approach, our use of agile, and the combined talents of the project team made these integrations as smooth as they could be. Our IT team is now self-sufficient and is readily making system changes and integrations on its own."

"Our goal at Guidewire is to work with our customers to build the best products to meet their needs," said John Raguin, chief executive officer, Guidewire Software. "We enjoy a great partnership with Amica. Their input, along with that of other customers, has really helped shape the development direction ClaimCenter has taken. We applaud Amica for their successful deployment and look forward to continuing our relationship with them."