As the Guidewire developer community continues to grow, we want to highlight different members of our Developer Advisory Group. The advisory group members help shape the developer community by participating in group calls, giving input on Guidewire projects, and sharing valuable feedback from their personal experiences using Guidewire.
We present this series of brief “get to know you” interviews with advisory group members so you can get to know them, understand what motivates them, and read their advice for other developers who may be starting out with (or are new to) Guidewire.
Meet Rais from Capgemini
Name: Rais Ahmed
Job Title: Enterprise Architect
Company: Capgemini
How long have you been working with Guidewire products?
I have been working with the Guidewire platform for the last 17 years. I started working for Guidewire Software in 2006 and was certified on ClaimCenter 3.0. It’s been a long and exciting journey. I witnessed the evolution of PolicyCenter, BillingCenter, InfoCenter, DataHub, various digital portals, and now the transformation to the Guidewire Cloud Platform.
I worked at Guidewire’s Professional Services as a Principal Integration Architect from 2006 to 2015, and am now working as an Enterprise Architect at Capgemini, primarily focused on Guidewire implementations around the globe. I’m very proud to be have technical certifications on all versions from version 3 to version 10 along with a Guidewire ACE certification.
My 17-year journey with Guidewire has given me the opportunity to work on 48 different Guidewire implementations around the globe, covering ClaimCenter, PolicyCenter, BillingCenter, Portals, DH/IC, Upgrades, etc.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
As an Enterprise Architect, I enjoy driving the architecture strategy. I especially enjoy working with our clients to identify current states and define future states with a roadmap, based on business priorities and objectives for their digital, cloud & core insurance systems transformation programs.
The Inception/Solution Discovery phase is the phase I enjoy most on projects. During this phase, I like kick-starting new projects, assisting project estimation efforts and most importantly, end-to-end architecture for multi-year complex transformation programs. These programs involve not just the core, but also the digital channels, complex interfaces, and downstream data feeds.
The second-best aspect of my job is performing health checks across different implementations and different locations. And last, but not least, getting to travel to different locations around the world for work helps me fulfill my personal passion for travel. 🙂
What advice would you give to someone who is starting out in development or who is new to using Guidewire?
Don’t shy away from learning Gosu in detail. A lot of developers think they already know some popular programming language like Java or Python, and so they end up only partially learning Gosu, or picking up pieces of it when they find they need it the most.
You’re better off taking the time to fully learn and understand Gosu. It will save you a lot of time in the long-run and make you a better developer with Guidewire!
About the Author
Jonathan Michael
Developer Evangelist
Jonathan has spent the last 12 years developing and implementing customer-centric digital marketing strategies. As the Developer Evangelist at Guidewire, Jonathan will be focused on partnering with, and advocating for the success of, developers who use Guidewire's ecosystem to build a better tomorrow.