Workflow & Innovation: Michigan Millers Realizes ROI While Going Green with Enterprise Approach to Document Management

Like many insurance providers for small and midsized businesses, Michigan Millers Mutual Insurance Company was besieged with paper. Six years ago, the company stored its information in approximately 75 four-drawer filing cabinets, each filled to capacity. Inefficient access to information took its toll: active policy and claims files were lost, documents were misplaced, and staff did not have the ability to track documents effectively. The company was running out of space for additional paper storage.

To further complicate matters, paper did not allow agents to simultaneously view policyholder information. Under the paper-based system, locating information was time-consuming and cumbersome. Michigan Millers estimated that they were spending $150,000 annually on the maintenance of their paper files.

Michigan Millers’ management recognized that an enterprise implementation of electronic document management (EDM) would address all of these challenges. They implemented a system that was flexible enough to adapt to new challenges in the business and scalable to grow with the company. Innovative vision, combined with their EDM solution—DocFinity®, by Optical Image Technology, Inc.—allowed Michigan Millers to realize a return on investment (ROI) of which most insurers can only dream.

Background

Michigan Millers provides auto, homeowner, agribusiness insurance, and a full range of property and casualty coverages for small and midsize businesses. They have existed for more than 125 years, and are currently licensed in 25 states. The company’s overriding objective is to provide outstanding customer service to attract and retain both new and current clients. To that end, Michigan Millers employs technology in a way that has completely revolutionized their business operations. EDM has been implemented in Finance, Human Resources, Claims, Personal Lines Underwriting, Commercial Lines Underwriting, Agribusiness Underwriting, Agency Services and Product Services. The solution is enterprise-wide and involves all departments.

Initially, when considering a cost-effective EDM and workflow solution, Michigan Millers had several goals. They hoped to:

• Revolutionize customer service by automating their processes;
• Provide remote access with a secure Web-based system;
• Eliminate inefficiencies associated with paper storage and processes;
• Handle significant future growth without increasing (or eliminating) staff;
• Maximize productivity by integrating applications; and
• Eliminate the high costs associated with consumables such as printed documents.

With DocFinity, they were able to meet all of these objectives. The software, which is scalable and can grow with Michigan Millers, is also flexible enough to continue to address the company’s needs. In 2002, shortly after implementing the solution in the claims area, the company had processed 140,000 documents annually. As features such as workflow and email management were implemented across the enterprise, the company was able to write more new business, growing at a rate of 30% per year on average without adding new staff.

In 2006, approximately 450,000 documents were housed and flowed through the system. The company is saving over $100,000 dollars per year by eliminating paper, printing, and other consumables; in some departments, paper consumption has been reduced by 90%. The company was also able to reclaim over 1,400 square feet of floor space by eliminating the use of file cabinets.

Claims: the initial implementation

Initially, Michigan Millers used DocFinity for imaging documents, and the claims department was the first on board. Prior to implementation, paper documents were shuffled throughout the company and also to third-party vendors, and it was difficult to know exactly where a claim was in the process. Once the claims were stored electronically in the system, DocFinity Workflow was used to push the claims and associated documents for automatic processing.

Michigan Millers was so successful in their initial implementation that they accelerated the former 30-day claims turnaround into a 3-day process. In addition, Workflow’s reporting tools enabled management to spot potential bottlenecks within the standard processes. This allowed them to reallocate work and streamline their processing routines to further improve efficiency.

Saving time with vendor integration

With the success of the claims department, Michigan Millers began to implement EDM throughout the enterprise. Vendors that were integrated into the DocFinity solution included RightFax, the AMS/Rackley system, the e-Auto system, the Phillips & Phillips and McCurry audit processing systems, and USB Blast. The integration with these vendors’ products has helped Michigan Millers deliver information in a more cost-effective manner. The insurers save hundreds of hours per month in staff time; staff duties were subsequently reallocated towards improved agent and customer service. Each integration began in the department with the greatest need, and subsequently expanded to other areas across the enterprise.

• Outsourcing of EOB Files. To access EOB files, an outside vendor logs into a separate Workflow queue within Michigan Millers’ secure system. EOBs are processed by the vendor, and Michigan Millers collects the PDF files every evening in a batch mode with DocFinity Object Importer. Indexed automatically, the PDFs are waiting for staff review each morning. The entire transfer occurs without the need for human intervention.
• RightFax integration. Initially implemented for personal lines, RightFax is used to redirect faxes into employees’ email boxes, where DocFinity Email Manager retrieves them as email messages and indexes them automatically. This integration has eliminated paper and printing previously required for faxes, and made it significantly easier and faster to find information. Personal lines underwriting previously required between two and four business days; now it has been reduced to a turnaround of one or two days. Based on the easy integration of RightFax and Email Manager in Personal Lines, Claims, Commercial Lines, and Agribusiness departments have adopted the same solution.
• The AMS/Rackley system. The AMS/Rackely system is a new business policy underwriting application for commercial lines. Michigan Millers integrates it with the DocFinity Object Importer. When staff enters and saves new business information, Object Importer automatically sends the new information through a workflow. Staff is not involved in the transfer of information from one system to another.
• The e-Auto system. The e-Auto system is another integration that adds speed to Michigan Millers’ processing. Michigan Millers uses an outside company to assess auto damages. This company sends adjusters to examine the cars, provide estimates, and generate paperwork. Claims are brought into the Michigan Millers system with Object Importer, and are added to the storage repository automatically. They are indexed electronically at 5 a.m., and ready for employee review at the start of the business day.
• The Phillips & Phillips and McCurry audit processing system. Object Importer reads data from the Phillips & Phillips and McCurry audit processing system and indexes the data, facilitating annual audits and inspections. Between 20 and 100 audit reports—and the same number of inspection reports—are downloaded daily in PDF format, sent to the appropriate staff via Workflow, and indexed automatically in the background nightly. In the morning, they are waiting in staff inboxes, ready for review.
• USB Blast. USB Blast records telephone information, and stores it in the DocFinity repository. An entire recorded conversation can be stored as a digital wav file, which is extremely convenient in times of litigation. Previously, Michigan Millers had to transcribe entire conversations, and then email their transcripts. Now, after emailing a digital statement, they are able to identify information that is relevant to a particular case. They transcribe only that information which is relevant. DocFinity integration with Handheld Olympus recorders provides similar functionality for agents in the field.

Increasing efficiency with Email Manager

Previously, when Michigan Millers wanted to launch email messages and/or their attachments into automated workflows, they had to print email messages, then submit them to a batch to be scanned and indexed. Depending on the contents of the email messages, they would then have to be sent to the appropriate users in order to be processed using Workflow. The entire process could take hours or days, and often resulted in images of poor quality.

With the introduction of DocFinity Email Manager, Michigan Millers’ efficiency rate increased dramatically. Since data no longer had to be keyed and re-keyed, the company experienced a data accuracy rate of more than 99% —a dramatic increase over the percentage achieved in the previous paper environment. Email is the fastest and easiest option for staff to upload documents into the system. In order to take advantage of automatic indexing, a user simply formats an email subject line with a policy number and an abbreviated document type. Minutes later, when the document is routed for processing with Workflow, fields are populated automatically. The system is even configured to alert staff to probable errors if a field is blank or has the wrong number of characters.

Michigan Millers estimates that implementation of Email Manager alone saves the company 1165 hours and $3,443 annually on consumable expenditures. The 12-14 reams of paper that were consumed previously each month have been reduced to just one. The ROI experienced by Michigan Millers has empowered management and staff to buy into the idea of continual transformation. They are repeatedly generating more ideas for global packaging of information, with seemingly limitless enterprise-wide applications for the future.

An enterprise approach to EDM

Automation of the insurance cancellation and rewriting process has benefited every department within the company. Previously, when a policy number would change due to merging policies or for any other reason, all of the related materials (which could number up to 400-500 documents) had to be updated and manually re-indexed. A global digital workflow was put in place for cancellations and rewriting, automating the process and saving nearly 62 hours per month on this single process. The workflow provides an automated audit trail which includes reports on any data that was altered, by whom, and at what time. Global digital workflow has cut the rewrite process down to a maximum of 3 to 5 minutes, saving 740 hours per year.

Another time-saving implementation involved the recent horizontal integration of Workflow and Email Manager with applications across the enterprise. In addition to automatically indexing faxes that are delivered into their email inboxes and indexing all emails for easier and quicker retrieval, the company has saved paper, printing, storage space, and considerable staff time. The automation of the business processes has enabled the company to push documents, images and work to the right people at the right time, resulting in faster action and better service.

Meeting the needs of staff

At the end of the day, a company owes much of its success to its workforce. Unlike other companies that are in the process of automating their business, Michigan Millers did not eliminate staff as the company became more efficient. Instead, they reallocated their staff’s skills to provide better support to their agents and ultimately to their customers. At the same time, the company was able to handle significant growth without increasing its staff. Gary Smith, Manager of Information Systems, says, “Utilizing DocFinity, we have doubled our claims processing load without increasing staff.”

Michigan Millers’ IT staff handled the company’s transition by meeting regularly with each department, listening to their pain points within the business, and trying to address each issue effectively. By treating its staff as customers, the company instilled a high level of trust, enabling staff to embrace change and voice additional ideas for quality improvements. As Greg Cook, Imaging Support Technician for Michigan Millers, summarizes, “The technologies we use are strong; with an integrated DocFinity solution, we have been able to provide better service, improved efficiency, and a reduction in consumables.” Indeed, the company’s initial investment in technology continues to provide renewed return.

For more information or to schedule a demonstration, please Contact DocFinity now.