By Stewart Steel, Chief executive officer, Europe Middle East & Africa
The global pandemic caused some organisations to take a closer look at their operating model.
Many are pursuing a simplified, more agile and flexible business structure that empowers a fast, seamless response to changes in local or global market conditions. This is making business process outsourcing (BPO) increasingly popular. Subcontracting non-core activities allows companies to place a greater emphasis on strategic focus. Variable rates replace fixed, in-house overheads. Staff recruitment, training and management, office space, technology, surge events – they all become someone else’s problem. And the end result? A significant improvement to the bottom line.
One source of truth
There must be hundreds of teams around the world, all processing thousands of identical types of claims for customers on behalf of various insurers, brokers and MGAs. This presents a tier of effort and administration that potentially could be handled remotely by experts who have the skills and experience to understand and manage this work with equal, if not more, efficiency.
Centralising these activities and outsourcing them to an organisation with the right culture, infrastructure and specifically designed systems can provide obvious economies of scale. And there’s a myriad of other benefits – greater purchasing power, priority response from within the supply chain, and wider claims management team support, particularly during surge.
One of the greatest concerns about outsourcing is losing control of customer data and accurate management information (MI), but the reverse is true. When all claims data is managed in real time and held securely on one system – you create ‘one source of truth’. Then, through readily available MI and incisive analysis, you can vastly improve the business overview on total cost of risk and quickly identify new trends and claims spikes.
A personalised approach
Everyone is better connected in today’s internet-enhanced world and claims customers have come to expect convenient web-based, self-service options through automated, user-friendly portals. That’s why we’ve invested heavily in real-time digital platforms that can be used universally while creating a personalised customer experience for each insurer or broker client.
Behavioural science techniques can influence and design all customer-facing activities – from general correspondence to how we engage online. Smarter communications and intelligent process design speeds up administration, reducing the time to conclude claims by 37% and operational effort by 15%. This delivers better outcomes for everyone.
A new vision
Without question, BPO frees up resources — enabling companies to concentrate funds and effort on core business development. Claims and risk management is our strategic focus. And we continue to invest in our systems and colleague development programmes to help all clients achieve their business objectives. Our fresh vision is to improve our clients’ bottom line and make claims easy to navigate for everyone.