Several aspects of this deal stand out. It is the first acquisition by Guidewire, which until now has been a “we build it, we sell it shop.” It augments Guidewire’s capabilities in the hottest part of the technology landscape: Business Intelligence/Analytics. And it reinforces Guidewire’s strategy to capture the community and network effect benefits of [...]

Click, click, click—that’s the sound of more formerly independent policy administration vendors dropping into the product portfolios of larger solution vendors.  Today’s announcement by SAP of its intention to acquire Camilion is another significant move—following rapidly after Insurity’s acquisition of AQS on Tuesday. In both cases the acquirer is getting certain capabilities that augment what [...]

Insurity’s acquisition today of AQS could prove to be a good deal all the way around . . . if certain things happen Insurity, currently owned by private equity firm Genstar, is showing an appetite for growth which is a good thing. Size does matter in terms of financial resources that can be put into [...]

On January 17 I&T posted a story about an exchange that took place at the Property/Casualty Joint Industry Forum between State Farm’s CEO, Edward Rust Jr., and an industry analyst, Brian Sullivan. Mr. Sullivan said, “It’s impossible for anyone to look at the data and say there won’t be fewer accidents than before. The technology [...]

PwC has just published an interesting and thoughtful paper on, “The Reshaping of Auto Insurance.” The paper describes the possible impact of various on- board technologies (automatic braking, telematics, etc.) on auto losses and the longer term potential for changes in auto insurance business models. Here are a few Celent comments: It is true that [...]

I have a homeowners policy with the DoNotDisclose Insurance Company. DoNotDisclose is a large, primarily personal lines company.   My policy term ends on Oct 8 every year.  This past August, I received the dec page and invoice for the new year, and paid it in full online.  I mean, I thought I paid it [...]

When I was an undergraduate, a few years ago, my college had a very strong Physics Department. It also had a graduation requirement that all students had to take one science course. This presented the Physics Department with a quandary, because its introduction physics course was rigorous and was designed for students who would become [...]

We recently observed Presidents’ Day which honors every President of the United States. Back in the day, there were designated holidays for the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Now we equally honor Millard Fillmore, James Buchanan, and James Garfield. Why? Why are we unwilling or even unable to differentiate between great Presidents who [...]

Today’s IPO for Guidewire is important for Guidewire, the insurance software sector, and for insurers that buy new software. For Guidewire the IPO will provide access to public equity markets and working capital—as well as funding additional internal development in its products and technology. As Guidewire is now a publicly traded company, its customers and [...]

The creation of a Chief Science Officer position at Chartis may be an inflection point in how analytics are used in insurers. By now all large insurers (as well as many midsize and smaller insurers) have made, and are making analytics investments. There are three basic elements in analytics:data, tools, staff skills. For an insurer’s [...]