ILC ARTICLE

Lifting the lid on innovation

25th October 2022

As part of its ethos of adding value throughout its community, ILC’s inaugural MGA Claims Conference, held in London last month in association with MGAA, featured a number of tech sessions to offer insights into the latest innovations in the market.

The sessions were delivered by ILC partners and gold sponsors of the event Claims Consortium Group, Clearspeed and DFW360.

Data

Presenting for Claims Consortium Group, Wayne Calderbank, Director of Data and Insight, and Owen Pugh, Chief Operating Officer, discussed the benefits of data.

Owen pointed out how insurers face a very unique challenge in engaging with a customer-base that is vast and varied, both in age, demographic and habits.

However, he added that because of the nature of the industry insurers need to maintain an emotional connection with policyholders. As claims handlers are often the human face of an insurer, their value to the business cannot be underestimated and ensuring they are motivated and engaged is critical.

“The market is changing,” he said, “but we can use data to maintain awareness of our people as well as our customers.”

Wayne added that data can be used across the claims piece to understand how it is evolving, while using data and technology effectively also enables companies to be flexible in services and products.

Owen concluded, “As an industry we need to embrace data. We know it’s very important, but it’s only important if we have access to it. The data that is available now has the ability to help us look backwards and forwards not only from a cost perspective, but also in terms of what our service is like, what our people are like and what the customer is like.”

Fraud

They were followed on stage by Bhav Buhecha, Head of Client Relations UK & Europe, Clearspeed, who revealed an anti-fraud solution that is trusted by the US military and governing bodies throughout the sporting world to detect deception.

By asking simple, everyday questions around the claim – Were you driving? Do you smoke? Do you know where the item is? – and then analysing responses according to voice patterns and 40 characteristics within the brain, Clearspeed is able to calculate a risk score with 97% accuracy.

Operating across 50 languages, Clearspeed gives an honest claim the green light to fast-track payment, while those identified as potentially fraudulent are directed to the claims or fraud team for further investigation.

Bhav said, “We are there to screen people en masse and clear them as quickly as possible. Clearspeed technology has no bias or emotion. It was introduced into the US military to screen potential allies and was proven during the Afghanistan conflict, and is also used in sport to screen participants and judges, but insurance is a big growth area for us now.”

Hybrid

Meanwhile, Ashley Moss, CEO of DFW360, and Rob Holme, Head of Financial Lines, Claims Management and Adjusting, unveiled EvoClaim, apowerful cloud-based software solution capable of managing large volumes of claims, optimising workflows to enabling zero touch settlement.

Ashley said, “We deliver a full end-to-end solution, from FNOL through claims management to data analytics. We offer three core products: a mobile notification app which streamlines the FNOL process; an incident management product; and then a claims handling solution. And because we’re part of a law firm we can also offer fraud analysis, forensics, and data analysis.”

He said that what sets DFW360 apart is its flexibility, with solutions tailored to suit each customer.

“You’re not getting something off the shelf and then being fixed to that model. It’s about customer experience and customer service. We also negate the insource or outsource argument because ours is a truly hybrid approach enabling insurers to transfer claims between systems seamlessly, which we think is unique in the market.”

Alongside Claims Consortium Group, Clearspeed, and DWF360, the MGA Claims Conference was also supported by gold sponsors Davies Group, and EDAM Group, along with silver sponsors Robertson & Co, Vitesse PSP and Wiser Academy.