Japan's SBI Insurance Selects Guidewire InsuranceSuite

SBI Insurance (Tokyo) has selected Guidewire InsuranceSuite as its new core systems as part of a project to implement new core systems in support of its new insurance service offering, in order to expand its business and further improve its competitiveness, according to a statement issued by the San Mateo-based vendor. The insurer has started its new system construction project, targeting full system operation in the first half of fiscal 2012.

SBI Insurance's plans require new systems to cover not only the complete range of functionality necessary in order to conduct general insurance business, but also need to have the kind of system architecture that would enable high levels of flexibility and scalability, in line with SBI Insurance's information systems policy of "compact systems" and "compact operations," according to Guidewire. Following a comparison of competing systems, SBI Insurance selected Guidewire InsuranceSuite systems for rating, underwriting, policy administration, billing and claims management.

[For more on the componentized suite market for insurance core systems see: Cover-All's Bid to Compete as Componentized Suite System Vendor and Accenture P&C Suite Announcement Prompts Enthusiasm, Skepticism.]

"SBI Insurance has maintained the delivery of customer-centric services as its vision since the company was founded," comments Kazunosuke Fujioka, director, SBI Insurance. "We have endeavored to provide our customers with high quality services that leverage the benefits of web-based services at the lowest insurance rates in the industry. Guidewire Software's product vision is very close to our own. Guidewire Software provides highly accomplished solutions and consulting services with the premise that, in the final analysis, we operate the system ourselves. The result is that we will be able to implement a system that meets our demands in terms of superior quality, agility and cost effectiveness."

Ian Tavener, Vice President, Asia Pacific Regional Headquarters, Guidewire, comments, "We are very pleased that SBI Insurance has become the first company to implement Guidewire InsuranceSuite in Japan. I believe this results from our being able to provide a next generation core system that addresses SBI Insurance's desire to deliver the best services to their customers through the proactive implementation of an advanced system. We are pleased to be able to help SBI Insurance to achieve further business expansion through the realization of an advanced system with high quality and cost effectiveness, through the implementation of Guidewire InsuranceSuite."

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio