In response to Revau’s requirements, EY proposed a solution that involved implementing the EY Nexus for Insurance business transformation platform alongside Guidewire, a market-leading property and casualty insurance platform.
Neil Pengelly, EY Canada Insurance Technology Leader, explains how the combination of EY Nexus and Guidewire works. “The EY Nexus for Insurance platform provides a core system that is powered by Guidewire, with EY Nexus assets,” he says. “This allowed for the rapid deployment of full-stack capabilities that provide Revau with the pricing and underwriting functions they need to be able to deliver on their business, as well as a full-scale set of integrations.”
So, while Guidewire provides the core underwriting, policy and management frameworks, Nexus supplies a range of pre-built capabilities that allow Revau to address the needs of its clients and insurers, as well as newly developed capabilities – some of them specific to the needs of MGAs, and some to the Canadian market.
The implementation of Nexus and Guidewire took just 10 months – a short period of time in which to transform Revau’s underwriting and policy frameworks and roll them out. The EY team is now working with Revau to incrementally add new capabilities and products.
Challenges to solve
Revau’s digital transformation did throw up a few challenges for the EY Canada team. This was their first implementation of Nexus with an MGA, the first bilingual implementation (English and French) and the first to involve multiple currencies, while Revau was the first Canadian MGA to implement Guidewire. In particular, some of the necessary functionality around data was specific to the MGA market.
“Every implementation involves a mixture of existing capabilities and new ones that have to be developed to meet specific needs,” Pengelly explains. “These new capabilities then become part of the core Nexus offering and can be rolled out on future implementations.”
Revau’s ongoing expansion also added complexity. Midway through the implementation, the company acquired Eagle underwriters, which provides aviation coverage, and there was also a need to factor in US exposure that meant incorporating further multicurrency functionality. Key to the success of the project was the EY team’s ability to rapidly adapt to changing market conditions and new lines of business in the middle of an implementation and still stick to the planned timeline.
