In a recent blog post, Kofax explored the changing world of the insurance industry. They narrowed their findings down to a handful of categories; legacy systems, new product models to compete with, and millennials. Millennials? How do they impact insurance companies? Turns out, they have a lot to do with how companies run their customer service end. Millennials want information quickly, via the internet, and in simple packages that are easy to understand. They want to be able to sign up for coverage via a website, receive an approval or denial quickly, and also to be able to manage their policy through a customer interface, without having to call into a customer service line between 9am and 5pm. For a traditionally paper-based industry such as insurance, this can be quite a change but thanks to the technology that can automate the approval process and a variety of customer portals these options are becoming more readily implemented, and can be enjoyed by all customers.
The second change Kofax noted was the prevalence and burden of legacy systems. Many enterprises outgrow their customized software but can't find a way to transfer that business data from one platform to a new, fully featured one. Many of these old systems also lack the analytics that help to drive process improvement. According to Kofax's article, most insurance companies are about 95 years old and have long relied on paper-based processing. But, as technology changes the need to migrate to a system that can process the intricacies and data collection required by insurance companies is inevitable. However, according to Kofax "This is not to say that you should take a rip-and-replace approach. That would be too risky to your core operation. A staged, augment-and-adapt method is a more prudent choice."
One way insurers are coping with the need for new software but access to old data is an interesting one - "swivel chair integration". Swivel chair integration is a method where one database is literally typed into the new one, manually, while looking at the respective databases pulled up on two screens. As one can imagine, this process is fraught with downsides (even the fact that millennials will complain is noted). However, another option is available in robotic process automation (RPA for short). This method replicates the process of swivel chair integration, but replaces the human operator with a technological process to capture the data and transfer it over. However, it is to be noted that RPA is not a software that is a backbone to the enterprise - it simply acts as an aid to get the new software up and running. RPA is a great utility for "old-meets-new" conundrums.
The last evolution facing the insurance industry is the idea of new product formats - peer to peer, pay as you go, on demand, and direct to consumer models. These models appeal to a variety of needs and price points, but are a relatively new endeavor for traditional insurers and can also put insurers at risk. This is an area that is still undergoing change and how technology will play a role is still to be determined.
Kofax closes their post by posing a series of questions to consider when determining how to better your insurance enterprise's process or integration of technology:
- Do you have areas that are underperforming?
- Do you have rigid applications or information siloes creating bottlenecks?
- Are there processes that can’t be scaled unless you hire more people?
- Do you have employees performing repetitive, manual tasks?
- Are your employees constantly copying and pasting information between internal and external systems?
- Do you have highly paid knowledge workers dedicated to time-consuming administrative tasks?
- Are data-entry errors creating frequent rework or exception handling?
- Is your company considering outsourcing processes that you would prefer to keep in-house?
As a Kofax partner, PaperFree can help insurers or companies in any vertical to better manage their data capture and application in ways that can stand the text of time. To learn more about how we can help you, please contact us.