Making the Most of Work Management Through Automation

The concept of work management has been around for years. The majority of insurers, however, are still just getting marginal benefits from work management systems.

“Most insurers have taken a very document-focused approach to work management but have missed the true Holy Grail, which is automating manual processing tasks using business process management (BPM) technologies,” said Tim Kennedy, director of research and development for CSC’s Life and Annuity division. “And that’s where you get the bulk of the benefit.”

The advantages of automation are far-reaching. More than just saving time and holding down personnel costs, automation gives insurers the means to truly streamline business processes. Automating manual processing tasks lets insurers eliminate duplicate data entry, move toward a completely paperless environment and process multi-day functions.

Taking Imaging to the Next Level

Streamlining and standardizing business functions can be accomplished with workflow management capabilities and advanced rules engines. Many insurers still accomplish tasks such as back file imaging by sending the file to the mailroom for scanning once the new case is processed. Later, when personnel need to perform a transaction or to pull a file, the whole work process is still basically manual.

“A better approach would be to scan that information up front and, using basic work management capabilities within BPM, route the work to the right people, and perform basic decisioning for tasks such as loan processing,” Kennedy said. “If you capture the data up front, it can get routed to the right person. If the amount is over a certain threshold, then you’ll know automatically whether additional approvals are required. All approvals can be routed automatically, rather than having people do it by hand. This fundamentally changes the jobs of both frontline workers and supervisors. Supervisors are no longer the traffic cops for the file folders. Your system automates the flow of that work.”

Managing Customer Service Performance

Automation can improve customer service in many ways. Productivity savings gained by automating manual processes can free up capital funding, which can be invested in new customer service technologies. In addition, by managing all work electronically, insurers are able to get detailed and robust reporting, allowing them to pinpoint customer service issues before they become problems.

“As work starts backing up in one area, you can alert your staff to the potential backlog and avoid customer service problems by re-directing work appropriately,” Kennedy noted. “The enablement of performance management is core to customer service automation. It helps you target training issues, enables you to manage all of your processes and gives you a dashboard that alerts you instantaneously as issues arise.”

Software to Accelerate the Process

CSC, the insurance industry’s leading provider of software and services, has developed CSC’s Customer Service Accelerator™, which includes business process management capabilities that enable organizations to rapidly adjust workflows to meet changing business dynamics. In addition to basic work management capabilities such as scanning, imaging, work assignment and routing, it helps insurers manage activities with multiple systems and outside vendors. Customer Service Accelerator supports end-to-end process modeling, and its rules engine helps manage business processes.