It's a request from the marketing department that sounds so simple: mail a billing insert to current monoline auto customers who have had good claims experience for at least the past five years thanking them for their business and offering them a discount on a package policy.

Unfortunately, that seemingly simple type of customer communication request presents a real challenge to fulfill in a typical insurance-systems environment. Instead of handling this process in one system, IT staff has to tap the policy-administration system to identify longstanding monoline customers, query the claims system for loss history and coordinate the billing system with document print-production systems.

The inability to easily create these and other types of communications that can drive revenue and increase the number of service touch points is rooted in insurers' siloed systems. Although companies have worked diligently over the last decade to eliminate silos in their core systems—integrating, creating common front-ends, replacing legacy systems with new and open technologies—they may not have paid close enough attention to what was happening outside of the core.

In areas such as document management, content management, customer relationship management (CRM), customer communication management (CCM) and others, insurers have tended to deploy department-centric applications, rather than enterprise solutions. These various systems don't easily talk to each other and frequently depend on their own data sources. Each works differently (even ones with the same purpose) and has a different user interface.

Not only is this inefficient, and not only does this risk alienating customers, but it's also a potential compliance problem. With each system preparing and handling documents in its own way—and some communications taking place outside the control of an auditable system—how can an insurer be completely certain it is following both internal guidelines and insurance regulations regarding customer communications?

A Non-Siloed Solution

Insurers are already seeing the benefits of consolidating core processing (i.e. policy, claims, and billing) for all lines of business on a common set of systems, and they should take a similar approach for customer communications as well. A consolidated platform will deliver key advantages in the areas of convenience, control, collaboration, consistency and compliance.

Convenience. Web-based technologies offer insurers a route to consolidating data sources—regardless of file type or format—for use by knowledge workers, making it available in one place, from a common interface. A modern communications platform is also convenient for customers and supports their delivery choices, including mobile. Customers expect to be able to receive and access information in any format and through any channel they choose—and to be able to change that choice whenever they wish. Providing that dynamic capability cannot be done in a siloed environment requiring individual system modifications and hard-coded calls. Additionally, since a web-based customer communications platform does not rely on locally installed software, it can be easily implemented either enterprise-wide or on an as-needed basis. An insurer could choose to implement the system as a pilot for one department or line of business and then expand it strategically throughout the enterprise as it proves its tactical advantages.
Control. An intuitive interface allows non-technical business users to take control of the design and preparation of customer communications. They can link data and content without knowing the source of either and without relying on IT staff. This dramatically reduces the time it takes to produce and deliver forms, letters, policies, premium notices, statements and other critical documents. In turn, this allows users to better control and manage the documents policyholders and agents depend on.
Collaboration. A web-based system—available anywhere, anytime and from any networked device—provides a collaborative environment with self-monitoring workflows that automate the design, editing, approval and production and multi-channel distribution of customer communications. Rather than relying on asynchronous email for collaboration, a consolidated platform allows multiple parties to the process to connect at the same time, in real time.
Consistency. Documents and forms are centralized, and controls ensure that they follow corporate guidelines consistently for design elements such as fonts, logo types and sizes, and other features. Any changes to those documents are made only through controlled workflows that incorporate necessary approval. Customer information is also consolidated, ensuring that not only the right document format is delivered, but that it contains correct and relevant information. Additionally, this centralized content can be readily repurposed and reused, allowing insurers to move quickly into new markets and respond to opportunity.
Compliance. In a siloed customer communications process, there is no reliable way to ensure that all forms and documents reflect regulations and guidelines, because documents are produced in different systems as well as outside those systems via email and desktop word processing. A platform that centralizes customer communications is the cornerstone to effective compliance. It also provides the checks, balances, and audit trails to track the lifecycle of every customer communication.

Given the current focus on customer centricity and the continued goals of streamlined operations, speed to market, organizational agility, and more, it's time for insurers to address the silos that impede effective customer communications. By taking the lessons learned in eliminating silos in core processing areas of their organization, insurers can target other areas of the enterprise as well and make a business case for investment in a consolidated customer communications solution that leverages the capabilities of today's web technology.

Without that investment, insurers' customer communication challenges will only grow as the systems environment becomes more complex and as customers' expectations for cross-channel consistency and convenience increase.

Special Reports /

Using a Web-Based System to Solve the Customer Communication Challenge

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