Risk Factors Dashboard

Once a year, publicly traded companies issue a comprehensive report of their business, called a 10-K. A component mandated in the 10-K is the ‘Risk Factors’ section, where companies disclose any major potential risks that they may face. This dashboard highlights all major changes and additions in new 10K reports, allowing investors to quickly identify new potential risks and opportunities.

Risk Factors - GWRE

-New additions in green
-Changes in blue
-Hover to see similar sentence in last filing

Item 1A.Risk Factors
A description of the risks and uncertainties associated with our business is set forth below. You should carefully consider such risks and uncertainties, together with the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and in our other public filings. If any of such risks and uncertainties actually occurs, our business, financial condition or results of operations could differ materially from the plans, projections, and other forward-looking statements included in the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and in our other public filings. In addition, if any of the following risks and uncertainties, or if any other risks and uncertainties, actually occurs, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be harmed substantially, which could cause the market price of our stock to decline, perhaps significantly.

Risks Related to our Business and Industry
We may experience significant quarterly and annual fluctuations in our results of operations due to a number of factors.
Our quarterly and annual results of operations may fluctuate significantly due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. This variability may lead to volatility in our stock price as investors and research analysts respond to quarterly fluctuations. In addition, comparing our results of operations on a period-to-period basis, particularly on a sequential quarterly basis, may not be meaningful. You should not rely on our past results as an indication of our future performance.
Factors that may affect our results of operations include:
the impact of economic downturns and related market volatility caused by economic volatility, inflation, bank failures and associated financial instability and crises, or other national and worldwide events on our business and the businesses of our customers, partners, and vendors;
our ability to attract new domestic and international customers and renew existing customers;
seasonal buying patterns of our potential customers and our ability to sell additional software and services to existing customers;
the proportion and timing of subscription sales as opposed to term or perpetual software licenses, and the variations in revenue recognition between these contract types;
changes in contract durations of term software licenses and renewals or modifications of customer contracts;
increases in costs related to cloud operations, product development, and services;
our ability to develop and achieve market adoption of cloud-based services, including the impact of our customers transitioning from term software licenses to subscription services;
erosion in services margins or significant fluctuations in services revenue caused by changing customer demand, negotiated professional services billing rates, investments in customer implementation and migration projects, or fixed fee contracts;
our ability to enter into contracts on favorable terms, including terms related to price, payment timing, service levels, acceptance, and product delivery, especially with customers and prospects that possess substantial negotiating leverage and procurement expertise;
the incurrence of penalties or having to renegotiate contract terms for failing to meet certain contractual obligations, including service levels, product development cycles and functionality, and implementation times and objectives;
security and privacy concerns related to employee data, customer data, and systems that are accessed or otherwise used by our hybrid workforce and customers;
employee retention, the ability to hire and onboard appropriate personnel, and the timing of hiring personnel and employee related expenses;
our ability to realize expected benefits from our acquisitions and other strategic business transactions;
reductions in our customers’ budgets for information technology purchases and delays in their purchasing decisions;


the impact of a recession or any other adverse global economic condition on our business, including pandemics, geographic and political conflicts, trade tariffs, trade agreements, and other uncertainties that may cause a delay in entering into, a failure to enter into, or cancel significant customer agreements or the fulfillment of professional service arrangements;
adverse litigation judgments, dispute-related settlement payments, or litigation-related costs;
future accounting pronouncements, changes in accounting rules, new tax laws or regulations, or tax interpretations and our related accounting policies, interpretations, and controls;
fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; and
the effects of inflation or deflation in the economies in which we operate, including Argentina, whose government is limiting the amount of U.S. dollars that can be sent out of the country, and their impact on interest rates, collection timeframes, and our revenue given the multi-year term of most customer agreements.
The foregoing factors are difficult to forecast, and these, as well as other factors, could materially adversely affect our quarterly and annual results of operations. Further, due to multi-year term licenses and multi-year term license renewals, increased cloud-based subscription services, timing of and billing rates for professional services engagements, and other ongoing changes to our business, it is challenging to forecast our quarterly and annual results.
We believe our ability to adjust spending quickly enough to compensate for a potential revenue shortfall is very limited and our inability to do so could magnify the adverse impact of a potential revenue shortfall on our results of operations. If we fail to achieve our quarterly forecasts, if our forecasts fall below the expectations of investors or research analysts, or if our actual results fail to meet the expectations of investors or research analysts, our stock price may decline.
Seasonal sales patterns may cause significant fluctuations in our results of operations and cash flows and may prevent us from achieving our quarterly or annual forecasts, which may cause our stock price to decline.
We generally see increased new orders in our fourth fiscal quarter, which is the quarter ending July 31, due to efforts by our sales team to achieve annual incentives. As a result, a significantly higher percentage of our annual license revenue and cash receipts have historically been recognized in our fourth fiscal quarter. As a result, a significantly higher percentage of our annual license revenue has historically been recognized in our fourth fiscal quarter. Since a substantial majority of our license revenue has annual renewals after the initial term of the contract, we expect to continue to experience this seasonality effect in subsequent years. Generally, accounting under ASC 606 has and may continue to heighten or change the seasonal impact due to license revenue for the entire committed term of our new term licenses and multi-year term license renewals being recognized at the beginning of the agreement. Because of the upfront nature of revenue recognition for new multi-year term licenses and multi-year term license renewals, any quarter in which a significant agreement of this nature is signed, renewed, cancelled, or not renewed when scheduled to do so may be impacted.
We currently anticipate that sales of, and revenue from, subscription services will continue to increase in the future. Subscriptions are recognized ratably over the term of the agreement after provisioning of the service. Over time, this may reduce the impact of our historic revenue seasonality, but in the near term the introduction of proportionally more subscription services into our revenue stream, together with their delayed and ratable recognition, will likely impact quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year revenue growth comparisons. Cash flow expectations and comparisons could also be impacted because of the ramped nature of the annual installments of these multi-year subscription services arrangements. Additionally, ARR, which reflects the annualized recurring value of active customer contracts at the end of a reporting period, will be impacted by the seasonality of new sales orders, even if the revenue is recognized ratably.
Our quarterly growth in revenue or ARR also may not coincide with new orders or cash flows in a given quarter, which could mask the impact of seasonal variations. This mismatch is primarily due to the following reasons:
our subscription arrangements are recognized ratably and only a portion, if any, of the revenue from an order is recognized in the same fiscal period of the order;
subscription arrangements generally have ramped invoicing schedules over the initial term, which affects ARR, but revenue is recognized ratably over the initial term;
our term license agreements and multi-year term license renewals generally have annual billing arrangements even though revenue is recognized upfront for the entire committed term;
as customers enter into a subscription agreement to migrate from an existing term license agreement or as we invest in certain cloud implementations to assist our customers with their migration to our cloud services, the timing of revenue recognition may be impacted by the allocation of revenue between different performance obligations;


we may enter into agreements with future product delivery requirements, specified terms for product upgrades or functionality, acceptance terms, early termination rights, or unconditional return rights, which may require us to delay revenue recognition for a period of time; and
revenue recognition may not occur in the period when the order is placed due to certain revenue recognition criteria not being met, such as delivery of the software or providing access to the subscription services.
Additionally, seasonal patterns may be affected by the timing of particularly large transactions and the number of renewals in a given quarter.Additionally, seasonal patterns may be affected by the timing of particularly large transactions and the large number of renewals that occur in the first fiscal quarter. Seasonal and other variations may cause significant fluctuations in our revenue, ARR, results of operations and cash flows, may make it challenging for an investor to predict our performance on a quarterly basis and may prevent us from achieving our quarterly or annual forecasts or meeting or exceeding the expectations of research analysts or investors, which in turn may cause our stock price to decline.
If we fail to successfully manage our transition to a business model focused on delivering cloud-based offerings on a subscription basis or fail to meet stipulated service levels with our subscription services, our results of operations could be harmed.
To address demand trends in the P&C insurance industry, we now offer customers the use of our software products through a cloud-based offering sold on a subscription basis in addition to our self-managed offering. This change to our business model requires a considerable investment of technical, operational, financial, legal, and sales resources. Our software and cloud services involve the storage and transmission of customer data, including in some cases, personal data, and security breaches could result in the loss of this information, which in turn could result in litigation, breach of contract claims, indemnity obligations, harm to our reputation, and other liabilities for us. Our transition to cloud offerings will continue to be the focus of existing resources, require us to hire additional resources, and increase costs, especially in cost of subscription and support revenue, cost of services revenue, and research and development, in any given period. We may not be able to efficiently scale such investments to meet customer demand and expectations, which may impact our long-term growth and results of operations. Further, the increase in some costs associated with our cloud services, such as the cost of third-party infrastructure in which we rely to host our subscription services, may be difficult to predict over time, especially in light of our limited experience with the costs of delivering cloud-based versions of our applications. Furthermore, we may assume greater responsibilities for implementation of subscription services due to our operating and maintaining the cloud environment for our customers. As a result, we may face risks associated with new and complex implementations or migrations, the cost of which may differ from original estimates. As a result, we may face risks associated with new and complex implementations, the cost of which may differ from original estimates. Our subscription contracts also contain penalty clauses, for matters such as failing to meet stipulated service levels or other contractual provisions, which represent new risks we are not accustomed to managing. Should these penalties be triggered, our results of operations may be adversely affected. These penalties and costs could take the form of monetary credits for current or future service engagements, reduced fees for additional services or products or upon renewal of existing agreements, and a customer’s renegotiation or refusal to pay its contractually-obligated subscription or service fees.
Revenue under our cloud-based subscription model will generally be recognized ratably over the term of the contract. The transition to ratable revenue recognition will result in lower revenue than we otherwise would have recognized in the initial period of the customer agreement under term license agreements. This effect on recognized revenue may be magnified in any fiscal year due to the concentration of our orders in the fourth fiscal quarter. A combination of increased costs and delayed recognition of revenue would adversely impact our gross and operating margins compared to prior periods. Additionally, the change in our business model and the timing of our customers’ decision to transition from self-managed licenses to cloud-based subscription services could negatively affect our ability to forecast the timing and amount of our revenue in any period.
In addition, market acceptance of our cloud-based offerings may be affected by a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, price, security, reliability, performance, customer preference, public concerns regarding privacy, and the enactment of restrictive laws or regulations. We are continually updating our existing services and products and developing new services and products in an effort to offer customers greater choices on how they utilize our software. We are in the early stages of re-architecting our existing services and products and developing new services and products in an effort to offer customers greater choices on how they utilize our software. As our business practices in this area develop and evolve over time, we may be required to revise our current subscription agreements, which may result in revised terms and conditions that impact how we recognize revenue and the costs and risks associated with these offerings. Whether our product development efforts or business model transition will prove successful and accomplish our business objectives is subject to numerous uncertainties and risks, including, but not limited to, customer demand, our ability to further develop, manage, and scale infrastructure, our ability to include functionality and usability in such offerings that address customer requirements, our customers’ ability to successfully migrate to and implement our subscription services, tax and accounting implications, and our costs.
In addition, the metrics we and our investors use to gauge the status of our business model transition may evolve over the course of the transition as significant trends emerge. It may be difficult, therefore, to accurately determine the impact of this transition on our business on a contemporaneous basis, or to clearly communicate the appropriate metrics to our investors. If we are unable to successfully establish these new cloud offerings and navigate our business model transition in light of the


foregoing risks and uncertainties, our reputation could suffer and our results of operations could be harmed, which may cause our stock price to decline.
We have relied and expect to continue to rely on orders from a relatively small number of customers in the P&C insurance industry for a substantial portion of our revenue and ARR, and the loss of any of these customers would significantly harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Our revenue and ARR are dependent on orders from customers in the P&C insurance industry, which may be adversely affected by worldwide economic, environmental, public health, and political conditions. A relatively small number of customers have historically accounted for a significant portion of our revenue. The composition of our individual top customers has and will vary from year to year. In fiscal years 2022 and 2023, our ten largest customers in each fiscal year accounted for 23% of our revenue. Additionally, our ten largest customers based on ARR accounted for 24% of total ARR at July 31, 2023. Customers for these metrics are calculated at the parent corporation level, while our total customer count is based on entities that have placed orders for our services or products. While we expect this reliance to decrease over time as our revenue, customer base and subscription services as a percentage of revenue grows, we expect that we will continue to depend upon a relatively small number of customers for a significant portion of our revenue and ARR for the foreseeable future. As a result, if we fail to successfully sell our services and products to one or more of these anticipated customers in any particular period or fail to identify additional potential customers or such customers purchase fewer of our services or products, defer or cancel orders, fail to renew their license or subscription agreements or otherwise terminate or reduce their relationship with us, our business, results of operations, and financial condition would be harmed. Additionally, if one or more of these anticipated customers enters into or transitions to a subscription agreement in any particular period, or if we fail to achieve the required performance or acceptance criteria for one or more of this relatively small number of customers, our quarterly and annual results of operations may fluctuate significantly.
Recent global events have adversely affected, and may continue to adversely affect, our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Recent global events have adversely affected and are continuing to adversely affect workforces, organizations, economies, and financial markets globally, leading to economic downturns, inflation, and increased market volatility. The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, escalating tensions in the South China Sea, inflation higher than we have seen in decades, increasing interest rates, bank failures and associated financial instability and crises, and supply chain issues have added to global economic and market volatility. Our past business and financial results, including our ARR growth rates, services revenue, and margins, were adversely impacted due to the disruptions resulting from these events. Our business and financial results during fiscal year 2022, including our ARR growth rates, services revenue, and margins, were adversely impacted due to the disruptions resulting from these events. These global events have also disrupted the normal operations of our customers’ businesses and our SI partners’ businesses. The related impacts of recent global events on the global economy could decrease or delay technology spending and adversely affect demand for our products. Further, our sales and implementation cycles have increased and could continue to increase, which has resulted in and could result in contract terms more favorable to customers and a potentially longer delay between incurring operating expenses and the generation of corresponding revenue, if any, or difficulty in accurately forecasting our financial results. Additionally, our customers may be unable to pay outstanding invoices or may request amended payment terms due to the economic impacts from these global events and related implementation delays. As a result of these developments and the related economic impact to our business, we may be required to record impairment related to our operating lease assets, investments, long-lived assets, or goodwill. We may experience further operational challenges, including increased costs, as a portion of our workforce returns to working in person and gradually shifts to assisting customers in person, difficulty in hiring necessary personnel, and higher employee attrition. Due to the continuing and evolving nature of these global events, it is not possible for us to accurately predict the duration or magnitude of the adverse impacts and effects on our business, results of operations, or financial condition. Further, to the extent recent global events adversely affects our business, results of operations, or financial condition, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section.


We have transitioned to a hybrid in-person and remote workforce, which will subject us to certain operational challenges and risks and potential harm to our business.
We have transitioned to a hybrid work environment in which a significant portion of our workforce works either in-person on a part-time basis or remotely on a permanent basis. We have announced our intention to transition to a hybrid work environment in which a significant portion of our workforce will work either in-person on a part-time basis or remotely on a permanent basis. As a result, we expect to continue to be subject to the challenges and risks of having a remote workforce, as well as new challenges and risks from operating with a hybrid workforce. For example, certain security systems in homes or other remote workplaces may be less secure than those used in our offices, which may subject us to increased security risks, including cybersecurity-related events, and expose us to risks of data or financial loss and associated disruptions to our business operations. Members of our workforce who work remotely may not have access to technology that is as robust as that in our offices, which could cause the networks, information systems, applications, and other tools available to those remote workers to be more limited or less reliable than in our offices. We may also be exposed to risks associated with the locations of remote workers, including compliance with local laws and regulations or exposure to compromised internet infrastructure. Allowing members of our workforce to work remotely may create intellectual property risk if employees create intellectual property on our behalf while residing in a jurisdiction with unenforced or uncertain intellectual property laws. Further, if employees fail to inform us of changes in their work location, we may be exposed to additional risks without our knowledge. The transition to hybrid in-person as well as remote working may also subject us to other operational challenges and risks. For example, our shift to hybrid working may adversely affect our ability to recruit and retain personnel who prefer a fully remote or fully in-person work environment. Operating our business with both remote and in-person workers, or workers who work in flexible locations and on flexible schedules, could have a negative impact on our corporate culture, decrease the ability of our workforce to collaborate and communicate effectively, decrease innovation and productivity, or negatively affect workforce morale and retention rates. In addition, we expect to incur costs related to the transition to a hybrid workforce to, among other things, facilitate permanent remote work for a portion of our workforce and update our offices to offer more collaborative workspaces. If we are unable to effectively transition to a hybrid workforce, manage the cybersecurity and other risks of remote work, and maintain our corporate culture and workforce morale, our business could be harmed or otherwise negatively impacted.
We face intense competition in our market, which could negatively impact our business, results of operations, and financial condition and cause our market share to decline.
The market for our software and services is intensely competitive. The competitors we face in any sale opportunity may change depending on, among other things, the line of business purchasing the software, the application or service being sold, the geography in which the customer is operating, and the size of the insurance carrier to which we are selling. For example, we are more likely to face competition from small independent firms when addressing the needs of small insurers. These competitors may compete on the basis of price, the time and cost required for implementation, custom development, or unique product features or functions. Outside of the United States, we are more likely to compete against vendors that may differentiate themselves based on local advantages in language, market knowledge, and pre-built content applicable to that jurisdiction. We also compete with vendors of horizontal software products that may be customized to address needs of the P&C insurance industry.
Additionally, many of our prospective customers operate firmly entrenched legacy systems, some of which have been in operation for decades. Our implementation cycles may be lengthy, variable, and require the investment of significant time and expense by our customers. These expenses and associated operating risks attendant on any significant process re-engineering and new technology implementation, may cause customers to prefer maintaining legacy systems. Also, maintaining these legacy systems may be so time consuming and costly for our potential customers that they do not have adequate resources to devote to the purchase and implementation of our services and products. We also compete against technology consulting firms that either helped create such legacy systems or may own, in full or in part, subsidiaries that develop software and systems for the P&C insurance industry.
As we expand our product portfolio, we may begin to compete with software and service providers we have not competed against previously.Table of ContentsAs we expand our product portfolio, we may begin to compete with software and service providers we have not competed against previously. Such potential competitors offer data and analytics tools that may, in time, become more competitive with our offerings.
If our competitors’ products, services, or technologies become more accepted than our solutions, if they are successful in bringing their products or services to market earlier than we are, if their products or services are more technologically capable than ours (including, without limitation, as a result of new or better use of evolving AI technologies, such as generative AI), or if customers replace our solutions with custom-built software, then our revenue could be adversely affected.
We expect the intensity of competition to remain high in the future, as the amount of capital invested in current and potential competitors, including insurtech companies, has increased significantly in recent years. We expect the intensity of competition to remain high in the future, as the amount of capital invested in current and potential competitors, including insurtech companies, has increased significantly in recent years.



As a result, our competitors or potential competitors may develop improved product or sales capabilities, or even a technology breakthrough that disrupts our market. Continuing intense competition could result in increased pricing pressure, increased sales and marketing expenses, and greater investments in research and development, each of which could negatively impact our profitability. In addition, the failure to increase, or the loss of, market share would harm our business, results of operations, financial condition, and/or future prospects. Our larger current and potential competitors may be able to devote greater resources to the development, promotion, and sale of their services and products than we can devote to ours, which could allow them to respond more quickly than we can to new technologies and changes in customer needs, thus leading to their wider market acceptance. We may not be able to compete effectively and competitive pressures may prevent us from acquiring and maintaining the customer base necessary for us to increase our revenue and profitability.
In addition, the insurance industry is evolving rapidly, and we anticipate the market for cloud-based solutions will become increasingly competitive. If our current and potential customers move a greater proportion of their data and computational needs to the cloud, new competitors may emerge that offer services either comparable or better suited than ours to address the demand for such cloud-based solutions, which could reduce demand for our offerings. To compete effectively we will likely be required to increase our investment in research and development, as well as the personnel and third-party services required to improve reliability and lower the cost of delivery of our cloud-based solutions. New competitors are able to develop cloud-based solutions without the cost of maintaining or migrating existing solutions and satisfying existing customer requirements, which may allow them to introduce new services and products more quickly and on more efficient technologies than us. This may increase our costs more than we anticipate and may adversely impact our results of operations.
Our current and potential competitors may also establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties to further enhance their resources and offerings. Current or potential competitors may be acquired by other vendors or third parties with greater available resources. As a result of such acquisitions, our current or potential competitors might be more able than we are to adapt quickly to new technologies and customer needs, to devote greater resources to the promotion or sale of their services and products, to initiate or withstand substantial price competition, or to take advantage of emerging opportunities by developing and expanding their product and service offerings more quickly than we can. Additionally, they may hold larger portfolios of patents and other intellectual property rights as a result of such relationships or acquisitions. If we are unable to compete effectively with these evolving competitors for market share, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected.
Our sales and implementation cycles are lengthy and variable, depend upon factors outside our control, and could cause us to expend significant time and resources prior to generating revenue.
The typical sales cycle for our services and products is lengthy and unpredictable, requires pre-purchase evaluation by a significant number of employees in our customers’ organizations, often involves a significant operational decision by our customers, and could be affected by factors outside of our control. Our sales efforts involve educating our customers about the use and benefits of our services and products, including the technical capabilities of our services and products, the potential cost savings achievable by organizations deploying our services and products, and the benefits and risks associated with cloud-based services. Our sales efforts involve educating our customers about the use and benefits of our services and products, including the technical capabilities of our services and products and the potential cost savings achievable by organizations deploying our services and products. Customers typically undertake a significant evaluation process, which frequently involves not only our services and products, but also those of our competitors. We spend substantial time, effort, and money in our sales efforts without any assurance that our efforts will produce sales, and our customers have significant negotiating power during the sales process which may result in a lengthy sales cycle and significant contractual complexity. Additionally, we may be unable to predict the size and terms of the initial contract until very late in the sales cycle, which affects our ability to accurately forecast revenue and ARR. In addition, we sometimes commit to include specific functions in our base service and product offering at the request of a customer or group of customers and are unable to recognize revenue until the specific functions have been added to our services and products. Providing this additional functionality may be time consuming and may involve factors that are outside of our control. Customers may also insist that we commit to certain time frames in which systems built around our services and products will be operational or that once implemented our services and products will be able to meet certain operational requirements. Our ability to meet such timeframes and requirements may involve factors that are outside of our control, and failure to meet such timeframes and requirements could result in us incurring penalties and costs and/or making additional resource commitments, which would adversely affect our business and results of operations.


The implementation and testing of our services and products by our customers typically lasts six to 24 months or longer and unexpected implementation delays and difficulties can occur. Implementing our services and products typically involves integration with our customers’ and third parties’ systems and creating or updating the digital experience, as well as adding customer and third-party data to our platform. Implementing our services and products typically involves Table of Contentsintegration with our customers’ and third parties’ systems, as well as adding customer and third-party data to our platform. This process can be complex, time consuming, and expensive for our customers and can result in delays in the implementation and deployment of our services and products. Failing to meet the expectations of our customers during the implementation of our services and products could result in a loss of customers and negative publicity about us and our services and products. Such failure could result from deficiencies in our product capabilities, performance issues, or inadequate service engagements by us, our SI partners, or our customers’ employees, the latter two of which are beyond our direct control. The consequences of such failure could include, and have included, monetary credits for current or future service engagements, reduced fees for additional services or products sales or upon renewals of existing services and products, potential reversals of previously recognized revenue, renegotiating existing customer’s contractual terms, and a customer’s refusal to pay their contractually-obligated license, support, or service fees. In addition, time-consuming and delayed implementations may also increase the amount of services personnel we must allocate to the implementation for it to be successful, thereby increasing our costs and adversely affecting our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Furthermore, our sales and implementation cycles could be interrupted or affected by other factors outside of our control. We have had, and may in the future have, restrictions on travel, which are in accordance with recommendations by the U.S. government, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other equivalent agencies in the locations in which we operate, and our customers, SI partners, and prospects have likewise enacted their own preventative policies and travel restrictions. Widespread restrictions on travel and in-person meetings have affected and could, in the future, affect services delivery, delay implementations, and interrupt sales activity. Widespread restrictions on travel and in-person meetings have affected and could continue to affect services delivery, delay implementations, and interrupt sales activity. We cannot predict the duration or the extent of adverse impacts from pandemics and other global events on our business, results of operations, and financial condition. We cannot predict the duration or the extent of adverse impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic and other global events on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Failure to manage our expanding operations effectively could harm our business.
We have experienced consistent growth and expect to continue to expand our operations, including the number of employees and the locations and scope of our international operations. Additionally, we have transitioned to a hybrid work environment in which a large portion of our workforce works either in-person on a part-time basis or remotely on a permanent basis, which brings new challenges to managing our business and workforce. Additionally, we have announced our intention to transition to a hybrid work environment in which a large portion of our workforce will work either in-person on a part-time basis or remotely on a permanent basis, which brings new challenges to managing our business and workforce. This expansion and changing work environment has placed, and will continue to place, a significant strain on our operational and financial resources and our personnel. To manage our anticipated future operational expansion effectively, we must continue to maintain and may need to enhance our information technology and cybersecurity infrastructure and financial and accounting systems and controls, and manage expanded operations and employees in geographically distributed locations. Our growth could require significant capital expenditures and may divert financial resources from other projects, such as the development of new, enhanced, or more secure services and products or investments in cloud operations. If we increase the size of our organization without experiencing an increase in sales of our services and products, we will experience reductions in our gross and operating margins and net income. If we are unable to effectively manage our expanding operations or hybrid work environment, our expenses may increase more than expected, our revenue could decline or grow more slowly than expected, and we may be unable to implement our business strategy.
Revenue mix, as well as declines in our subscription and support gross margin or our services gross margin, could adversely affect our overall gross margin and profitability.
Our subscription and support revenue was 48% and 42% of total revenue for fiscal years 2023 and 2022, respectively.Our subscription and support revenue was 42%, 34%, and 27% of total revenue for fiscal years 2022, 2021, and 2020, respectively. Our subscription and support revenue produces lower gross margins than our license revenue. The gross margin of our subscription and support revenue was 51% and 41% for fiscal years 2023 and 2022, respectively, while the gross margin for license revenue was 98% and 97% for fiscal years 2023 and 2022, respectively. The gross margin of our subscription and support revenue was 38%, 35%, and 42% for fiscal years 2022, 2021, and 2020, respectively, while the gross margin for license revenue was 97%, 97%, and 97% for fiscal years 2022, 2021, and 2020, respectively. As our cloud transition continues, we expect that subscription revenue will continue to increase as a percentage of total revenue as we contract with new cloud customers and existing customers migrate from term licenses to subscription services. Additionally, we are incurring significant expenses to develop our cloud services and scale our cloud operations which may not result in an improvement of our subscription and support gross margin. Additionally, we are incurring significant expenses to develop our cloud services and scale our cloud operations which may result in further erosion of our subscription and support gross margin. These trends, along with other factors, some of which may be beyond our control, may adversely affect our overall gross and operating margins. These other factors include the percentage of new customers that enter into subscription services agreements as compared to term license agreements, the revenue impact of allocating total contract consideration between license revenue and subscription and support revenue when existing customers transition from term license to subscription services agreements, investments in certain cloud implementations to assist our customers with their migration to our cloud services, continued growth and efficiency of our cloud operations and technical support teams, and the impact on the global economy as a result of pandemics, inflation, or other global events and disasters.
Further, our services revenue was 23% and 26% of total revenue for fiscal years 2023 and 2022, respectively. Our services revenue produces lower gross margin than either our license revenue or our subscription and support revenue. The gross margin


of our services revenue was negative in both fiscal years 2023 and 2022. If we experience an increase in the percentage of total revenue represented by services revenue, due to acquisitions or other factors, such increase could reduce our overall gross and operating margins. Fluctuation in our services revenue can result from several factors, some of which may be beyond our control, including the pace of our customers’ migration from term license to subscription services as we continue our cloud transition, change in customer demand for our services team’s involvement in the implementation of new services and products, the rates we charge or discounts we offer for our services, our ability to bill our customers for all time incurred to complete a project, the extent and quality of implementations and migrations provided by our SI partners, and the impact on the global economy as a result of economic volatility, inflation, or other global events and disasters. Additionally, the failure to improve, or the erosion of, our services margin, whether due to discounts related to encouraging clients to accelerate their cloud transition or otherwise, particularly in combination with any increase in services revenue, could adversely affect our overall gross and operating margins. Our services margin may erode if we hire and train additional services personnel to support cloud-based services or markets prior to having customer engagements, if we make investments in customer migrations from self-managed term licenses to subscription services, if we enter into fixed fee services arrangements, if our services personnel are underutilized, or if we require additional personnel on unexpectedly difficult projects to ensure customer success, perhaps without receiving commensurate compensation.
Our large customers have substantial negotiating leverage, which may require that we agree to terms and conditions that result in increased cost of sales, decreased revenue, and lower average selling prices and gross margins, all of which could harm our results of operations.
Some of our customers include the world’s largest P&C insurers. These customers have significant bargaining power when negotiating new licenses or subscriptions or renewals of existing agreements, and have the ability to buy similar services and products from other vendors or develop such systems internally. These customers have and may continue to seek advantageous pricing and other commercial and performance terms that may require us to develop additional features in the services and products we sell to them or add complexity to our customer agreements. These customers may also delay making payments under existing agreements, or at renewal, in an attempt to obtain more favorable terms from us. We have been required to, and may continue to be required to, reduce the average selling price and ARR of our services and products, along with agreeing to steeper ramps that delay reaching fully-ramped ARR, in response to these pressures. We have been required to, and may continue to be required to, reduce the average selling price of our services and products in response to these pressures. If we are unable to avoid reducing our average selling prices or ARR, our results of operations could be harmed. If we are unable to avoid reducing our average selling prices, our results of operations could be harmed.
Our business depends on customers renewing and expanding their license, support, and subscription contracts for our services and products. A decline in our customer renewals and expansions could harm our future results of operations.
Our customers have no obligation to renew their term licenses or subscriptions after their contract period expires, and these licenses and subscriptions, if renewed, may be done so on less favorable terms. Moreover, under certain circumstances, our customers have the right to cancel their licenses or subscriptions before they expire. We may not accurately predict future trends in customer renewals. In addition, our perpetual license customers have no obligation to renew their support arrangements after the expiration of the initial contractual period. Our customers’ renewal rates may fluctuate or decline because of several factors, including their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with our services and products, the prices of our services and products, the prices of services and products offered by our competitors, reduction in our customers’ business including their DWP, reductions in our customers’ spending levels due to the macroeconomic environment or other factors, or the sale of their operations to a buyer that is not a current customer.
Also, in some cases, our customers have a right to exercise a perpetual buyout of their term licenses at the end of the initial contract term, which if exercised would eliminate future term license revenue. If our customers do not renew their term licenses or subscriptions for our solutions or renew on less favorable terms, our revenue may decline or grow more slowly than expected and our profitability may be harmed.
Failure of any of our established services or products to satisfy customer demands or to maintain market acceptance could harm our business, results of operations, financial condition, and growth prospects.
We derive a significant majority of our revenue and cash flows from our established product offerings, including Guidewire InsuranceSuite Cloud, Guidewire InsuranceNow, Guidewire InsuranceSuite for self-managed installations, and our digital and data services and products. We expect to continue to derive a substantial portion of our revenue from these sources. As such, continued market acceptance of these services and products is critical to our growth and success. Demand for our services and products is affected by a number of factors, some of which are beyond our control, including the successful implementation of our services and products, the timing of development and release of product upgrades, enhancements, and new products by us and our competitors, the cost and effort to migrate from self-managed products to subscription services, the ease of integrating our software to third-party software and services, technological advances that reduce the appeal of our services and products, changes in the regulations that our customers must comply with in the jurisdictions in which they


operate, and the growth or contraction in the worldwide market for technological solutions for the P&C insurance industry. If we are unable to continue to meet customer demands, to achieve and maintain a technological advantage over competitors, or to maintain market acceptance of our services and products, our business, results of operations, financial condition and growth prospects may be adversely affected.
If we are unable to develop, introduce, and market new and enhanced versions of our services and products, we may be put at a competitive disadvantage.
Our success depends on our continued ability to develop, introduce, and market new and enhanced versions of our services and products to meet evolving customer requirements. Because some of our services and products are complex and require rigorous testing, new features, new functionality, and updates to our existing products and services can take significant time and resources to develop and bring to market. As we expand internationally, our services and products must be modified and adapted to comply with regulations and other requirements of the countries in which our customers do business. Additionally, market conditions may dictate that we change the delivery method of our services and products or the technology platform underlying our existing services and products or that new services and products be developed on different technology platforms, potentially adding material time and expense to our development cycles. The nature of these development cycles may cause us to experience delays between the time we incur expenses associated with research and development and the time we generate revenue, if any, from such expenses.
If we fail to develop new services and products, enhance our existing services and products, or migrate our products to the cloud, our business could be adversely affected, especially if our competitors are able to introduce services and products with enhanced functionality in the cloud.Table of ContentsIf we fail to develop new services and products, enhance our existing services and products, or migrate our products to the cloud, our business could be adversely affected, especially if our competitors are able to introduce services and products with enhanced functionality in the cloud. It is critical to our success for us to anticipate changes in technology, industry standards and regulations, and customer requirements and to successfully introduce new, enhanced, and competitive services and products to meet our customers’ and prospective customers’ needs on a timely basis. It is critical to our success for us to anticipate changes in technology, industry standards, and customer requirements and to successfully introduce new, enhanced, and competitive services and products to meet our customers’ and prospective customers’ needs on a timely basis. We have invested and intend to increase investments in research and development and cloud operations to meet these challenges. Revenue may not be sufficient to support the future product development that is required for us to remain competitive. If we fail to develop services and products in a timely manner that are competitive in technology and price or develop services and products that fail to meet customer demands, our market share will decline and our business and results of operations could be harmed. If our development efforts do not develop services, products or features that our customers find valuable, then we might incur impairment charges related to our capitalized software development costs.
Real or perceived errors or failures in our services and products, including implementation services, may affect our reputation, cause us to lose customers, and reduce sales and renewal rates, which may harm our business and results of operations and subject us to liability for breach of warranty claims.
Because we offer complex services and products, undetected errors or failures may exist or occur, especially when services and products are first introduced or when new versions or updates are released. Our services and products are often installed and used in large-scale computing environments with different operating systems, system management software, and equipment and networking configurations, which may cause errors or failures in our services and products or may expose undetected errors, failures, or bugs in our services and products. Despite testing by us, we may not identify all errors, failures, or bugs in new services and products or releases until after commencement of commercial sales or installation. In the past, we have discovered software errors, failures, and bugs in some of our offerings after their introduction. Additionally, our Guidewire Cloud offerings rely on third-party hosting services, primarily AWS. Any material disruption or slowdown in these services or the systems of third parties who we depend upon could cause outages or delays in our services, which could harm our reputation and adversely affect our results of operations.
We provide our customers with upfront estimates regarding the duration, resources, and costs associated with the migration and implementation of our services and products. Failure to meet these upfront estimates and the expectations of our customers could result from our product capabilities or service engagements performed by us, our SI partners, or our customers’ employees, the latter two of which are beyond our direct control. The consequences could include, and have included, monetary credits for current or future service engagements, reduced fees for additional services or product sales or upon renewals of existing licenses or services, renegotiation or modification of existing contracts that could potentially result in reversals of previously recognized revenue, or a customer’s refusal to pay its contractually-obligated fees. In addition, time-consuming or difficult migrations and implementations may also increase the amount of services personnel we must allocate to the project, potentially without commensurate compensation, thereby increasing our costs, lowering our services margin, and adversely affecting our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
The license, subscription, and support of our services and products creates the risk of significant liability claims against us. Our license and subscription agreements with our customers contain provisions designed to limit our exposure to potential


liability claims. It is possible, however, that the limitation of liability provisions contained in such agreements may not be enforced as a result of international, federal, state, and local laws or ordinances or unfavorable judicial decisions. Breach of warranty or damage liability, or injunctive relief resulting from such claims, could harm our results of operations and financial condition.
Our ability to sell our services and products is highly dependent on the quality of our professional services and technical support services and the support of our SI partners, and the failure of us or our SI partners to offer high-quality professional services or technical support services could damage our reputation and adversely affect our ability to sell our services and products to new customers and renew agreements with our existing customers.
If we or our SI partners do not effectively assist our customers in deploying our services and products, successfully help our customers quickly resolve post-deployment issues, assist our customers in migrating from self-managed licenses to subscription services, and provide effective ongoing support, our ability to renew existing agreements and sell additional services and products to existing customers would be adversely affected and our reputation with potential customers could be damaged. Once our services and products are deployed and integrated with our customers’ existing information technology environment, our customers may depend on our technical support services and/or the support of SI partners or internal resources to resolve any issues relating to our services and products. High-quality support is critical for the continued successful marketing and sale of our services and products. In addition, as we continue to expand our operations internationally, our support organization will face additional challenges, including those associated with delivering support, training, and documentation in multiple languages. Many enterprise customers require higher levels of support than smaller customers. If we fail to meet the requirements of our larger customers, it may be more difficult to sell additional services and products to these customers or to transition existing license customers to subscription services, a key strategy for the growth of our revenue and profitability. In addition, as we further expand our cloud-based services and products, our professional services, cloud operations and support organizations will face new challenges, including hiring, training, and integrating a large number of new personnel with experience in delivering high-quality services and support for cloud-based offerings. Further, as we continue to rely on SIs to provide deployment, migration, and on-going services, our ability to ensure a high level of quality in addressing customer issues and providing a maintainable and efficient cloud environment could be diminished as we may be unable to control the quality or timeliness of the implementation of our services and products by our SI partners. Our failure to maintain high-quality implementation and support services, or to ensure that SIs provide the same, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and growth prospects.
Issues in the development and use of AI, combined with an uncertain regulatory environment, may result in reputational harm, liability, or other adverse consequences to our business operations.

We use machine learning and AI technologies in our offerings and business, and we are making investments in expanding our AI capabilities in our products, services, and tools, including ongoing deployment and improvement of existing machine learning and AI technologies, as well as developing new product features using generative AI technologies. AI technologies are complex and generative AI technologies, in particular, are rapidly evolving. We face significant competition from other companies as well as an evolving regulatory landscape in relation to these technologies. The introduction of AI technologies, including generative AI, into new or existing products may result in new or enhanced governmental or regulatory scrutiny, litigation, confidentiality or security risks, ethical concerns, or other complications that could adversely affect our business, reputation, or financial results. A substantial downturn in the P&C insurance industry may cause firms to react to worsening conditions by reducing their capital expenditures, reducing their spending on information technology, delaying or canceling information technology projects, or seeking to lower their costs by renegotiating vendor contracts. The intellectual property ownership and license rights, including without limitation copyright, surrounding AI technologies generally, and generative AI technologies specifically, has not been fully addressed by competent legal tribunals or applicable laws or regulations. Further, the use or adoption of third-party AI technologies, including generative AI technologies, into our products and services may result in exposure to claims of copyright infringement or other intellectual property-related causes of action.

Uncertainty around new and emerging AI technologies, such as generative AI, may require additional investment in the development and maintenance of proprietary datasets and machine learning models, development of new approaches and processes to provide attribution or remuneration to creators of training data, and development of appropriate protections and safeguards for handling the use of customer data with such technologies, which may be costly and could impact our expenses if we decide to expand AI technologies, including generative AI, into our product offerings. AI technologies, including without limitation generative AI, may create content that appears facially correct but is factually inaccurate or flawed. Our customers or others may rely on or use such factually incorrect or flawed content to their detriment, which may expose us to brand or reputational harm, competitive harm, and/or legal liability. In all events, the development, marketing and use of AI technologies, including, in particular, generative AI, presents emerging ethical and social issues, and if we enable or offer solutions that draw scrutiny or controversy due to their perceived or actual impact on customers or on society as a whole, we may experience brand or reputational harm, competitive harm, and/or legal liability.



We may expand through acquisitions or partnerships with other companies, which may divert our management’s attention and result in unexpected operating and technology integration difficulties, increased costs, and dilution to our stockholders.
Our business strategy includes the potential acquisition of shares or assets of companies with software, cloud-based services, technologies, or businesses complementary to ours. Our strategy also includes alliances with such companies. For example, we have made several acquisitions in the past, including most recently in August 2021, we acquired HazardHub, Inc., a leading insurtech provider of property risk insights., a leading insurtech provider of API-driven property risk insights. Acquisitions and alliances, such as our strategic partnerships with One Inc. and Smart Communications, may result in unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures, be dilutive to earnings, and may not result in the benefits anticipated by such corporate activity. Acquisitions and alliances may result in unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures, be dilutive to earnings, and may not result in the benefits anticipated by such corporate activity. In particular, we may fail to assimilate or integrate the businesses, technologies, services, products, personnel, or operations of the acquired companies, retain key personnel necessary to favorably execute the combined companies’ business plan, or retain existing customers or sell acquired services and products to new customers. Acquisitions and alliances may also disrupt our ongoing business, divert our resources, and require significant management attention that would otherwise be available for ongoing development of our current business. In addition, we may be required to make additional capital investments or undertake remediation efforts to ensure the success of our acquisitions, which may reduce the benefits of such acquisitions. We also may be required to use a substantial amount of our cash or issue debt or equity securities to complete an acquisition or realize the potential of an alliance, which could deplete our cash reserves and/or dilute our existing stockholders. Following an acquisition or the establishment of an alliance offering new services and products, the timing of revenue from the sale of services and products that we acquired or that result from the alliance, or from the sale of a bundle of services and products that includes such new services and products, may be different than the timing of revenue from existing services and products. In addition, our ability to maintain favorable pricing of new services and products may be challenging if we bundle such services and products with existing services and products. A delay in the recognition of revenue from sales of acquired or alliance services and products, or reduced pricing due to bundled sales, may cause fluctuations in our quarterly financial results, may adversely affect our operating margins, and may reduce the benefits of such acquisitions or alliances.
Additionally, competition within the software industry for acquisitions of businesses, technologies, and assets has been, and may continue to be, intense. As such, even if we are able to identify an acquisition that we would like to pursue, the target may be acquired by another strategic buyer or financial buyer such as a private equity firm, or we may otherwise not be able to complete the acquisition on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. Moreover, in addition to our failure to realize the anticipated benefits of any acquisition, including our revenue or return on investment assumptions, we may be exposed to unknown liabilities or impairment charges to acquired intangible assets and goodwill as a result of acquisitions we do complete.
If we are unable to continue the successful development of our global direct sales force and the expansion of our relationships with our strategic partners, sales of our services and products will suffer and our growth could be slower than we project.
We believe that our future growth will depend on the continued recruiting, retention, and training of our global direct sales force and their ability to obtain new customers, both large and small P&C insurers, and to manage our existing customer base. New hires require significant training and may, in some cases, take more than a year before becoming productive, if at all. If we are unable to hire and develop sufficient numbers of productive global direct sales personnel, sales of our services and products will suffer and our growth will be impeded.
Our SI partners help us reach additional customers. We believe our future growth also will depend on the retention and expansion of successful relationships with SI partners, including with SI partners that will focus on services and products we may acquire in the future. Our growth in revenue, particularly in international markets, will be influenced by the development and maintenance of relationships with SI partners, including regional and local SI partners. Although we have established relationships with some of the leading SI partners, our services and products may compete directly against services and products that such leading SI partners support or market. Additionally, we are unable to control the quantity or quality of resources that our SI partners commit to migrating or implementing our services and products, the quality or timeliness of such migrations and implementations, or the effects of pandemics and other global events on our SI partners. Additionally, we are unable to control the quantity or quality of Table of Contentsresources that our SI partners commit to migrating or implementing our services and products, the quality or timeliness of such migrations and implementations, or the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and other global events on our SI partners. If our partners do not commit sufficient or qualified resources to these activities, our customers will be less satisfied, be less supportive with references, or may require the investment of our resources at discounted rates. These, and other failures by our partners to successfully implement our services and products, would have an adverse effect on our business and our results of operations could fail to grow in line with our projections.


Our international sales and operations subject us to additional risks that can adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We sell our services and products to customers located outside the United States, and we are continuing to expand our international operations as part of our growth strategy. In fiscal years 2023, 2022, and 2021, $331.5 million, $296.2 million, and $271.1 million of our revenue, respectively, was from customers outside of the United States. Our current international operations and our plans to expand our international operations subject us to a variety of risks, including:
increased management, travel, infrastructure, legal, and compliance costs associated with having multiple international operations;
unique terms and conditions in contract negotiations imposed by customers in foreign countries;
longer payment cycles and difficulties in enforcing contracts and collecting accounts receivable;
the need to localize our contracts and our services and products for international customers;
lack of familiarity with and unexpected changes in foreign regulatory requirements;
increased exposure to fluctuations in currency exchange rates, especially on revenue and ARR;
highly inflationary international economies, such as Argentina which has placed controls on sending U.S. dollars outside of the country and resulted in extended collection periods;
geographic and political conflicts, such as that between Russia and Ukraine and the escalating tensions in the South China Sea;
the burdens and costs of complying with a wide variety of foreign laws and legal standards, including without limitation any new or evolving laws and regulations relating to the use of data in AI, generative AI, machine learning technologies, climate-related disclosures, and the General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union (“EU”) and the U.K.;
compliance with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, the U.K. Bribery Act of 2010 and other anti-corruption regulations, particularly in emerging market countries;
compliance by international staff with accounting practices generally accepted in the United States, including adherence to our accounting policies and internal controls;
import and export license requirements, tariffs, taxes and other trade barriers;
increased financial accounting, tax and reporting burdens and complexities;
weaker protection of intellectual property rights in some countries;
multiple and possibly overlapping tax regimes, including certain Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (“OECD”) proposals, including the implementation of the global minimum tax under the Pillar Two model rules;
government sanctions that may interfere with our ability to sell into particular countries, such as Russia;
disruption to our operations caused by epidemics or pandemics; and
political, social, and economic instability abroad, terrorist attacks, and security concerns in general.
As we increase the number of products we offer, increase the number of countries in which we operate, and incorporate new technologies and capabilities into our products (including, without limitation, the use of AI, generative AI and machine learning technologies), the complexity of adjusting our offerings to comply with legal and regulatory changes will increase.
As we continue to expand our business globally, our success will depend, in large part, on our ability to anticipate and effectively manage these and other risks associated with our international operations. Any of these risks could harm our international operations and reduce our international sales, adversely affecting our business, results of operations, financial condition and growth prospects.
Incorrect or improper use of our services and products or our failure to properly train customers on how to utilize our services and products could result in customer dissatisfaction and negatively affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, and growth prospects.


Our services and products are complex and are deployed in a wide variety of environments. The proper use of our services and products requires training of the customer. If our services and products are not used correctly or as intended, inadequate performance may result. Our services and products may also be intentionally misused or abused by customers or their employees or third parties who are able to access or use our services and products. Because our customers rely on our services, products, and support to manage a wide range of operations, the incorrect or improper use of our services and products, our failure to properly train customers on how to efficiently and effectively use our services and products, or our failure to properly provide services to our customers may result in negative publicity or legal claims against us. Also, any failure by us to properly provide training or other services to existing customers will likely result in lost opportunities for follow-on and increased sales of our services and products.
In addition, if there is substantial turnover of customer personnel responsible, especially at the executive level, for the use and support of our services and products, or if customer personnel are not well trained in the use and support of our services and products, customers may defer the deployment of our services and products, may deploy them in a more limited manner than originally anticipated, or may not deploy them at all. Further, if there is substantial turnover of the customer personnel responsible for use of our services and products, our ability to renew existing licenses and make additional sales may be substantially limited.
We may not be able to obtain capital when desired on favorable terms, if at all, and we may not be able to obtain capital or complete acquisitions through the use of equity without dilution to our stockholders.
We may need additional financing to execute on our current or future business strategies, including to develop new or enhance existing services and products, acquire businesses and technologies, or otherwise to respond to competitive pressures. We may need additional financing to execute on our current or future business strategies, including to develop new or enhance existing services and products, acquire businesses and technologies, or otherwise to respond to competitive pressures.
If we raise additional funds through the issuance of equity or convertible debt securities, the percentage ownership of our existing stockholders could be significantly diluted, and newly-issued securities may have rights, preferences, or privileges senior to those of existing stockholders. If we accumulate additional funds through debt financing, a substantial portion of our operating cash flow may be dedicated to the payment of principal and interest on such indebtedness, thus limiting funds available for our business activities. We cannot be assured that additional financing will be available on terms favorable to us, or at all. If adequate funds are not available, or are not available on acceptable terms, when we desire them, our ability to fund our operations, take advantage of unanticipated opportunities, develop or enhance our services and products, or otherwise respond to competitive pressures would be significantly limited. Any of these factors could harm our results of operations.
Risks Related to Data Security and Privacy, Intellectual Property, and Information Technology
If our products or cloud-based services experience cybersecurity breaches, there is unauthorized access to our customers’ data, or unauthorized use of our services or any of these events are perceived to happen, we may lose current or future customers and our reputation and business may be harmed.
If our security measures are breached, unauthorized access to our or our customers’ data, or unauthorized use of our services or any of these events are perceived to happen, our cloud services may be perceived as not being secure, customers may reduce the use of or stop using our services, we may incur significant liabilities, and our reputation could be harmed.If our security measures are breached or unauthorized access to customer data is otherwise obtained, our cloud services may be perceived as not being secure, customers may reduce the use of or stop using our services, we may incur significant liabilities, and our reputation could be harmed. Our software and cloud services involve the storage and transmission of customer data (including, in some cases, personal data), are involved in the collection and distribution of funds, and may provide business critical analytics necessary for our customers’ operations. Our software and cloud services involve the storage and transmission of customer data, including in some cases, personal data, and security breaches could result in the loss of this information, which in turn could result in litigation, breach of contract claims, indemnity obligations, and other liabilities for our company. Security breaches could result in public disclosure of confidential information, loss or modification of data affecting our customers’ operations, fraud or theft, ransom demands, or other misuse of confidential information, which in turn could result in litigation, breach of contract claims, indemnity obligations, additional reporting requirements and/or oversight, restrictions on processing customer data, and other liabilities for our Company. While we have taken, and are continually updating and enhancing, steps to protect the confidential information and customer data to which we have access, including confidential information we may obtain through our customer support services or customer usage of our cloud-based services, our security measures or the security measures of companies we rely on, such as AWS, could be breached. We rely on third-party technology and systems for a variety of services, including, without limitation, encryption and authentication technology, employee email, content delivery to customers, back-office support, and other functions, and our ability to control or prevent breaches of any of these systems may be beyond our control. Because techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or infiltrate systems change frequently and generally are not identified until they are launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures despite our efforts in implementing and deploying security measures. The use of constantly evolving technologies by threat actors are sophisticated and complex and may increase the velocity of such threats, frequency of incident cases, and otherwise magnifying the risks associated with these types of attacks. Although we have developed systems and processes designed to protect our and our customers’ data, prevent loss or unauthorized modification of data, ensure only authorized use of services, and other cybersecurity breaches, including systems and processes designed to reduce the impact of a security breach at a third-party vendor, such measures cannot provide


absolute security. Any or all of these issues could negatively impact our ability to attract new customers or to increase engagement with existing customers, could cause existing customers to elect not to renew their term licenses or subscription agreements, or could subject us to third-party lawsuits, regulatory fines or other action or liability, thereby adversely affecting our results of operations and reputation.
Privacy concerns could result in regulatory changes and impose additional costs and liabilities on us, limit our use of information, and adversely affect our business. Privacy concerns could result in regulatory changes and impose additional costs and liabilities on us, limit our use of information, and adversely affect our business.
As adoption of our cloud-based services occurs, the amount of customer data, including customer personal information, that we manage, hold, and/or collect continues to increase. In addition, our services and products may collect, process, store, and use transaction-level data aggregated across insurers using our common data model. We anticipate that over time we will continue to expand the use and collection of personal information as greater amounts of such personal information may be transferred from our customers to us and we recognize that privacy and data security has become a significant issue in the United States, Europe, the U. We anticipate that over time we will continue to expand the use and collection of personal information as greater amounts of such personal information may be Table of Contentstransferred from our customers to us and we recognize that privacy and data security has become a significant issue in the United States, Europe, the U. K., and many other jurisdictions where we operate.
Many federal, state, and foreign legislatures and government agencies have imposed, are considering imposing, or are considering changing restrictions and requirements about the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information. Many federa