Innovate faster with Guidewire on AWS: PwC

Guidewire: a foundational building block for cloud adoption

The changes we are experiencing in the insurance industry, particularly in the property and casualty (P&C) sector, are unprecedented. Customer expectations, environmental shifts, socio-economic trends, rapid technological advancements, and legal-regulatory changes are transforming assets, services, and risk responses in our societies. These changes require carriers to invest in digital innovation to improve analysis for more informed decision-making, enhance operational efficiency, and improve customer experiences, all while maintaining regulatory compliance.

In response, property and casualty (P&C) companies are rapidly adopting cloud-based core insurance technologies like Guidewire. As a Global Premier partner for Guidewire, PwC is continuously innovating and investing to make the Guidewire journey, including the surrounding technology ecosystem, more affordable, faster, and less labor-intensive for our clients' teams.

The maturity of your cloud operations, your “Guidewire Surround,” needs to be on pace with the maturity of the Guidewire platform.

To experience the full value of implementing Guidewire Cloud, insurance carriers must ensure their surrounding technology is also prepared. This readiness is essential not only for supporting operations once core functions have migrated to the cloud but also for developing differentiated capabilities around the data and processes now running outside their data centers:

An enterprise-class cloud foundation on AWS that is resilient and secure
Technology and security controls rethought and redesigned for the cloud
Data capabilities built for advanced analytics, ready for GenAI, and directly supporting your product strategy
Modern contact centers integrating natural voice processing and AI-powered tools, directly impacting your operations and raising your Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Acceleration of your cloud migration, rationalizing and modernizing the rest of your applications to the public cloud, and exiting your data centers
A cloud-first operating model that spans from your technology teams to your solution lines, jointly enabling them with the agility and rapid innovation capabilities of the AWS ecosystem

Getting the “Guidewire Surround” ready for cloud operations

Enterprise-class AWS cloud foundation
Technology and security controls for cloud
Advanced data analytics capabilities
Modern contact centers
Accelerating cloud migration

Enterprise-class AWS cloud foundation

Our approach includes deploying pre-built accelerators and scripts to quickly launch a customized AWS Landing Zone tailored to our clients' complex ecosystems of applications, integrations, and regulations, while aligning with Guidewire’s requirements (e.g., PwC CDA Connector Accelerator). An AWS Landing Zone offers capabilities such as preventative and detective security controls, encryption, and continuous monitoring, all of which help improve security and reduce risks. Additionally, data analytics and machine learning capabilities provide deeper insights and drive innovation, enabling swift responses to market changes and customer needs.

Technology and security controls for cloud

Security has always been a board-level agenda item and continues to be so with the ever-changing threat landscape and evolving technologies. Our Cyber, Risk, and Regulatory practice is renowned throughout the industry for its ability to link threats and controls to practical architecture and design. Our cloud foundation and DevSecOps practices incorporate risk and security controls for your cloud services, data, and applications running across SaaS, AWS, and other public clouds.

Advanced data analytics capabilities

For today’s successful carriers, differentiation in products, pricing, and business operations optimization is key. Achieving this effectively requires strong analytic capabilities and, most importantly, access to quality analytic data. Planning and executing a successful data ecosystem, including addressing legacy data early on in your journey, is crucial for analyzing and designing differentiated business strategies, as well as for monitoring results and making adjustments when outcomes do not meet expectations.

Modern contact centers

Using Amazon Connect and Lex with Guidewire can significantly improve customer experience by reducing the time to serve customers, enhancing customer satisfaction, and meeting customers where they are. Additionally, GenAI solutions such as Bedrock, Sagemaker, and Amazon Q in the contact center improve accuracy and speed, enabling further automation and leading to lower operating costs for the contact center.

Accelerating cloud migration

With your core insurance processes running on Guidewire Cloud, the next step is to modernize, simplify, and automate the rest of your technology environment. Migrating to AWS by exiting your data centers or reducing on-premises infrastructure to a tactical colocation is a significant undertaking. It must deliver adequate ROI, create value, and reduce risk for your firm. Our approach addresses both technology and operating model aspects and evaluates the overall financial mechanisms required. We navigate AWS funding programs, incentives, your licensing environment, refresh cycles, and establish program objectives (e.g., OKRs) that are meaningful to your stakeholders.