Get Ready for Success: Seven Ways Automation Improves Underwriter Efficiency and Customer Service

By Laurel Sanders, Optical Image Technology, Inc.

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Underwriting today is all about efficiency and service. Managerial expectations dictate the need to process more work, faster, often with fewer human resources, and as cost-effectively as possible. The mobility of customers, a challenging marketplace of mergers and acquisitions, and stringent regulations continue to create new expectations for real-time information and immediate customer service, increasing demands and workloads. Fortunately, advances in technology have made it possible to respond with services that were unimaginable even a few years ago.

Savvy underwriters understand that their ability to attract new business, retain current customers, and remain successful in today’s marketplace means they must understand changing needs and respond to them more quickly than their competitors. For underwriters, having ready access to up-to-the-minute information as it ebbs and flows is vital to attracting new business and making informed decisions that keep a company on the leading edge---and in some cases, even helping it just to survive. Business executive Arie de Geus summarized the situation well, stating, “Your ability to learn faster than your competition is your only sustainable competitive advantage.”

Having a vision for success, and the determination required to make that vision become reality, is vital for any insurance company to become and remain successful. Understanding customer demands, and knowing the details of your routine business processes, records retention demands, and other legal requirements is vital to the smooth running of an underwriting department. If you understand the common barriers to underwriting efficiency, have a vision for improvement, and the determination to take steps toward change that will keep your company on the leading edge, this article is designed for you. It explains seven ways you can tap into digital capture, storage, and process automation to maximize the talents of your staff and be more effective. By taking advantage of one or more of the options presented, you can take major strides toward 21st century organizational efficiency and success.

1. Capture and Access Insurance Applications and Supporting Documents

Imagine being able to look into a crystal ball and view all of the information about your underwriting prospects that is available to you. Applications, supporting documents, phone conversations held with prospects, faxes, risk assessments, credit reports, email correspondence, handwritten letters, customer histories, and other information would be viewable within moments of a request. A Web-based electronic document management system makes this a reality, functioning similarly to a crystal ball. Agents, customers, and administrative staff simply define the information they are seeking as they would in an encyclopedic index, and an electronic list of appropriate materials is returned to the seeker’s desktop, laptop, or PDA within seconds. Each end user only gains access to the information that the company has decided that person needs in order to perform relevant tasks and make informed decisions, helping companies comply with stringent regulations and privacy issues. Sensitive information remains restricted to the purview of those individuals whose jobs require it. Instant, remote access means that informed decisions can be made quickly, and the risk of a security breach can be eliminated.

Centralizing all of a company’s diverse information into one searchable location provides numerous benefits, and is the foundation to all efficiency improvements that follow. Online forms add significant value as you build a digital library, enabling your agents and their customers to enter new information electronically, as well as updating information from scanned documents and making the data immediately searchable. Portable desktop scanners also enable agents to add paper documents instantly to their electronic library.

Scanning paper forms, capturing faxes and emails and indexing them for search, and creating electronic forms have similar results. They help you to gain a comprehensive overview of your prospects and customers, reduce waiting times for applications and other materials that are in the mail, keep new applications and reinsurance policies moving, and enable your company to make decisions and process new business more quickly. Bar codes can also be added to outgoing mail and solicitations to prospects, enabling you to scan completed forms as they are returned. This eliminates the errors that arise from manual re-keying of contact information, customer and policy identification numbers, and other vital information.

Faster decisions lead to quicker invoicing, putting policies in the hands of your customers swiftly, expediting relevant invoicing, and improving your cash flow. Rather than chasing after information that is “in transit” so that decisions can be made and policies can be delivered, agents can bring new business to a close quickly and move on to other prospective clients. Customers benefit from faster decisions, cases of unwanted risk can be addressed more quickly, and companies benefit from faster turnaround and revenue cycles. Everyone wins.

2. Standardize Underwriting Procedures

Whether you scan paper forms, use on-line applications that are posted on your website or available via your agents’ laptops, or include bar codes on paper forms to decrease manual keying of customer and policy information, an EDM system will ensure that your standards for information consistency and completion are met. A vital part of establishing process efficiency is candidly evaluating the procedures you currently have in place, streamlining them and making them more consistent prior to automation. Nothing makes less sense than automating useless or inefficient processes. Taking the time to understand them thoroughly and introduce needed reforms will result in a huge payoff.

As forms are scanned or completed online, your business rules dictate the information you require, the formats that are acceptable, and the messages that help the customer, agent, or staff to take the right action when standards are not met. Duplication of materials is eliminated, incomplete information is disallowed in accordance with your rules, and the quality of data is improved. A configurable EDM system puts the reins for managing underwriting documents into your hands, letting you define what information needs to be collected (thus ensuring that it is part of the record) and what it should look like.

Is the customer policy number on an application incorrect for the customer whose name is on the application? Is medical information, an inventory of property, or other additional supporting documentation required before the application is considered complete? Is an agent signature required before a form can be considered for approval? An electronic document management system keeps track of all of the requirements and details, providing a check-andbalance system to make sure your records are as correct and complete as possible.

3. Write More Business in Less Time

After all of a company’s active files are stored in the electronic storage repository, the next step is to automate routine processes by routing the right tasks and information to the right people as quickly as possible. In insurance companies, the underwriting and claims departments are the business areas where the benefit to the insurer is usually the greatest. For the underwriter, the goal is to write new business quickly, collecting and distributing all required supporting documentation, while accurately ascertaining risk and making good business decisions that result either in new policies or denials. Making sure that opportunities and tasks are properly prioritized and acted upon without delay is vital, and demonstrating compliance with service level agreements and information security regulations is critical.

When an underwriter thoroughly analyzes, streamlines, and ultimately automates the department’s routine processes, work can be handled in a fraction of the time previously required. Tasks such as the approval of a document by multiple parties can be initiated automatically, and reviews can be conducted by numerous preauthorized individuals simultaneously. The receipt of electronic signatures and other required follow-up materials can trigger the next action, keeping the process moving. Rules can be configured to instruct the system (and ultimately the end user) what procedures need to be followed for anticipated exceptions to standard processes. By integrating digital workflow with your business systems, communications becomes seamless, and straight-through processing becomes a reality.

Thorough process planning and automation results in procedures that are optimized for consistency and efficiency. Digital workflow also provides managerial insight into a company’s ability to handle work volumes effectively, making it possible to address bottlenecks proactively before they occur. Managers can pre-set business rules for reallocating tasks in accordance with who has the least work, through round-robin equal distribution, or as desired, and can make manual adjustments to the business rules as needed. Workers who are overworked, ill, on vacation, or leave the company for other opportunities no longer have to put the company’s underwriting business at risk. In addition, constantly updated information means that assessment of current risk can be expedited, and reinsurance needs can be freshly evaluated. In summary, the company does not have to turn away higher risk business unnecessarily.

Perhaps the greatest advantage process automation provides is the ability to manage more business with existing staff. Instead of needing to hire more staff to handle an increase in policies, or requiring current employees to work longer hours, the turnaround time for new business can be dramatically accelerated, allowing employees to process more work. Effective automation frequently enables companies to write anywhere from 15 – 40 percent more business with the same number of employees, while providing better information and service. A staff that can process more work, faster, may allow you to eliminate some positions through attrition as people retire or leave, or use their talents in other areas within the company that further improve your business model and your company’s services.

4. Facilitate Communication with Agents and Customers

Just as digital storage and process automation help to increase data accuracy, Web-based document management and workflow help to facilitate and expedite communication of that information between agents, underwriting staff, and customers. A document management system without digital workflow helps agents to access whatever they need, regardless of where they are located, saving time, paper, postage costs, and headaches. Process automation with digital workflow exponentially increases that efficiency, automatically notifying pertinent parties when information is required, when deadlines are approaching, when time-sensitive documents have been received and require action, and much more. Agents who are able to provide information (such as forms and images via the Web from a remote location) can expedite decision making, and their ability to access information quickly means they can address customer inquiries efficiently. If the claims department is included in the company’s automation, collaboration between underwriting and claims staff is improved, further enhancing the speed with which customer needs can be handled and the quality of information you can provide.

5. Integrate with Policy Systems Software

Policy underwriting and administration software is one of the most important tools for an underwriter. Integrating your system with your document management software leverages the value of information stored within that system, helping you to avoid redundancy of data stored in other applications. Rather than storing the same basic information about the customer in the policy administration, accounting, and claims systems, for example, the document management repository that is integrated with your other applications can point from multiple applications to the location of the data within the policy system. This helps you to avoid the potential of conflicting data from inconsistent or erroneous data entry (such as misspelled or abbreviated names) that would otherwise be replicated in multiple software applications for each department’s unique use.

Integration with your policy software also enables you to drive information and work seamlessly from one application to the next with the aid of digital workflow, enabling you to execute standard functions and retrieve frequently needed materials without opening and closing multiple applications and losing time. Policy renewal dates can trigger appropriate letters or calls to customers, or reminders to staff that specific action items need to be taken, and the system can send the appropriate documents along with the related tasks to the designated person at the right time. Dates and other criteria can be used to prioritize work behind the scenes. Reports can be pulled on criteria such as the amount of pending business in an individual’s work queue, total dollar value of high-risk policies, or workers who are not managing their work queues quickly enough, so that tasks can be reallocated and customer needs can be met. In essence, automation of routine processes removes mundane tasks from workers’ queues, allowing them to act on information rather than spending their time collecting, searching for, or distributing it to the right person in a timely manner. Mechanization of document collection, indexing, search, and distribution means that workers have more time to focus on processing new business and to give high-quality, personalized service.

6. Comply with Regulatory Requirements and Audits

No software system is designed to replace a well-conceived records management policy. However, a robust document management system can automate records retention in accordance with your policies, help you to ensure that the policies are followed consistently, and demonstrate your company’s intent to comply. A document management system can be instructed to signify when it is time to purge information, or when information should be migrated to long-term storage media in accordance with regulations. Digital workflow adds value by pushing pertinent documents to the right staff members for review prior to purging, as well as any other action items and administrative controls that your business requires.

Regulations built around information security mandate who is allowed to view or act upon particular documents, and the digital records within a document management system as well as the transaction records within workflow leave clear trails. Rather than making your company’s information privacy policies and related documentation available in order to show that your policies have been communicated, the document management system allows and denies employee access to information in accordance with your business rules, recording every file transaction, who initiated it, and when it occurred. Managers have a clear overview of access, and can request alerts when unauthorized parties repeatedly attempt to access disallowed files. Audit data can be pulled via digital workflow from the document management system, and PDFs of inspection reports and other information can be created on the fly, ready for review as needed. Should a court subpoena occur, all of the paper, digital, fax, voice, and other data that is stored and indexed in the system is completely searchable, providing the answers that internal and external parties require. Auditors can balance the intent to comply with a thorough transaction trail that answers all questions and removes all doubt.

7. Satisfy demands of “I want it NOW”

From cell phones to iPods and Internet search, we live in a society that demands information instantly. Customers who are comparing insurance policies or who have questions about them vary little in their behavior from today’s shopper, expecting immediate information and service as well as answers to questions on demand. Prior to the advent of Web-based access to information, customers would typically call with questions, and would wait patiently for a return call. When email arrived on the scene, answers were expected within a day. Today, when a customer or prospect calls or sends an email inquiry, document management technology – especially when coupled with the information delivery system offered by process automation – means that the same individual can anticipate a near-immediate response, 24/7.

A document management system enables you to log written and voice-generated inquiries for immediate action. When coupled with digital workflow, the receipt of an email or call can automatically generate a “ticket” in the customer service department, forwarding the inquiry to the appropriate person for action or answers, in accordance with the data used to index the inquiry. Pushing specific tasks to designated staff in accordance with your business rules ensures that all customers are treated in the same manner, regardless of who is engaged in specific processes behind the scenes, and it cuts down on the learning curve for new staff. Also, management can pre-set rules for distributing work when employees are ill, on vacation, or overworked, ensuring continuous service at all times. Customers with an “I want it NOW” expectation receive immediate (or near-immediate) answers to their questions.

Information that is delivered quickly makes a positive impression on prospects, helping them to realize that they will probably be served equally well, or even better, when they become customers. It also reassures current clients that their needs will be met promptly, encouraging them to remain loyal to your company in an age where mergers and acquisitions, as well as employee turnover, often results in poor or inconsistent service. By taking advantage of these opportunities to raise the bar on service before your competitors do, you are able to gain a competitive advantage on which you can build your business and from which you can grow.

The future is now

A wise person once stated, “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” Today, technology exists that makes it possible to do almost anything you are bold enough to dream. Your company can decide to keep things as they are, and thereby consciously decide to let others race by, or you can learn and take advantage of the advances that are available to insurers today, joining the fast track to success. There is no gain without some pain, but the returns of improved service and efficiency from good technology are worth the investment, hard work, and dedication. You can profit from smart underwriting, or let the writing of business be taken out from under you. The choice is yours. By having and continually reestablishing a clear vision, learning faster than your competitors, and taking advantage of the possibilities that technology offers today, you can gain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Optical Image Technology offers an integrated suite of document management, and workflow products, including imaging, bar code recognition, desktop scanning, electronic forms and signatures, digital workflow, and more. To learn more about our products and services, please visit the insurance pages of our website, call us at (800) 678-3241, or contact us at info@docfinity.com. To receive links to additional reference and educational articles such as this, please complete our subscribe form.

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