Associates Insurance Company
transition to a paperless environment
Associates Insurance Company is a specialty commercial lines carrier providing select coverages to the trucking
industry. They wanted to maximize the benefits of moving their
insurance operations functions to an integrated paperless environment.
They engaged the Robert E. Nolan Company to redesign their business
processes and assist them in implementing the new design.
A recent merger and a pending relocation escalated
the time frame for implementing an imaging/workflow system. Since the
company’s new facility could not accommodate their existing volume
of paper files, one goal was to eliminate the need to move the files
to the new location.
An existing imaging/workflow system, used by
another area of the company, represented one alternative. However, the
functionality, technical features and potential costs of operating
this system for commercial lines had never been explored. Nolan was
asked to find and evaluate an alternative system if the existing one
did not represent a good fit.
Other key goals of the project were to enhance cash
handling, facilitate faster turnaround of new business and renewals,
improve claims handling and reduce operational costs.
Approach & Strategy
The project began with a discovery phase: a
cost/benefit analysis, a technical evaluation and a comparison of
essential user requirements to the existing imaging/workflow software.
This determined whether the current system would effectively address
the organization’s future business needs. Once a decision was
reached to proceed with the existing software, an analysis and
redesign of existing processes was initiated to lay the groundwork for
the imaged processing environment.
Management selected cross-functional teams to
examine over 150 existing processes and determine the changes
necessary to support the enhanced environment. The areas evaluated
included: Claims, Underwriting and New Business, Policy Processing and
Customer Service, and Cash Management.
Nolan’s workshop process was used to facilitate
the evaluation, design and implementation of approved recommendations.
In some cases, implementation took place simultaneously with the new
design.
A conversion team was also formed to define, plan
and prepare a process for converting all existing documents to images.
This allowed both major initiatives to be ready and implemented at the
same time. Additionally, a customer survey was conducted which
verified that the things being changed were the "right"
things.
Management and members of the design teams worked
together to develop staffing requirements and performance measures to
support the proposed new operating environment. Nolan developed models
that could be used for future staffing analysis.
Results
Associates Insurance Company successfully made the
transition to a paperless environment in only seven months. Project
results include:
Keys to the project’s success included management committed to change on a well-designed, aggressive timetable, employee
involvement from every level in the evaluation, design and
implementation, and team members open to improvement opportunities
hidden in every process.
Associates Insurance Company is now positioned to compete more
effectively, and to grow without a proportionate increase in operating
expense while continuing to provide excellent service to its
customers.
