How Digital Mailroom Works in Insurance
Overview
Insurance providers were some of the earliest adopters of the original digital mailroom technologies more than 20 years ago, as their business relies on understanding huge volumes of documents and information. Even after implementing these early solutions, insurers today still face four primary challenges with document process automation, particularly in the mailroom.
In this white paper, we’ll walk through these challenges, and provide insight and suggestions as to how each might be improved with a combination of good planning and modern advances in digital mailroom automation technologies.
THE SCENARIO
Insurance companies identified long ago a need for automation beyond just scanning documents after transactions are completed. When first generation digital mailroom products were developed and deployed, organizations primarily received paper documents, which were then scanned to a desktop computer in a one-way, rigid process.
Insurance companies are now processing millions of documents each year, from a wide variety of sources. Next generation solutions must not only consolidate various incoming streams of communication, but also consider downstream processes and automation opportunities beyond simple capture and deliver.
Insurance companies are organizationally complex
Insurance carriers often provide services in a number of different and disparate areas. Car insurance, homeowners' insurance, renters, health, etc.: all of these are distinct from one another in terms of what they cover, each with their own set of rules and regulations as to how documents can be processed. Within each of these segments, there are two parallel operations happening simultaneously, sales and claims. Manually sorting and distributing all this information can be exceptionally complicated and prone to errors. Those who do the actual sorting need to be trained. It costs the same to train a seasonal employee as it does one who’s full time, an investment that bears little return when the seasonal worker is gone within two or three months.
There’s no standard of communication or formats
Especially on the claims side of things, insurance companies need to be flexible enough to deal with whatever kind of document is sent their way, regardless of how it's sent. Insurance companies are processing millions of documents each year. Multiply that by many thousands of customers, and then consider that the insurance industry covers much more than just cars and will need to maintain customer relationships and records for many years. They’re coordinating with their customers, but also with investigators, appraisers, other insurance companies, mechanics, doctors, and contractors. Some may want to fax a copy of something, while others want to email a few JPEGs. Somehow all of this needs to be consolidated into a single case file, too
There is a staggering volume and variety of content to process
To process the incoming documents of an insurance company is to speak the jargon of several different professions all at once. Every day, carriers receive their own claims forms, filled out by the customers. These forms may also come in multiple variations, as required information could vary by state. Insurance forms are accompanied by estimates from mechanics, or diagnoses by doctors, or reports from police officers, or appraisals from a bank. These documents add up quickly. This is in addition to new customer forms and all their attending documents, as well as legal contracts, and a seasonal spike in renewals and cancellations. With all of these variations, these documents still need to be processed in a timely manner.
Controls and compliance are key to day-to-day business operations
Compliance is so integral to insurance organizations that most have an executive-level role to cover this: Chief Compliance Officer, or CCO. The mailroom—with its multiple input channels, various document types, and human error processing issues—is a compliance nightmare. Every document received needs to be recorded and processed. This is what representatives have to work from when customers contact them. Any slowdown in the process leaves a representative without answers, and any mistake in the data is blamed on them. In either case, the result is a poor service experience and an unhappy customer. Bear in mind, too, that there’s no limit on the number of times a customer may need to contact her insurance company. Every contact made is another opportunity for the company to delight or disappoint.
A typical large auto insurer could more than double profitability over 5 years by harnessing the power of digital.
McKinsey, Digital disruption in insurance: Cutting through the noise
THE SOLUTION
TCG’s transmission- and format-agnostic approach to document logistics is perfectly suited to modernize digital mailrooms within the insurance industry. The flexibility of our solution means companies aren’t forced into standardizing with specific platforms or limited to certain file types. The platform, DocProStar, can interface with any legacy business systems for a seamless fit into most environments. Whatever the type of file, and however it gets into an insurance company’s mailroom, DocProStar automates the sorting, receipt and delivery of all incoming documents, directly improving transparency and customer response times.