A new claims management system drives efficiency gains
About the client
The client writes a global property and casualty (P&C) reinsurance book from strategic (re)insurance centres around the world, offering meaningful lead capacity backed by an innovative and collaborative approach to underwriting across a broad range of P&C reinsurance on both a treaty and facultative basis. The client is known for its highly experienced and capable underwriters and its outstanding service and flexibility, working with partners to develop new products and solutions to meet their evolving reinsurance needs.
A big step forward
Having been in business for close to a decade, the client carried out a review of its claims operation in 2021. This identified the potential benefits of introducing a dedicated claims management system (CMS) for the first time. A detailed cost-benefit analysis and review of potential suppliers ultimately underpinned the investment case for the change and identified DOCOsoft as the preferred CMS provider. The implementation process took three months to complete, and the client went live on the DOCOsoft Write-Back CMS in October 2021.
This rapid and smooth-running onboarding came as a pleasant surprise to the client’s claims team. Having started with the expectation that few technology projects come in on time and on budget, they commented afterwards on how well the project had been managed to achieve both those things, with exactly the right amount of pushing for decisions when decisions were needed. There were also positive comments around DOCOsoft’s provision of training and the ready availability of support – both during and beyond those crucial early days and weeks when the members of the client’s claims team were still familiarising themselves with a new system and new ways of working.
Making the change
Before the decision to go with DOCOsoft, the client had no CMS in place, and its claims team was just working with the London market’s Electronic Claims Files (ECF) system, Excel spreadsheets, and a significant amount of manual intervention. Introducing DOCOsoft’s CMS for all new claims soon began making an obvious difference. Working both with basic ECF and a CMS concurrently underlined the gains in access, reliability, and speed. When ECF is down, the client’s claims handlers can carry on working on DOCOsoft, sometimes only becoming aware that a problem exists when a message arrives from DOCOsoft advising of an ECF outage.
Another clear gain was having a notes function. This put an end to the time-consuming business of retrieving information from a variety of sources before working on an unfamiliar claims file. The result was a reduction in the time taken to handle most files – in some cases by a very significant margin. Another benefit was having a powerful diary function in place. This, again, saves time and effort, and ensures that claims are followed up in a timely fashion, where previously, claims handlers had no option other than setting a manual reminder in Outlook.
Working smarter, saving time
The DOCOsoft system has also streamlined the approval process when agreeing LIRMA claim transactions. On risks the client leads, this simply requires clicking once, rather than circulating around the following markets before adding a final approval. As a reinsurance operation, the client typically has multiple layers on claims. The DOCOsoft system allows its claims handlers to view all linked layers as soon as a notification comes through on a single layer. This avoids the danger of approving one layer without being aware that subsequent layers coming in could exceed the handler’s per-claim authority.
Previously, when a claims handler was seeking approval for a claim that exceeded their authority, that would require sending an email to the relevant claims manager or head of claims, who would then have to locate the file, familiarise themselves with its contents, and then email the claims handler back – a cumbersome and time-consuming process. Now, all the relevant information is readily accessible – and all the necessary interaction takes place – within the DOCOsoft system. An added benefit is that when an end-of-year audit takes place, it’s a simple matter to share a CMS report demonstrating that all approval criteria have been met.
A refreshing change
The client’s head of claims comments “It’s honestly hard to fault the service and support we’ve had from DOCOsoft – from when we first started talking, though implementation, and into daily use. Bringing in the DOCOsoft CMS has been a real step-change for us. Communication has been good at every stage and, when we do need to contact support, I’ve always found them very good at responding and getting things resolved quickly. I think having regular monthly meetings adds real value, and it’s refreshing to work with a technology provider that actively wants to learn more about how you work day to day and what you need to operate more efficiently and productively.”