Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance in Production with Guidewire ClaimCenter

Leading workers’ compensation carrier teams with HCL Technologies and Guidewire Software for on-time and under budget project delivery

COLOMBIA, Miss. and SAN MATEO, Calif., February 10, 2009:

Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance (MEM), Missouri’s largest workers’ compensation insurer, and Guidewire Software®, a leading global provider of solutions to property/casualty insurers, today announced that MEM has fully deployed Guidewire ClaimCenter® as its new claims management system. ClaimCenter is now in use by MEM’s 95-person claims handling team and has fully replaced the company’s internally built and maintained legacy claims system.

MEM recognized that a modern claims system would help the company more consistently achieve its claims management objectives and provide enhanced levels of customer service. Guidewire ClaimCenter was selected largely because of the system’s comprehensive out-of-the-box functionality and the strength of its technical architecture, which will provide MEM with a solid, flexible technology foundation to help meet current and future business needs. MEM selected HCL Technologies Ltd. (HCL), India’s leading global IT services company, and an onshore/offshore implementation model for additional cost effectiveness.  MEM’s dedicated project team managed the implementation, with HCL assisting in all aspects of the project including: configuration, integration, data conversion and claims reporting, and with Guidewire providing a project training and support role.

“This mission-critical ClaimCenter project was a very successful one for our company. We needed the project to come in on-time, on-budget, and to our specifications,” said Timothy Jackman, MEM’s vice president of Claims, Customer Service and Compliance. “We were able to meet all of our project objectives by choosing the right methodologies, tools and partners in HCL and Guidewire. With ClaimCenter we expect to better manage claims – from decreasing medical and indemnity expense to ensuring claims handling and service consistencies.”

“I am very pleased with the results of this program from a number of perspectives,” said Michael Foerst, MEM’s chief information officer. “HCL did a great job managing their resources, so MEM received all the upsides of a global staff without many of the management downsides. Guidewire introduced us to the Agile development methodology which gave us visibility into our project each step of the way.  Our results from this effort were so positive we are using similar Agile methods on two other projects.” Foerst concludes, “I have seen many vendors claim that their technical architectures were configurable and extensible, but few have lived up to our expectations as ClaimCenter did on this initiative.”

“ClaimCenter has been well received by our staff,” Jackman added. “Our users particularly like ClaimCenter’s automatic assignment of claims, workplans that help them know what is ‘on-task’ for a given day, and the overall user-friendliness of the system. They also really like the ability to work in multiple claims simultaneously that ClaimCenter provides.”

“We congratulate MEM on a successful ClaimCenter project,” said John Raguin, chief executive officer, Guidewire Software. “This success has enabled MEM to transform the way they are able to handle claims and serve their customers going forward.”

Guidewire ClaimCenter is a leading end-to-end claims system for property/casualty insurance. ClaimCenter’s flexible business rules enable claims organizations to optimize and monitor the claim process. Claims executives can define, enforce, and continually refine their preferred claim handling practices. In addition, a modern technology architecture, providing 100% web client, and web services interface enable lower total cost of ownership in any environment.

About Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance

Missouri Employers Mutual (MEM) is the No. 1 workers compensation insurance company in Missouri. Headquartered in Columbia, MEM is a mutual insurance company benefiting its policyholders—the employers of Missouri. With offices located in Springfield, Kansas City and St. Louis, MEM is dedicated to providing policyholders with exceptional customer service, quality loss prevention expertise and timely, personal claims management. MEM’s mission is to provide innovative, cost-effective solutions employers need to create safe, healthy and injury-free workplaces, and is committed to building long-term, sustainable growth to maximize policyholder value.  For more information please visit www.mem-ins.com.

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. For more information, please visit www.guidewire.com.