Happy New Year from Accenture

As many of you know, especially those of you who are Guidewire clients, Accenture filed a lawsuit recently alleging that Guidewire Software, has infringed the U.S. patent protecting the Accenture Claim Components solution and has misappropriated trade secrets related to the design, coding and implementation of the Accenture software.  Here is the body of the original press coverage:

Accenture Sues Guidewire for Alleged Patent Infringement
By Anthony O'Donnell

Accenture alleges claims software rival Guidewire deliberately used intellectual property associated with Accenture Claim Components.

Click here to read more...

Guidewire’s initial response (http://www.guidewire.com/news_events/pr/071218) was followed on Friday, December 21^st by a more strongly worded reaction which includes the following from CEO John Raguin:

“The Guidewire team takes immense pride in the quality of our products and how quickly ClaimCenter has become the best modern claims system in the world,” said John Raguin

, chief executive officer, Guidewire Software. “We have grown from the status of entrant to market leader by hiring the best people, using innovative software development techniques and most importantly, working closely with our customers.  Our customers and the industry as a whole, appreciate Guidewire’s reputation for integrity and fair competition.  While we continue to review our litigation options, we can assure them that we have not misappropriated any Accenture trade secrets and we are confident that we have not infringed Accenture’s patent.  We view these allegations as a tactic intended to disrupt our business.”   

So, what do we make of this? 

As you all know Guidewire sponsors this blog.  Additionally, my company, CastleBay Consulting, has a long established relationship with Guidewire.  I know many people at the company, including the founders, and have always enjoyed working with them for their high standards of professionalism and ethics.  So, I am probably biased, but even allowing for that possibility, here are a couple of observations which make me scratch my head:

• Accenture’s software is written in .Net, while ClaimsCenter is written in Java, so how much code and/or design IP could Guidewire have actually appropriated?  Anything which Guidewire stole would have to be redesigned and rewritten from the ground up.
• Accenture claims that Guidewire developed and brought ClaimsCenter to market so quickly that they must have stolen code and or ideas.  How then do they explain the development and launch of BillingCenter which took about the same amount of time as ClaimsCenter, and the ongoing rapid evolution of PolicyCenter?  Accenture does not have either piece of software.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.  There are of course always two sides to every story and apparently Accenture thinks they have a case, but this just doesn’t make sense to me.  We will continue to follow this closely and I am interested in your comments, especially those of you who are Guidewire clients.  It speaks to the character of the Guidewire founders and principles that they are more surprised and bemused than angry.  I am sure they would appreciate any statements of support, regardless of the way in which they are communicated.

On this sobering note I wish you all a prosperous, litigation-free New Year.

Comments

[Robert Eshelbrenner]

As one of Guidewire’s first ClaimCenter customers we have enjoyed an open and forthright relationship with the Guidewire senior staff and developers. When selecting our claim system in 2002, one of our top criteria was to gain an understanding of the software provider’s ethics and integrity. Guidewire received the highest marks on these criteria. Our association with Guidewire over the last five years has served to strengthen our original favorable impressions.

[Jeff West]

I had the privilege of working at Guidewire a few years ago with the introduction of their Claims product to the marketplace. The idea that they would infringe on Accenture is ridiculous. From the President to any of the consultants who were working within their initial clients, Guidewire people worked with the highest integrity and professionalism. This strategy of Accenture should be seen for what it is....create confusion in the Marketplace to slow down Guidewire.

[Peter Symons]

Frankly I think Guidewire should take this as a complement, Accenture apparently can't beat them in the market place so they've decided to try in the courts for a while.

The problem is, of course, that whereas the Guidewire folks may well be surprised and bemused at this point, I suspect that will turn to anger as they start to see their coffers being drained by legal fees.

And frankly Guidewire's clients should get angry as well. If this gets really nasty, money that presumably would have gone into R&D will have to be spent on their defence instead.

Having read Accenture's patent (but being no lawyer) I am very surprised that they could get such a generic patent, I suspect lots of software could be said to be coming close to the design parameters they have patented.