ILC ARTICLE

Automation the key to resilient claims management

7th December 2021

Greater automation is the only way insurers will be able to manage a surge in claims brought about by a catastrophic event, but to make best use of this technology mindsets will need to change.

Brian Ford, Management Consultant and Software Reseller at SLVRCLD, believes technology advances have left the sector behind, which means the opportunity is there for forward-thinking organisations to steal a march on their rivals.

Speaking during a panel debate at the I Love Claims Home & Property Claims Conference, held at the CBS Arena, Coventry on 11 November, he said, “It’s easy to get automation into a business, but it’s not happening as fast as it could because the mindset and culture is not there. There is a little bit of resistance to change the way things are, and actually it’s the new starts who are adopting automation because they are nimble and don’t have the legacy systems in place.

“But if organisations can get the mindset right then there is a big opportunity to leverage the technology that’s already out there. If they can take a step back and decide what they want to achieve then the solution is available.”

Resilience

He says greater implementation of automation will not just improve efficiencies, decrease costs and improve customer experience, but also build resilience into an organisation to deal with the fluctuations in claims that will likely come about because of climate change.

“Automation is the only way to handle a mass of claims coming in all at once, but it needs to be implemented throughout the supply chain to be effective.”

Better use of technology can also benefit insurers in other ways. Joining Brian on stage in Coventry was Carla McDonald, Senior Manager, Claims, at LexisNexis. She explained that while insurers have got better at harvesting customer data, there are still improvements to be made in how that data is collated and viewed.

She said, “One thing we hear about is how organisations can leverage the data they’ve already got on a customer. They may have a lot of data across a lot of different platforms, but they don’t have that one single view of an individual. Finding that single view is almost the holy grail in terms of understanding that person, being able to spot inconsistencies and measuring risk. And if we don’t have consistent information about the customer, then how can we serve them with the right product at the right time?”

Data

Mining the right data can seem like finding a needle in a haystack, but Tom Burroughs, Director of Technology, Claims Consortium, insists it’s only as complicated as you make it, suggesting that if you are clear about the metrics and strategy then the process can be simplified.

He also said that using the data intelligently could be critical in stress testing systems for severe events and establishing alternative and potentially more effective responses.

Tom said, “If we have the right data we are able to understand on a macro level the implications of extreme weather events, and we can model what would happen if we deal with them in different ways. Only with solid benchmarking behind you would you feel confident enough to switch to Plan B when the event does occur.”

ILC’s Home & Property Claims Conference 2021 was supported by headline sponsor Synergy; Gold Sponsors – Catalyst, Dasa, LexisNexis, Perfect Group, Polygon and Sedgwick; Silver Sponsors – Belfor, Bdeo, CRDN, Farcroft and Gelder; and ILC Corporate Partners – Carpenters Group, CoreLogic, ICAB, ICAB Pod, and Innovation Group.