Live from #GuidewireConnections 2018: The impact of partnerships

Greetings to all from the 2018 Guidewire Connections conference in Las Vegas! It's been an amazing conference so far, with thought-provoking discussions from Malcolm Gladwell and amazing product launch demos from the talented Guidewire product team.

All of this innovation and the insightful discussions here at Guidewire Connections got me thinking more about, well, connections. Not only connections with amazing insurance thought leaders, but connections between brands, especially incumbents and new startups.

Partnerships are what will drive the insurance industry through the next decade. And, this is something I’ve been talking about for a while now.

Indeed, in almost perfect timing, the 2018 World Insurtech Report was released last week, with the apt title: Collaborative Approach between Incumbent Insurers and InsurTechs Gains Traction.

Gaining traction indeed.

According to a Medici study, insurtech-carrier “integrations/technology adoptions are becoming common in every region.” Further, according to Capgemini and Efma, “Almost 96 percent of insurers said they were looking to collaborate with InsurTech firms in some way, with a partnership and Solution-as-a-Service (SaaS) approach widely favored.”

Partnerships are key to insurance innovation because most carriers do not know how to leverage all of the new technology applications, nor do they want to plug into or integrate with multiple systems. Partnerships solve this growing pain point.

This is why WeGoLook has strategically integrated with multiple platform partners this year—Xactware, CCC, Geomni, Guidewire, to name a few. In doing so, we have reduced friction for insurance carriers, and helped enable them to be much more agile in the process.

There’s no doubt in my mind that the competition ushered in from digital innovation mandates that incumbents be much more agile and innovative than ever before. As such, partnerships with newcomers—like insurtechs—will ease the burden of disruption, and allow insurers to remain—and maybe even become more—relevant.

Speaking of partnerships, the cherry on top for me from the Guidewire Connections Conference was when Guidewire CEO, Marcus Ryu, announced the new DevConnect, featuring WeGoLook with a follow-up demonstration by Anirban Bardalaye, Head of Product, Marketplace.

Thanks to the amazing organizers and participants for a successful 2018 gathering—I can barely wait for 2019!