Paper files work–carriers have used them successfully for decades–but Gray Insurance Co., a worker's compensation carrier with five offices in Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and Alabama, had reached the breaking point. "Historically, daily overnight packages [were being] sent between the branch offices and the main office, ensuring both copies of the file were in sync," says Carl Schneider, CIO. With paper flying in all directions, Gray decided last year the time was right for a change.
Schneider cites a half-dozen specific challenges the carrier hoped to address through an imaging and document management project: the ability to capture information more accurately; the availability of information in multiple locations concurrently; disaster recovery capabilities; standardization of workflow; reduction of paper files to reclaim floor space; and reduction in claims handling costs.
ImageRight was chosen by determining a list of functional and technical requirements, visiting industry trade shows, interviewing other insurance companies that shared the same size and product-line makeup, viewing product demonstrations, and making site visits. The information systems department acted as facilitator during the five-month search, but Schneider claims it was the end-users (claims, underwriting/policy, surety, etc.) and the carrier's executive management team who drove the decision-making process.
ImageRight offers what it calls a guaranteed success program to provide whatever resources are required to implement successfully the first workflow, explains Schneider. Those resources included project management, technical resources, and training. "Utilizing this process, we were able to implement the system in our claims department and go live a week ahead of schedule," he says.
One production issue the carrier ran into involved the connection with the branch offices. The ImageRight application is installed on the users' desktop and runs from a shared network. Running the application across a wide area network can be slow. "To date, the best solution around this obstacle is utilizing Microsoft Terminal Services or Citrix Services," Schneider says. However, all other applications that feed ImageRight also must run in the same Terminal Services session in order to utilize the drag and drop, print, and e-mail functions. "We are hoping version 4.0, which is a complete rewrite as a .NET application, will solve these problems for us," he says.
As an example of the efficiencies gained by the carrier, Schneider relates the old method for processing a check required the adjuster to fill out a paper check request, verify the appropriate reserves were available, note the check payment in the pay sheet at the front of the file, and place it on the corner of the desk to be picked up by the clerical staff.
The clerical staff would collect all claims files with payment requests and deliver them to the accounting department, continues Schneider. Accounting then would reverify reserves, enter the check information into the AS/400, print the check, make a copy for the file, and then place the file on a stack of processed files. The clerical staff then would pick up the file and deliver it back to the adjuster who originated the request.
Today, the adjuster verifies adequate reserves in the new browser-based claims system, fills out a check request form, and prints it to ImageRight, according to Schneider. A task is created for the accounting department and placed in the work queue. The next available accounting clerk picks up the task, reviews the electronic request, enters the check information into the AS/400, prints the check, notes the check number on the payment request, and completes the task.
ImageRight 3.4, the version used by Gray, is written as a client-server application. The desktop software installs on Windows, the executable and the image files reside in a Windows file system share, and the indexes reside in a Microsoft SQL Server database. ImageRight stores all images as separate one-page TIFF documents. The user doesn't have to wait for all 150 pages to load before being able to view the first page, adds Schneider.
Return on investment was not the driving force for the ImageRight implementation, he indicates. "Other factors drove this project, such as the accurate collection of data along with the ability to present the most recent version of a file to appropriate users, the ability to reclaim floor space, and the ability to survive another disaster," he says.
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