Acini

Our recent visit to London was very special. It was a culmination of months of preparations... for Acini's 3rd Birthday Party🎉   There were balloons, toasts, a fierce pub quiz competition expertly run by Roger Foord, singing and chatting🎈   But most of all there were many, many guests, who could have done anything else on this Tuesday evening, but decided to spend it with us 🫶🏻   Thank you for celebrating this important day with us and see you next year🤗We are already thinking of a bigger venue, because as we grow, our circle of friends in the UK grows as well!🏟️   #insurance #LondonMarket #celebration #UK

In this edition of 𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 ... 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐈𝐭 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤? we follow Bart Wabiński, our Head of London Market IT&Business Consulting, into the world of Managing Agents and General Managing Agents to find out exactly what differentiates them from each other 🤔 🔍 Managing Agent vs. Managing General Agent (MGA): What’s the Difference in the London Insurance Market? In the context of the #LondonMarket, the roles of a Managing Agent and a Managing General Agent (MGA) are distinct, though they share some similarities. Here is a breakdown of their most prominent differences and similarities. 💼 Managing Agents:     Operate within Lloyd’s market.   Manage syndicates & deploy capital.   Bear #underwriting risk for syndicate members.   📊 MGAs:     Work with insurers outside (or inside) Lloyd’s.   Underwrite with delegated authority but don’t bear the risk.   Act as intermediaries for #insurance companies.   👉 Both specialize in niche markets and manage underwriting, but their roles and responsibilities differ significantly!

What do London Market and Claims have in common? Obviously The Insurance Network that organises this crucial #insurance conference, but also... Acini. We are deeply rooted in the specialty market in the UK and if you look at our customers, you can easily see that the #claims process is Acini's cup of tea🍵 All this is a long-winded way of saying that we would be exhibiting at the TIN #LondonMarketClaims. Our stand might... stand out this time, so you will probably be able to quickly find it! See you in London!

Optimizing Gosu Queries for Better Performance Let us share some techniques to enhance the performance of Gosu queries. 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐝 𝐅𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝𝐬 When writing Gosu queries, always try to utilize indexed fields, as they significantly improve query #performance. 𝐄𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐞 If you’re using startsWith combined with ignoreCase, ensure you enable supportsLinguisticSearch on the column in the criteria for more efficient searches. 𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐕𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 Use ViewEntity to load multiple related entities in a single query, reducing the number of separate calls to the database. 𝐋𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭 If you don’t need all fields from an entity, limit the number of columns retrieved by using the select method: 𝘘𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘺.𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦(𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘺).𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵({𝘘𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘚𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘮𝘯𝘴.𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘩(𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘺.𝘊𝘙𝘌𝘈𝘛𝘌𝘛𝘐𝘔𝘌_𝘗𝘙𝘖𝘗.𝘨𝘦𝘵())}) 𝐅𝐢𝐥𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 Apply additional filtering at the #database level for better performance: 𝘷𝘢𝘳 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘺 = 𝘘𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘺.𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦(𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘺).𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵() 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘺.𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘍𝘪𝘭𝘵𝘦𝘳(𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘘𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘍𝘪𝘭𝘵𝘦𝘳("𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘵𝘦𝘳", \ 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘘𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘺 -> {  𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘘𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘺.𝘫𝘰𝘪𝘯(𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘺#𝘈𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵).𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦(𝘈𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵#𝘈𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘴, 𝘙𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱.𝘌𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘴, 𝘈𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘴.𝘛𝘊_𝘞𝘐𝘛𝘏𝘋𝘙𝘈𝘞𝘕) })) There are many useful OOTB filters such as gw.api.web.policy.ViewablePolicyPeriodQueryFilter. 𝐁𝐲𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐰𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐋𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐬 If you’re loading a large number of records, you can bypass the Guidewire cache to prevent memory issues: 𝘷𝘢𝘳 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘺 = 𝘘𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘺.𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦(𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘺).𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵() 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘺.𝘴𝘦𝘵𝘊𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭(𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘊𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭.𝘉𝘠𝘗𝘈𝘚𝘚_𝘎𝘓𝘖𝘉𝘈𝘓_𝘊𝘈𝘊𝘏𝘌) 𝐀𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐲 A common mistake is using Iterable-specific methods, which can load the entire query result into memory. Instead, use these replacements for better performance: 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵() -> 𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘵 𝘏𝘢𝘴𝘌𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 -> 𝘌𝘮𝘱𝘵𝘺 𝐋𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬 If you need to process large data sets or only need a subset of records, limit the results by setting a page size: 𝘷𝘢𝘳 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘺 = 𝘘𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘺.𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦(𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘺).𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵() 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘺.𝘴𝘦𝘵𝘗𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘚𝘪𝘻𝘦(100) For batch processing you should use the OOTB method setChunkingById to safely modify records from a query without affecting the next chunks. 𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐔𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐧 Often, you can improve performance by merging multiple separate queries into one using a union. Got other tips for optimizing Gosu queries? #guidewire

Before we officially start the weekend, let us reveal the right answer to our question in the poll: What is the architectural style of the Lloyd's building? Drumrolls please 🥁... The answer is BOWELLISM! Richard Rogers is the architect who designed the famous building in this modern, architectural style. It emphasizes the "inside" of a structure and Lloyd's is a prime example of that approach. Have you seen it in person? What did you think?

Making life easier for #insurers and insureds is an obvious ambition of ours that needs no further explanation. The ways in which we approach it, however, is a different story💡 For quite a while now, automating processes through RPA, IDP and now AI has been intertwined with system integrations, workflow orchestration and introducing new rules. All with the purpose of arriving at the ultimate process excellence🔄 We went a step further and built some bespoke #accelerators to elevate insurance with Advanced #ProcessAutomation. See below for a bird's eye view of our skills and a toolkit🛠️

Lloyd's of London, also know as the 'inside-out building' is an iconic structure that needs no introduction, even if you are not directly involved in specialty insurance. Let's visit it as part of our ongoing #LondonMarket series🫖 There are well-known facts about this unique #insurance marketplace. For example, it has its origins in Edward Lloyd's coffeehouse, first mentioned in 1688☕ The tables where the underwriting takes places are referred to as 'boxes'. And the majestic bell that was hung in the underwriting room in 1858 comes from the Lutine ship, dragged by the tide to its final destination at the bottom of the North Sea🌊 How about the more obscure trivia? Do you know the name of the second ship insured together with the ill-fated Titanic? Or when the first Motor Policy was issued? It is Olympic and 1904, respectively💡 And coming back to the unique Lloyd's building itself... there is a particular architectural style applied in its design. Try your hand in today's poll and choose the answer!🤔

While we are enjoying the last days of summer 🔆 at least in Europe, the climate phenomena occurring across the world are much less “sunny”. The weather events are becoming more and more extreme and unpredictable. Their destructive consequences reach new regions and groups. And as with everything in life, insurance – parametric insurance to be precise - plays a huge role in this aspect👩💻 An interesting article in Intelligent Insurer dives into the topic with parametric Nat Cat (natural catastrophe) experts from Swiss Re Corporate solutions. Parametric insurance has never been more important than now with the #climatechange undeniably causing unpredictable and increasingly violent weather phenomena. Which means there are no safe and permanent insurance solutions (if there ever have been)⚠️ It is key for #insurers to create better product offering which provides protection for both primary and secondary perils. The difference between this and traditional policies is that the loss and payout are agreed upon before and not after the event. Of course this means, the more precise and accurate parametric analysis the better for all the parties involved✨ Once again insurance faces challenges and is forced to be a quick learner in the fast-paced reality of today✅          

If you are a bike enthusiast, this article in Insurance Times by Clare Ruel might be right up your alley...or rather a bicycle path 🚴 We have been supporting Bikmo since 2022 and are proud to be a part of this #embedded insurance project. It makes the lives of bike riders easier and safer, while opening new opportunities to all the parties involved🌟 Grzegorz Podlesny, quoted in the article, perhaps sums it up best, when he says: "By embedding #insurance into bicycle purchases, there is an opportunity to promote safety among cyclists🦺 Insurance coverage can include incentives or discounts for using safety gear, attending cycling safety courses, or following traffic laws." For more follow the link, provided in the comment.

𝐆𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐰𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 Time for another deep dive into the Guidewire world. In this installment we are focusing on the Guidewire Configuration Best Practices. More specifically, why you should Avoid Hardcoding Environment-Specific Settings. When working with #guidewire, it is essential to avoid hardcoding environment-specific configurations directly into your configuration files. Instead, leverage external parameters whenever possible. This approach makes it easier to add new environments or update #configurations without modifying the #code, leading to more maintainable and flexible applications. Let’s examine a few examples to illustrate this best practice: 1. Server Roles Configuration Instead of hardcoding server roles directly in the config.xml file: <𝒓𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒔="𝘣𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩, 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘭𝘦𝘳, 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘶𝘦, 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦, 𝘶𝘪">    <𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒏𝒗="𝘶𝘢𝘵1" 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒅="𝘱𝘤𝘯𝘰𝘥𝘦1" 𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒔="𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘶𝘦, 𝘣𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩, 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘭𝘦𝘳, 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦"/>    <𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒏𝒗="𝘥𝘦𝘷1" 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒅="𝘱𝘤𝘯𝘰𝘥𝘦2" 𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒔="𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘶𝘦, 𝘣𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩, 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘭𝘦𝘳, 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦"/>    <𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒏𝒗="𝘶𝘢𝘵1" 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒅="𝘱𝘤𝘯𝘰𝘥𝘦3" 𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒔="𝘶𝘪"/>    <𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒏𝒗="𝘥𝘦𝘷1" 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒅="𝘱𝘤𝘯𝘰𝘥𝘦4" 𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒔="𝘶𝘪"/> </𝒓𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒚> You can replace this with a JVM option: -𝑫𝒈𝒘.𝒑𝒄.𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒅=𝘱𝘤𝘯𝘰𝘥𝘦1#𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦,𝘣𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩,𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨,𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘭𝘦𝘳,𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘶𝘦 This approach allows for more dynamic configuration based on the environment without requiring changes to the XML files. 2. Plugin Configuration in GWP Files For plugin configurations, instead of hardcoding the plugin's parameter: <𝒑𝒍𝒖𝒈𝒊𝒏-𝒈𝒐𝒔𝒖    𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒅="${𝘗𝘓𝘜𝘎𝘐𝘕_𝘔𝘠_𝘗𝘓𝘜𝘎𝘐𝘕_𝘋𝘐𝘚𝘈𝘉𝘓𝘌𝘋:𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘦}"    𝒈𝒐𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒔="𝘢.𝘣.𝘤.𝘔𝘺𝘗𝘭𝘶𝘨𝘪𝘯"/> Using external variables like ${PLUGIN_MY_PLUGIN_DISABLED} ensures that you can control the plugin’s configuration across different environments without altering the source code. 3. Configuration Parameters Consider another example with config.xml parameters: <𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒎 𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆="𝘞𝘦𝘣𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘏𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘋𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘴" 𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒆="${𝘊𝘖𝘕𝘍𝘐𝘎_𝘞𝘌𝘉𝘚𝘌𝘙𝘝𝘐𝘊𝘌𝘚_𝘏𝘐𝘋𝘌_𝘋𝘌𝘛𝘈𝘐𝘓𝘚:𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦}"/> By using external parameters such as ${CONFIG_WEBSERVICES_HIDE_DETAILS}, you can adjust configurations per environment, making your setup more adaptable. Using external parameters for environment-specific settings in Guidewire enhances your application's flexibility and reduces the risk of errors during environment migrations or updates. For more detailed information on how to implement this, refer to the Guidewire documentation, specifically the chapter on "External Server Configuration." Happy coding!