Wawanesa Insurance Deploys Guidewire Solution for Claims Management

The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company (Wawanesa), which provides coverage to almost 2 million policyholders in Canada and the United States, and Guidewire Software®, a leading provider of core systems software to Property/Casualty (general) insurers, today announced that Wawanesa is in production with Guidewire ClaimCenter®.

Wawanesa is deploying ClaimCenter to manage claims for all its lines of business across its Canadian and U.S. jurisdictions in a phased implementation approach. ClaimCenter is currently in use in four regions (Manitoba, Ontario, British Columbia, and the U.S. Operations in California and Oregon,) with the remaining jurisdictions (Maritimes, Quebec, Prairie and Alberta) due to roll out late August through the end of 2011. The company is on target to retire its legacy claims systems by the end of 2011.

“We are excited by the possibilities ClaimCenter brings,” said Barbara MacIntyre, vice president, Claims, Wawanesa Insurance. “We now have a modern, stable system to accommodate our diverse Canadian and U.S. claims handling needs, and that system has the multi-currency handling and regulatory support for both countries, as well as built-in language capabilities we need to support our English and French Canadian operations. ClaimCenter provides improved insight into our claims operations, enabling us to deliver better and more comprehensive service to our policyholders and brokers.”

“This was a highly successful project for Wawanesa,” said Syd Church, director, IS Strategic Initiatives, Wawanesa Insurance. “We have been able to deliver a state-of-the-art claims management system, on-time, on-budget and with all the intended scope. We originally selected Guidewire not just for its packaged claims solution, which was very good, but equally as important was our belief that they would be the kind of partner we needed. They did not disappoint us, working side-by-side with our team and guiding us throughout the process.”

Church added, “We were also first time users of the Agile methodology and wholeheartedly support the transparency it gave us throughout the project.” MacIntyre concluded, “This transparency helped the business and IT stay in sync with one another throughout the project, avoiding surprises and helping us quickly address issues.”

With ClaimCenter, Wawanesa is able to:

• Establish efficient common claims handling processes across its organization;
• Improve the quality of service provided to policyholders and brokers;
• Collect, retrieve and view information efficiently for better measurement and metrics;
• Streamline training of new staff thanks to ClaimCenter’s user friendly interface; and
• Notify brokers immediately when claims are filed, enabling them to provide enhanced and efficient policyholder service.

“We congratulate the entire Wawanesa organization on its successful ClaimCenter implementation,” said Marcus Ryu, chief executive officer, Guidewire Software. “Change on this scale is not always easy and Wawanesa is to be commended for the way in which they have capitalized on the significant organizational and operational changes that come with a claims transformation project. We wish them every success with ClaimCenter going forward.”

Guidewire ClaimCenter® is a leading end-to-end claims management system, built from the ground up to meet the specific needs of today’s Property/Casualty (general) insurers. ClaimCenter’s flexible business rules enable claims organizations to define, enforce and continually refine their preferred claim handling practices in order to optimize and monitor their claim processes. ClaimCenter is in use by insurers of all sizes across all product lines to improve speed and accuracy, reduce loss adjustment expense and enable proactive management of claims. ClaimCenter is available as a standalone system or as part of the Guidewire InsuranceSuite™, and can be integrated to an insurer’s legacy systems or third party applications.

About The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company

Wawanesa is a Canadian mutual company and one of the largest property and casualty insurers in Canada. Wawanesa has a rich history dating back to 1896, when it was founded in the Village of Wawanesa, Manitoba. Today executive offices are located in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Wawanesa operates across Canada and in the states of California and Oregon with total assets of $5.8 billion (CDN) and almost 2 million policies in force. Wawanesa has 100% ownership of two subsidiary companies; The Wawanesa Life Insurance Company and Wawanesa General Insurance Company (U.S.A.). For more information, please visit www.wawanesa.com.