Scanning the System
Imaging and workflow solutions meant a huge reduction in the cycle time for a new life insurance policy to be issued.
Reduction was an important word for Empire Financial Group when the Canadian insurer began an imaging and workflow project. It hoped to reduce costs, reduce cycle times for new business, and reduce file handling. As Empire began to realize those reductions, it was able to increase some important aspects of the business process: capacity and the ability to manage workflow.
Prior to undertaking the project, Empire was completely paper based, according to Laurie Belisle, project manager. "We were processing new business from three physical locations, each with full mail, print, and file-storage capabilities," she says. At any point in time, Empire would have more than 2,700 active "paper" cases, filed in folders, either on a person's desk or in a cabinet and spread across the three geographic service locations, she adds.
Empire began an evaluation of imaging solutions/workflow vendors in the market. The carrier gathered data through the uses of questionnaires, vendor presentations, reference calls, and a site visit. "We used a decision-analysis methodology defining the evaluation criteria," notes Belisle. "Then we determined if the criteria was a must have [non-negotiable] or a want and rated it. Each potential solution vendor was rated."
The evaluation team was comprised of a project manager, a business expert, an underwriter who had worked on an imaging system before, the lead underwriter, a business unit trainer, a business systems analyst, a senior IT developer, an IT network/server expert, and a junior programmer/analyst. This team reported findings and its recommendation to a project steering committee consisting of directors from the lines of business and information systems.
Hyland Software and its OnBase product was selected in the fall of 2002, and Empire went live in April 2003. Belisle believes out-of-the-box functionality was a key factor in selecting OnBase because the carrier was able to satisfy a number of its requirements. She lists those qualities as system performance, adaptability, index capabilities from Empire's administration systems, Hyland's large customer base, and total cost of ownership.
Business users have access 24/7 to all documents for any case at all three Empire locations, Belisle indicates. "Work is shared and redistributed easily without the need to transfer physical files," she says. "There is increased accuracy through automation. Case information now is legible, as underwriting notes are typed, not handwritten."
Other employees echo those feelings.
"It has improved the effectiveness and efficiency of our two regional underwriting offices with the immediate delivery of documents for assessment," says Mary Treier, director of individual new business.
Ed Bettencourt, director of information systems development, adds, "The project introduced a significant change to both our business and systems teams."
Scanners and monitors were two areas Empire had to upgrade after the initial installation. "New technology, new processes result in unpredictable delays," says Belisle. "We originally had one scanner at each location; we now have two scanners at each location."
Empire's process back in 2002 really was inefficient, according to Sheila Kingston, director, new business operations, partly because the carrier had underwriters located in three different cities. She notes another problem was the carrier's volumes increased drastically in 2002, and it ended up having major service problems. At that time, the cycle time from application to policy issuance took 30 days for Empire. By 2004, it had cut the time to 17 days. "[OnBase] was partly credited for the improvement, but it wasn't the only thing," she says. "We re-examined how we were doing things. [OnBase] was an enabler. We were able to do the work that got us to this state."
"The key thing for us is everything is on a desktop. It can be shared," says Kingston. "We have underwriters in three offices–Montreal, Toronto, and Kingston–so anybody in those offices can share the work. Another key is you do not have to pass [paper] files around. You don't lose the documents." — Robert Regis Hyle
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