Thunderhead Partners With Guidewire To Optimize Customer Communications

Document automation and communications solutions vendor Thunderhead (Hertfordshire, U.K.) has embarked on a partnership with Guidewire (San Mateo, Calif.) to provide insurance carriers with solutions that will improve customer service and drive cost-efficiency, according to a Thunderhead source.

Through the partnership, the Thunderhead NOW product provides Guidewire clients with what its manufacturer describes as a robust, integrated platform that can be used across the enterprise for multiple communications purposes, including ad hoc correspondence; interactive, on-demand applications; or high-volume batch delivery. The Thunderhead/Guidewire partnership will thus enable insurers to more efficiently create, manage and deliver timely, accurate, personalized customer communications integral to their policy, billing and claims processes, according to the Thunderhead source.

The Thunderhead NOW platform also helps P&C insurance carriers reduce print, postage and fulfillment costs, by enabling multi-channel delivery of customer communications, Thunderhead asserts. By enabling insurers to employ electronic channels for customer communications, such as e-mail, fax, Web, SMS and even RSS feeds, Thunderhead NOW helps insurance companies reduce their dependence on traditional printed documents and correspondence, the vendor source adds. "Thunderhead and Guidewire are both key strategic partners for us," said Keith Sievers, CIO of Unitrin Specialty Services (part of Unitrin, Inc.; Chicago). "We are glad to see them working together."

Thunderhead and Guidewire offer complementary technologies, both designed from the ground up based on modern, services-oriented architectures (SOA), with native Web services and XML messaging capabilities, according to the Thunderhead source. As a result, the Thunderhead NOW platform and Guidewire Insurance Suite applications can be integrated quickly and seamlessly, resulting in reduced IT costs for carriers and improved ease of use for their agents, brokers and internal staff, Thunderhead claims.

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