A smarter way to manage claims
About Markel International
London-based Markel International looks after the commercial insurance needs of major businesses, SMEs, professionals and sole traders around the world. Markel International is a subsidiary of US-based global insurer Markel Group, whose insurance operations posted revenues of $8.085billion for 2022, and a gross premium volume of $13.201 billion.
Operating through six divisions, with offices across the UK, Europe, Canada, and Asia Pacific, Market International’s insuring entireties include Syndicate 3000 at Lloyd’s, and Markel International Insurance Company Limited. These write a broad range of coverages across Marine, Energy, Reinsurance, Casualty treaty, Property Treaty, Personal Accident, Contingency, Entertainment, Equine, Livestock, Professional and Financial Risk, Political Risk, and Surety.
Moving to a CMS
Following a competitive tender through late 2015 and early 2016, DOCOsoft was selected as the provider whose technology and service offerings responded most directly to Markel International’s claims management system (CMS) needs.
Following a remarkably smooth process of implementation, Markel went live on the DOCOsoft system in June 2016. Senior DOCOsoft people played a very hands-on role in the weeks and months leading up to and following go-live, to ensure Markel was able to work effectively with the system from Day One – continuously on hand to help with things like the setting for authority limits and classes of businesses.
A new way of working
Markel’s current Head of Claims Operations and Special Projects Dan Lofty joined the business at around this time. Having previously been with SCOR, another DOCOsoft client, Dan already had experience of the system. He remembers his fellow adjusters being very impressed with the look and feel of the new CMS. They immediately recognised the impact it would have on how they worked day to day.
Adopting the DOCOsoft CMS made a huge difference in terms of general file management. Its internal notes and diary systems proved crucial to the claims team’s ability to manage authority requests and peer reviews, making it easy to see the background, sequences and file history all in one place when viewing a UCR.
Dan notes that the seamless way in which the system’s infrastructure supports Write-Back was also transformative. Other immediate benefits included access to reporting tools, and intuitive, highly configurable search and filtering functionality, all of which dramatically improved the claims adjusters’ experience and effectiveness.
Before and after
Markel’s team of 50 adjusters, covering a dozen classes of business in the Lloyd’s and company markets, previously only had access to basic workflow and triaging functionality. This distributed technology configuration could only handle messaging for the Lloyd’s business written by Markel’s Syndicate 3000 – not company market claims or those from various legacy entities within the Markel organisation.
There was also a good deal of manual work required to enter claims on to the various component systems, directly into ECF, and on to Markel’s core system. This inevitably created the potential for re-keying errors. Working with a variety of data sources also made it harder to extract meaningful MI. An immediate benefit of going live with DOCOsoft was the ability to triage claims, internal notes, diaries, claim coding and authorities, all within a single system. This allowed greater visibility into how files were being managed. It also enabled the team to set a range of controls within DOCOsoft, rather than requiring time-consuming manual checks.
A close working relationship
Markel’s claims team soon established a good rapport with the team at DOCOsoft, quickly gaining confidence that they could simply pick up the phone or email DOCOsoft and get a rapid response to any queries or requests. In the years since Markel began working with DOCOsoft, its teams have continued to work closely together to ensure that the system responds to their changing needs and aspirations.
Regular account meetings between DOCOsoft service managers and key stakeholders at Markel provide a valuable forum in which to discuss forthcoming market opportunities and challenges – and to learn about new technologies under development at DOCOsoft.
On a day-to-day basis, having access to DOCOsoft people with previous experience of working with IT services provider DXC helped connect the dots between Markel, DOCOsoft and DXC.
Efficiency gains
Being able to manage authorities and authorisation requests through DOCOsoft reduces the need for email traffic and filing documents into Markel’s repository system. Every claims sequence that comes in is now automatically attached to a user profile, with the applicable controls around it. If it requires authorisation, it triggers a task that goes over to the relevant manager. This means that things move forward quickly, without the risk of anyone being able to agree something outside their authority.
When it comes to the quarterly peer reviews required by Markel’s internal controls and SOX controls, peer reviewers have to go in and check six files per adjuster. Being able to review all internal notes, diaries and triage coding within a single system (as well as the background and the sequences in the file history) is massively more efficient than dipping into multiple systems and checking back through emails to pull all that information together. So, the system isn’t just saving adjusters’ time – other stakeholders who rely on accessing claims data benefit too.
The path ahead
Looking to the future, Dan Lofty says he is keen to see a solution to the market-wide challenge of how to get broker advice and correspondence for manual (non-bureau) claims into claim files in a similar way to how this works with bureau claim transactions. Finding a way of bridging the gap in reporting and analysis between bureau and non-bureau claims will be the next big step forward for the market as a whole.
Dan notes that the people he interacts with across DOCOsoft show a very good understanding of the market Markel operates in, and are closely in touch with current and forthcoming developments in the market and the technology and regulatory issues around them. It also helps that DOCOsoft has so many clients in the same space, giving it real influence with market bodies and technology infrastructure providers.
The bottom line
“DOCOsoft have always shown a genuine concern to fully understand our evolving business needs as a customer and do everything they can to support us as we embrace new market initiatives like straight through processing and Blueprint Two. It’s reassuring to work with a technology partner that’s ready and able to adapt and evolve in an ever-changing digital world.”
– Dan Lofty, Head of Claims Operations and Special Projects, Markel International