Guidewire Software, Inc. (NYSE:GWRE) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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It might be even — it might matter even more because that sort of digital user experience that is really expected nowadays for really dealing with any company or any product becomes more and more important over time. And so it’s the flexibility around this that we’re delivering with Guidewire with GWCP and with some really exciting improvements that we have made on the digital front with our digital platform that they are very excited about. And I just think fundamentally, what we’re trying to do for this industry is give them a platform that they can innovate with that they can iterate on. And so that if we can sort of make the projects easier for them to execute on smaller faster, they’re going to be able to, in the same way any software company sort of iterates their way to success, you’re going to be able to see sort of significant improvements in that marketing and distribution channel for both direct and indirect customers.

So great question.

Operator: Our next question is from the line of Kevin Kumar with Goldman Sachs.

Kevin Kumar: Can you give us an update on just the overall demand environment? Any changes in terms of carriers’ appetite for larger upfront deals? And then any comments on kind of geographic differences. It feels like Europe was performing pretty nicely this quarter.

Mike Rosenbaum: Yes, good question. It’s something we continue to pay close attention to given sort of overall sort of constant news about what’s going on in the macro environment. I would say generally, we are seeing a continuation of what we’ve reported over the past few quarters in that the insurance industry is not immune, but is not specifically impinged, I’d say, by this. There are certainly impacts of inflation that a lot of carriers are feeling and working through. But in general, like I’ve said a number of times, I think that the time period around which these carriers are thinking about these modernizations and their strategy for these core systems is sort of at least multiyear, if not for a decade. And so the decision-making process and the demand environment, it can stay steady throughout this period of uncertainty from a macro perspective.

So hopefully, that’s clear like slow and steady winter race like Guidewire, we think that the demand is still there. things that we’ve talked about previously about carriers looking to do sort of more, I don’t know, line of business by line of business type of purchasing strategies we still see that being a popular topic of conversation. I think our cloud approach facilitates that better than what we were offering before. So I feel pretty well aligned to the overall market and the demand environment. And that’s what gives us — I think that drove a bit of the success in the quarter, as we called out, it was a good quarter for Europe as well as America. We saw global live activity across the board. So yes, we feel pretty good about demand right now and feel confident through the end of the fiscal year.

Kevin Kumar: That’s helpful. And then just a question on InsuranceNow. Maybe just an update on that product and maybe Guidewire’s competitive positioning kind of more lower down market and kind of the level of investment you’re making in that set?

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