PZU, the Largest Insurance Company in CEE Selects Guidewire Solution for Rating, Underwriting, Policy Administration, Billing, Reinsurance, and Client Data Management

Ernst & Young UK, Ernst & Young Poland and Sollers Consulting to join the project team in Warsaw

WARSAW, Poland & SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul. 17, 2012-- PZU Insurance Group SA (PZU), Poland’s largest insurer and Guidewire Software®, Inc. (NYSE:GWRE) a global provider of flexible core system software to general insurers, today announced that PZU has selected Guidewire PolicyCenter® and Guidewire BillingCenter® as its next generation platform for underwriting, policy administration and billing operations. Additionally PZU has selected add-on modules: Guidewire Rating Management™, Guidewire Reinsurance Management™ and Guidewire Client Data Management™. Staff from Ernst & Young UK, Ernst & Young Poland and Sollers Consulting will be joining the project team and assisting Guidewire and PZU with the implementations.

PZU sought new underwriting, policy administration and billing systems to provide a strong foundation to bring products to market faster, better serve its more than 10,000 agents, and support multi-channel communications with policyholders and agents. The company selected PolicyCenter and BillingCenter to provide the desired functionality and business agility to help it grow and innovate in a dynamic market. The company looks forward to increased self-sufficiency and ability to make system changes and upgrades – resulting in an improved ability to respond to market changes.

“The PZU Strategy 2.0 stresses the uniform nature of the Group as an organisation operating in accordance with customer segmentation and actively managing customer relations. We want to use state-of-the-art technologies to serve our clients. The new IT system will make it possible to implement a multichannel, integrated sales and customer service model aimed at achieving full process automation," said Andrzej Klesyk, chief executive officer, PZU SA.

“We are honored to be selected by PZU as its transformation partner and we are grateful for the confidence placed in our company, people and products,” said Marcus Ryu, chief executive officer, Guidewire Software. “We are proud to serve insurance companies in 13 countries and will bring the expertise and best practices we’ve learned from our more than 100 successful core system projects to this, our first project in Poland.”

“The Guidewire team is looking forward to working together with PZU, Ernst & Young and Sollers Consulting to make this project a success for PZU,” said Alex Naddaff, vice president, Professional Services, Guidewire Software. “We recognize that core system replacement decisions are complex and bring with them a long term business impact. This has been among the most methodical and thorough evaluation approaches that I’ve seen, and we are gratified to have this opportunity to work with PZU.”

Guidewire PolicyCenter® is a flexible underwriting and policy administration system that enables Property/Casualty insurers to grow business profitably by improving efficiency, while responding with agility to market opportunities and enhancing relationships with agents and customers. Designed to support both commercial and personal lines, PolicyCenter helps insurers streamline front and back office processes, from new business submission and quoting through policy renewals. PolicyCenter is available as a standalone system or as part of Guidewire InsuranceSuite™, and can be integrated to an insurer’s legacy systems or third party applications.

Guidewire BillingCenter® is a comprehensive billing and receivables management system built on the core design principles of automation, control and flexibility. BillingCenter allows you to deliver insurance your way by making it easier to automate the billing lifecycle; design flexible billing, payment and delinquency plans; manage agent commissions; and enable rapid integration with external payment systems. BillingCenter is available as a standalone system or as part of Guidewire InsuranceSuite™, and can be integrated to a Property/Casualty insurer’s legacy systems or third party applications.

About PZU

PZU is the market leader in the Polish insurance services market, particularly in property and casualty insurance, with 32.6% market share at the end of 2011. It is the oldest Polish insurance group with the broad range of insurance and financial products. The principal product group offered by PZU is a motor insurance for retail and corporate customers. PZU Życie is the market leader in Polish life insurance services in terms of gross written premiums - 30.8% market share at the end of 2011. PZU and PZU Zycie each have an "A" financial strength rating and counterparty credit rating from Standard & Poor’s, with a stable outlook for both companies. This is the highest rating available to Polish companies.

The strategy for the years 2012-2014 will, to a large extent, be a continuation of the pursuit of the goals under the strategy for the years 2009-2011. The objective of the PZU Group is maintaining profitable growth and its lead position on the Polish insurance services market. In the foreseeable future, the operating model of the PZU Group will be transformed from an organization operating according to product lines to an organization operating according to client segments. These transformations will enable the Group to better understand the needs of its clients and to react appropriately to these needs. In consecutive years, further operating optimization of the PZU Group is planned.

Pro-client orientation and high operating effectiveness will allow the Group to maintain its lead position – the PZU Group will remain the largest and most profitable insurance firm in Central and eastern Europe.

About Guidewire Software

Guidewire Software is a provider of core system software to the global Property/Casualty (general) insurance industry. Designed to be flexible and scalable, Guidewire solutions give insurers the capability to deliver excellent service, increase market share and lower operating costs. Guidewire InsuranceSuite™, consisting of Guidewire PolicyCenter®, Guidewire ClaimCenter® and Guidewire BillingCenter® spans the key functional areas in insurance – underwriting and policy administration, claims management, and billing. Guidewire is headquartered in San Mateo, California, with offices in Beijing, Dublin, Hong Kong, London, Munich, Paris, Sydney, Tokyo, and Toronto.

In Poland Guidewire: operates as Guidewire Software Poland Sp. z.o.o., has already hired multiple Polish Professional Services consultants, and works with its alliance partners in Poland including Sollers Consulting and Ernst & Young Poland to implement its solutions for the Polish general insurance market. For more information, please visit www.guidewire.com.

NOTE: Guidewire, Guidewire Software, Guidewire ClaimCenter, Guidewire PolicyCenter, Guidewire BillingCenter, Guidewire InsuranceSuite, Guidewire PartnerConnect, Deliver Insurance Your Way, and the Guidewire logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Guidewire Software, Inc.

Source: Guidewire Software, Inc.

Guidewire Software, Inc.
Diana Stott, 1-650-356-4941
Public Relations Manager
dstott@guidewire.com