Penn National Insurance Selects Guidewire Solution for Billing Management

Guidewire BillingCenter® to help property-casualty company prepare for future IT and business changes and increase its service levels for agents and customers

HARRISBURG, Pa. & SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Penn National Insurance, a property- casualty insurance company, and Guidewire Software, Inc. (NYSE: GWRE), a provider of core system software to Property/Casualty insurers, today announced that Penn National Insurance has selected Guidewire BillingCenter® as its new billing management system. BillingCenter will handle both direct and agency billing for Penn National Insurance and will be deployed for all lines of business starting with Direct Bill Personal and Commercial Lines.

Factors that led Penn National Insurance to focus on selecting a new billing management system included the increased importance of new payment methods, the increased need to provide real-time billing information on the Web and integrate with agency management systems, and the need for agility and flexibility in supporting new products and new billing plans.

“We selected BillingCenter for its flexibility and upgradeability. We needed a system that we could own and leverage to support evolving business needs such as eBilling, with reduced time to bring new enhancements to market,” said Bryan Munchel, director, Planning and Project Management, Penn National Insurance. “We also appreciated the high quality of the software and BillingCenter’s ability to integrate into our existing IT landscape.”

“The majority of our customers’ touch points with us are regarding billing, which means that most of our policyholders only know us by our invoice. People don’t write a check to the insurance company because they want to; they pay the premium because they know insurance gives them peace of mind,” said Kenneth R. Shutts, president and chief executive officer, Penn National Insurance. “This is a great opportunity to utilize BillingCenter as a strategic touch point to get our message across, to remind our customers of the quality, value and security they are getting in a policy with Penn National Insurance. In other words, we see this as a chance to make our customers feel good about their choice of insurance carrier.”

Guidewire BillingCenter will enable Penn National Insurance to:

• Improve the ease of doing business for agents and policyholders through the enhancement of self-servicing options for both agents and customers;
• Increase new business and retention by introducing new payment methods, installment plans, and billing methods quickly and easily for profitable growth; and
• Optimize operational efficiency by automating that which can and should be automated, providing a single view of billing related data, and resolving agent/policyholder inquiries faster.

“We are pleased to welcome Penn National Insurance to the Guidewire family,” said Steve Sherry, vice president, The Americas, Guidewire Software. “Penn National insurance has a reputation for providing excellent customer service that is tailored to each customer’s individual needs, and BillingCenter will help Penn National further extend this reputation.”

Guidewire BillingCenter is a comprehensive billing and receivables management system built on the core design principles of automation, control and flexibility. BillingCenter allows you to deliver insurance your way by making it easier to automate the billing lifecycle; design flexible billing, payment and delinquency plans; manage agent commissions; and enable rapid integration with external payment systems. BillingCenter is available as a standalone system or as part of Guidewire InsuranceSuite™, and can be integrated to a general (Property/Casualty) insurer’s legacy systems or third party applications.

About Penn National Insurance

Penn National Insurance (www.pennnationalinsurance.com), founded in 1919, sells personal and commercial property-casualty insurance in PA, MD, DE, NJ, VA, NC, SC, TN, and AL, through a network of more than 750 independent agencies. The company wrote $517 million in net written premium in 2011 on $451 million in policyholders’ surplus, and total assets exceeded $1.4 billion. The company employs more than 800 people in its nine-state sales and service territory.

About Guidewire Software

Guidewire Software is a provider of core system software to the global Property/Casualty (general) insurance industry. Designed to be flexible and scalable, Guidewire solutions give insurers the capability to deliver excellent service, increase market share and lower operating costs. Guidewire InsuranceSuite™, consisting of Guidewire PolicyCenter®, Guidewire ClaimCenter® and Guidewire BillingCenter® spans the key functional areas in insurance – underwriting and policy administration, claims management, and billing. Guidewire is headquartered in San Mateo, California, with offices in Beijing, Dublin, Hong Kong, London, Munich, Paris, Sydney, Tokyo, and Toronto. For more information, please visit www.guidewire.com.

NOTE: Guidewire, Guidewire Software, Guidewire ClaimCenter, Guidewire PolicyCenter, Guidewire BillingCenter, Guidewire InsuranceSuite, Deliver Insurance Your Way, Guidewire PartnerConnect, and the Guidewire logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Guidewire Software, Inc.

Guidewire Software, Inc.Diana Stott, +1-650-356-4941
Public Relations Manager
dstott@guidewire.com
or
Penn National InsuranceChristopher Markley, +1-717-255-6895
Vice President, Corporate Communications
cmarkley@pnat.com

Source: Guidewire Software, Inc.