APD Conversion and Guidewire Cloud: What Insurers Should Know

For years, Product Designer was the standard for managing insurance product definitions. But it was never designed for a cloud-native world.

When insurers moved to Guidewire Cloud, their product definitions remained partially on-premise, preventing them from:

• easily activating key cloud features,

• unifying their product model,

• or fully modernizing their development lifecycle.

Advanced Product Designer (APD) changes everything.

Built for the cloud, APD app enables insurers to:

• create, manage and deploy products directly in Guidewire Cloud,

• use a unified, extensible data model,

• accelerate configuration, maintenance, and time-to-market.

Basically, APD app became the cornerstone of all the Guidewire Cloud architecture and functionalities. To gain APD’s benefits, carriers needed a reliable and automated way to convert current Product Designer definitions. The industry lacked this, until recently.

Leveraging strong, long-term client partnerships, GFT gained early access to APD conversion tools, positioning us to lead and support APD conversion efforts from the earliest stages.

This gave GFT a unique mandate:

• validate the tooling in real-world conditions

• convert actual products from real insurers

• identify patterns, gaps, and optimal migration strategies

• train the first insurers on APD-native governance and operating models

This hands-on involvement positioned GFT as one of the few partners with practical, repeatable, field-tested APD conversion expertise and approaches.

GFT’s expertise is built on production-ready conversions for real clients. 

Among the first adopters:

These projects exposed GFT to a wide range of real-world scenarios:

• simple and complex product structures,

• advanced rating dependencies,

• regulatory and filing constraints,

• multi-environment cloud deployment patterns.

This is hands-on knowledge, exceptionally few integrators currently possess.

GFT has developed a clear, structured and industrialized approach:

Because of its pioneering role, GFT now stands out with three unique differentiators:

1. Rare, validated expertise

2. Immediate cloud acceleration
Automated conversion removes months of manual rewriting — enabling faster activation of cloud features.

3. Long-term product and business value

APD establishes a modern foundation that allows insurers to:

• release products faster,

• simplify maintenance,

• elevate digital customer experiences,

• drive continuous innovation in the cloud.

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APD conversion is not simply a technical milestone: it is the gateway to fully adopting the Guidewire Cloud ecosystem.

By being one of the first partners to:

• test the conversion tooling directly with Guidewire,

• deliver real conversions for real insurers,

• deploy APD in production,

• and develop repeatable best practices,

GFT has established itself as a global leader in APD conversion.

For insurers, the question is no longer how to migrate, but how to fully embrace a cloud-native model that delivers innovation, speed and superior customer experiences.

Now ask yourself: why am I not doing it yet?

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Want to learn more on how you can enhance your Guidewire Cloud Ecosystem? 
Read our latest Guidewire e-book : here!