Insurer IT organizations' execution capabilities have been climbing slowly upward since the belt-tightening dot-com bust era, but project failure continues to be a problem. Organizations go through personnel changes and evolving technology and related skill sets make execution excellence a moving target. Of course failed projects are as much of a problem for technology vendors as for insurers because even a single failure can tip the balance in one's competitors' favor. Conversely, a record of success has enormous value to vendors.These thoughts came to mind during a meeting with Priscilla Hung of San Mateo, Calif.-based P&C systems vendor Guidewire, at the 2010 ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum held last week in Las Vegas. Priscilla heads the vendor's corporate development and alliances area, which recently launched a formal alliance program called PartnerConnect.

Many systems vendors have ongoing relationships with systems integrators and other consulting partners, but Guidewire has introduced a level of formality designed to mitigate project risk and foster success. The PartnerConnect program establishes formal partnerships at the company level and also establishes formal qualifications for individual consultants.

Guidewire has instituted contractual obligations for partners to meet specific metrics, such as the number of consultant employees dedicated to a given implementation. Partnership status requires consulting firms' employees to pass what Guidewire describes as a rigorous certification process for the Guidewire product being implemented. Guidewire and its partners also mutually agree to annually review goals, assess customer feedback and measure overal performance with elaborate scorecards, according to Hung. "Through this process, the partners know exactly where they stand with Guidewire," she says.

Guidewire began rollout out its certification program in Q4 2009 for both technical and functional consultants. It began testing individuals in Jan. 2010, and currently about 130 of 600 consultants have received relevant certification.

The vendor works with the usual suspects in the insurance systems integration realm, including the biggest firms and reaching down to some boutique operations. However, Hung emphasizes quality over quantity. "We don't aspire to form as many partnerships as possible, but rather to maximize the quality and effectiveness of the relationships," she comments. "What we think is novel in the PartnerConnect program is the level of commitment at senior levels of our partnering firms."Many systems vendors have ongoing relationships with systems integrators and other consulting partners, but Guidewire has introduced a level of formality designed to mitigate project risk and foster success. The PartnerConnect program establishes formal partnerships at the company level and also establishes formal qualifications for individual consultants.