There is no shortage of statistics available for thegrowing popularity of mobile technology. Personally, the one Ifound most interesting is that every day, more than 3 million hoursare spent playing Angry Birds, a game that began its existence onthe iOS mobile platform. While no insurance app is ever going torival the popularity of flinging wingless birds at greenegg-stealing swine, insurers are counting on the power of mobile toimpact their claims operations.

“The mobile environment is rapidly evolving in terms of thenumber of devices, capabilities, and usage,” says Jill Rasmussen,assistant director of marketing Web development at Amica Insurance.“Mobile is a space our customers are in, so it's a space we need tobe in as well.”

Yet according to Karen Pauli, research director in the insurancepractice for TowerGroup, just a few years ago, insurers didn't havea claims strategy around mobile technology. In a 2007 report, shestated that insurers were “slowly” bringing on mobile technologysolutions to assist field workers with claims operations, notingthat “the process has lacked focus and forward momentum.”

Today, the situation has changed. “Since 2007, the majority ofcarriers have at least gotten engaged in creating strategies anddeveloping a holistic approach to claims mobility, whether foradjusters, customers, or both,” says Pauli.

Anand Rao, principal in PwC's Diamond Advisory Services,observes that the development of mobile is following the same pathof other Internet-enabled technology. Deployment starts withinformation delivery, evolves to include transactional features,and finally transforms insurers' operations.

“On the claims side, we have seen the most development of mobiletechnology around providing information, with carriers onlyrecently moving into the transactional arena,” Rao says. “Theopportunity for transformation is still in the future.”

Surprisingly, Pauli credits the coalescence around mobilestrategy with increased activity in legacy claims systemreplacement and rehabilitation. “Once you have a modern claimssystem, you have data that is usable and accessible to manyplatforms. You can create highly integrated claims processes thatinvolve mobile technology,” she says.

Consider Amica, where an upgrade of its back-end claims platformto Guidewire's ClaimCenter gave the company a foundation on whichit could build a customer-facing mobile claims app, deployed firstfor iPhone in 2010.

“We wanted a seamless experience for customers where they couldlog in [from a mobile device] and have minimal data entry on thefront end by prepopulating as much information as possible. On theback end, we wanted information that customers entered toautomatically populate the claims system without requiringrekeying,” says Lisa St. Onge, assistant vice president in claimsat Amica.

ClaimCenter uses the Guidewire's Web services API to make itpossible for external systems, like Amica's iPhone app, to createthat seamless connection, something that couldn't have beenachieved easily with the carrier's legacy claims platform.

THE MOBILE ADJUSTER

Insurers have two constituents to serve in deploying mobileclaims technology: adjusters and claimants. Adjusters are bydefinition mobile. For them, the value of technology lies indelivering the “3 Cs:” communication, collaboration, andconsolidation.

Key goals of communication in the claims space include theability to transmit claim assignments and information to adjustersinstantly and to eliminate adjusters' need to revisit the office tocomplete essential tasks. “We are seeing mobile technology beingused more and more by claims adjusters to perform tasks that wouldhave either been manually handled or would have required followups,” Rao says.

“This includes using smartphones or other devices at the spotwhere the loss occurred, getting additional information from thehome office, and communicating with third-party providers to handleclaims on the spot. That has a significant impact on shortening theclaims cycle,” he says.

Farmers recently completed a pilot iPhone program is planning ondeploying iPhones to all its field adjusters. John Radgowski, ITdirector for Web and mobile application at Farmers Insurance, seescommunication as a big benefit to the technology upgrade.

“We will integrate those devices with our dispatch system to getassignments and other directions to the smartphones. We can alsoget information back from adjusters in the field that we can use,such as notifying customers of the ETA of their adjuster. It'spowerful, bidirectional communication,” Radgowski says.

Mobile technology is also delivering enhanced colaborationcapabilities. “It's already standard operating procedure for mostcarriers to have mobile capabilities for adjusters to do necessaryclaims tasks, such as writing vehicle damage assessments or takingmeasurements and pictures. What is really going to make adifference is providing them enhanced access to collaborationplatforms, documents and files, even basic email—just allowing themto do business without having to get back to their land-basedoffice,” says Pauli.

“Insurers have discovered the value of mobile devices incollaboration in the claim process,” Rao says. For instance, anadjuster investigating a suspicious claim or a type of loss withwhich he is not familiar could use a phone's video recordingcapability to transmit footage from the loss site and collaboratewith home office staff or other experts in real time to get theright questions asked at the scene.

The third objective for insurers is deviceconsolidation—replacing a tape measure, camera, voice recorder,cell phone, and more with a single piece of technology. “The ideais that by using an iPhone, we can reduce the amount of equipmentin the field. That creates costs savings and efficiency,” saysRadgowski.

“Equipping [adjusters] with iPhones also has the potential forthe expanded use of business apps they'll have access to,” he adds.Farmers is developing a number of apps for its adjusters, whichRadgowski declines to detail for competitive reasons.

Insurers are currently in the evaluation stage regarding tabletcomputers, which have exploded in popularity in the consumer marketin recent years. According to an April 2011 report by Gartner,sales of tablets such as Apple's iPad will more than quadruple from15 million worldwide in 2010 to 70 million in 2011 and nearly 300million in four years.

“We believe they [tablets] can potentially replace laptops, butright now ruggedness is a challenge,” says Mark Hofmann, claimstechnology manager at Esurance. “Currently, we use ruggedizedlaptops that work well for us. Being outside, on the job site, orout in the weather are considerations of usage that we need totake.”

“We use iPads heavily in our claims training, but we haven'tfound a way to ruggedize them for the field,” says Radgowski. “Atsome point, I can envision all our field reps having a tablet as asupplement to their laptop, but the heavy data entry will probablystill be done via laptop.”

There are ways to deploy tablets in rough applications. In thesecondary market, there are any number of rugged tablet cases,including ones made by OtterBox, Hard Candy, and Trident that arepopular with construction firms.

Yet the future of tablets—whether iPads, Android-based, orWidows-based devices—in claims departments remains unclear. “Themobile tools of the trade in claims still tend to be the phone andlaptop,” Pauli says.

THE MOBILE CUSTOMER

Some have questioned whether it pays to develop mobile claimstechnology—either mobile-optimized Web sites or downloadablesmartphone apps—for a process that most people will do, hopefully,very infrequently. However, the University of South Carolina's i3program, which studies the insurance technology industry, predictsthat in the near future both smart-phone apps and mobile Websiteswill be capable of a full range of insurance transactions, fromquoting and buying insurance to making claims.

“The number of transactions on the claims side is low comparedto the number of other activities customers are doing,” Rao says.“But if you look at the value of having a claim adjudicated morequickly because of being able to file a first notice of loss orcollect claim data via mobile, it can have a significant impact onthe value customers perceive they obtain from a company.”

“Insurers may get more bang for their buck with adjuster-focusedtechnology, but they get more marketing flash with customer-focusedapps,” Pauli says.

Esurance currently allows glass claims to be reported via itsmobile app, available for iPhone, Android, and Windows 7 devices.The app provides a seamless process for both customers andEsurance, with claim and coverage data automatically transmitted tothe insurer's glass repair partner, HSG.

Currently, 12 percent of all claims reported by Esurancecustomers using online channels are glass claims processed throughmobile devices. However, the company remains cautious of extendingmobile reporting to other lines. The issue, according to Hofmann,is that customers are not claims adjusters.

“We want to ask enough questions so that we can intelligentlyprocess the claim, yet not make it a frustrating experience forcustomers,” he says. “We have a top-notch claims reporting processfor customers according to JD Power, and we don't want to impactthat. We don't want someone to spend 20 minutes enteringinformation into a mobile phone to begin a claim or, worse yet,entering that and then having to give more information to a callcenter rep just to get started.”

Hofmann says that Esurance customers have expressed greaterinterest in receiving claims status updates via mobile than inreporting claims. “Nobody enjoys having a claim, but they enjoyreceiving and even sharing claim status,” he says.

Customers can use Esurance's Repair-View functionality via asmartphone app or mobile Website to get status updates andestimated completion dates of repairs in real time, receive andview photos of car repairs in progress, and send those pictures tofriends via email or Facebook. Customers can email the car repairshop directly for more information or call the shop or their claimsadjuster with the push of a button.

“We're constantly looking for ways to provide more, and moreeffective, communication and collaboration through mobile devices.We're also looking for logical extensions of capabilities to mobiledevices, such as e-signatures and real-time notifications,” Hofmannsays.

ON THE OTHER HAND

Other carriers have jumped feet-first into the world of mobileclaims reporting. Farmers—known for its fleet of high-tech MobileClaims Center busses—allows customers to initiate a claim foreither auto or home using its Farmers iClaim app for iPhone,Android, or Blackberry devices. First released in October, 2009,iClaim was developed fully in house by Farmers in about 90 days.The current version was released in early 2011.

Customers use iClaim to enter basic loss information and contactdetails. That information flows back to Farmers' first notice ofloss system, which triggers a callback by a Farmers HelpPointservice agent to the customer. That call happens within 15 minutes,according to Radgowski.

Policyholders can also submit driver and vehicle information andupload photos of the accident or property damage. The iClaim appalso includes a three-dimensional modeling component, where userscan tap on a rotatable vehicle image to indicate areas of damageand provide additional detail.

Future upgrades of iClaim will include electronic funds transfer(EFT) integration, which will enable policyholders to take apicture of a voided check to enroll in EFT for claim payment. Thecompany is also working with several of its third-party vendors,including towing and glass companies, to create tighter integrationfor push-button data transfer capability between the phone and therepair provider.

In November 2010, Amica launched its iPhone app, developed forthe insurer by Five Mobile. That launch was followed by a launchfor Blackberry and Android platforms in January 2011.

The app project was driven by the claims department. “Claims wasthe first proponent of going into the mobile app space,” St. Ongereports. “We also wanted customers to be able to have claimscapabilities in a connected or unconnected state. Customers whohave just had an accident, for example, can collect informationfrom the other driver even they are offline and then send thatinformation to Amica when they establish connectivity.”

Amica's app lets customers file an auto claim for physicaldamage, theft, towing, glass, or injuries. Homeowners claims can befiled for property damage or personal injury. Web services prefillpolicy data to the app, and integration with ClaimCenter generatesa claim number and returns it instantly to the customer after a newclaim is submitted.

Amica's app also lets claimants enter detailedinformation—screen after screen of it—about a claim using eithertext input or voice recorder. This information isn't required, butcustomers tend to complete it. “We are impressed with the detailand quality of information being provided,” St. Onge says. “Ourexperience is that we are getting many photos of vehicle damage,which gives the claim handler a good starting point.”

BENEFITS

But just how well used are mobile claims apps? For Amica, it'stoo soon to say. “We've been pleased with the results, but the appis fairly new,” Rasmussen says, declining to state specific usagefigures.

Even with its suite of capabilities, Farmers' iClaim is usedinfrequently: just a few claims a week on average, or a handful aday if there is a severe weather event. Claims reported via iClaimare split about 50/50 between auto and home.

That doesn't surprise Pauli. “Let's face it. If someone has hada serious claim, they want to talk to somebody,” she says. ” Firstnotice of loss on a phone, that's good, but you have to developapps with an eye toward practical functionality.”

But Radgowski says the ancillary benefits of iClaim to Farmersshould not be underestimated. “There are several parts of the valueproposition,” he says. “We wanted to give adjusters a legup—another tool to use. There's also a marketing value to havingthe app out there. And on the backside, it gives us the ability tocollect more information on a claim.”

That last benefit points to a growing future of using mobiletech to help in claims investigation. “From the insurers' point ofview, mobile capabilities can make a big dent in the loss cost byproviding more claim detail and by shortening the length of time ittakes to process a claim,” Rao says.

“By receiving additional information from customers up front, itcertainly improves our overall efficiencies in claims handling,”St. Onge says.

Rao says customer-facing mobile claims technology also has abenefit to fraud-fighting. “There is padding that occurs in claimsbecause people go back home, talk to friends and family, and thenslightly exaggerate their claims,” he explains. “That padding canbe reduced if more people will use the mobile device to collectinformation on the spot about the extent of damage.”

Rao also sees promise in the application of additional mobiletechnology, such as augmented reality and telematics, to fieldclaims adjusting. Augmented reality (AR) refers to overlayingadditional information onto a real set of data when seen throughthe camera on a mobile device.

“You might have an accident scene where you take a picture ofthe license plate and an AR app overlays information regarding thevehicle, insured, and other information,” Rao says.

For instance, in a home claim, a user could take pictures ofdamaged content or property and be able to overlay that withinformation about the replacement value for content as well as thelocation of the closest retailer. However, that technology is stillin the developmental stage.

“Currently, no one has written software specifically forinsurance, but we have seen it in other applications,” Rao says,such in travel apps that overlay identification and navigationinformation on a real-world view.

Rao believes that telematics, being explored by some insurersfor underwriting and policy rating, will move into claims thanks tosmartphones and other mobile devices.

“On one hand, we will see more telematics capability embedded invehicles and other equipment. On the other, mobile technology addsgeospatial information to the equation,” he says. “That will startto play into claims analytics and litigation. There is thepossibility of using a telematics device to reveal not just thespeed of the car, but its precise location at the moment ofloss.”

GOING FORWARD

“The mobile channel is becoming one additional channel forclaims filing and processing,” Rao says. “However, it will takesome time for people to get used to filing claims by using a mobileapp.”

The i3 program projects that, by the end of 2011, more than 1billion people around the world will own smartphones or othermobile devices such as tablet computers, noting that mobiletechnology is already altering customer expectations around manyinsurance processes, including claims. This points to the growingimpact mobile technology will have on insurers' claimsoperations—and the potential of a widening rift between the mobilehaves and have-nots.

“There are still carriers out there that give adjusters a cellphone and an estimating tool and say good luck. Others are stilldoing paper estimates and having to reenter them,” Pauli says.“Those carriers are the furthest behind in mobile technology, butthey also have the most to gain from making the investment init.”