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Table of Contents – Categories in this BLOG
Category 2 – Imagine Series
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ROI Series Part 10: The Joy of Changing Lives Through Technology
Here is a link to a blog I wrote for Riskonnect. It is an interesting take on Return on Investment. Sometimes we measure the ROI on how it affects the core processes. But how often do we measure the downstream efficiency and customer satisfaction of the “field operators” on our organization. This is a story of the joy of changing the lives of those “out there!”
https://riskonnect.com/about-us/company/blog/joy-changing-lives-through-technology/
Miscellaneous Rant- If you put your clients first, the rest usually takes care of itself
As the former President of Risk Sciences Group and CIO of Crawford & Company, I took a keen interest in a recent press release indicating that my former company was exiting the “unbundled” RMIS business. While there was an underlying sadness to see a once great RMIS company moving in a different direction, I was not surprised at this move from a business perspective. I speculated that given the relative size of RSG compared to the parent company, and the expenses required to keep a legacy RMIS system on the cutting edge, why not use RSG’s real strength (great people providing great support) to enhance the offerings of the much larger parent. I see this as a good strategic move from Crawford’s point of view.
I was confused, however, by one aspect of RSG’s “client-only” press release that seemed out of sync with the heart of the RSG that I knew. The announcement indicated that RSG had taken the liberty of deciding which system their clients should move to and had, in fact, arrange incentives to make sure their client base went to their preferred vendor. In fact, there was language in the memo that if a client even compared RMIS vendors in a new system search, the incentives would be immediately rescinded and that RSG would pull some of their transition support services off the table.
This was curious to me and made me wonder “Why would a company seem to care more about the number of its clients transitioning to the new vendor than about taking care of the ultimate RMIS needs of their client base?” I will not speculate here other than to say that there seems to be a benefit in place that makes volume very important for RSG. To me – that doesn’t sound like a client centric approach. As a former RSG’er and Crawford-ite, I can only hope that the client’s needs are first and foremost in this transition. To say that all of one’s clients are best suited to one vendor would indicate that this preferred vendor, in open market competition, would be the winner in 100% of their head to head competitive sales opportunities. I know for a fact that this is not even close to the case. I hope those RSG clients who are not interested in being forced into a pre-determined box will be able to secure good treatment from their current RMIS vendor over the course of this transition. I know some of these clients personally and I know that there are better options for the more strategic and complex among them.
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Miscellaneous Rant -Risk Manager Ranked as a Top Job in America – That Shouldn’t be a Surprise
Here is a BLOG post that I submitted to the Riskonnect BLOG. It’s about the grand state of Risk Management in America as we open 2017. Check it out!
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Imagine Series – Organized Claim Best Practices Audits
“Claim Best Practices” audits work fine in Excel spreadsheets. But what do you do with them from an analytical standpoint. And what about the actual capturing of the data? How easy is it to generate a random sample of claim, ask the right questions and capture the right answers. Imagine a system that allows the auditor to enter filters (e.g. all Texas claims with lost time plus all claims that have large reserve changes plus claims that stayed open for more than 3 months etc.) and then push a button to generate a random subset of claims to be added to the audit. Additional filters can be applied and additional random subsets are added to the overall list.
This list of claims is automatically imported to the audit scoring system and the Claim Auditor scores each custom question for each claim. The scoring system allows for weighting and will run as a touch app on any mobile device. The system generates detailed audit score and summary reports. In fact, full, professional looking audit presentations can be generated by one click of the mouse.
This technology exists today and makes a claim audit about as simple as it can be.
Imagine Series – Risk Management makes it easy for its network to collaborate.
If you ever sat down and mapped out communication between Risk Management and “other parties” you would probably be shocked at the extensiveness of the network. Besides the usual suspects like claimants, carriers, brokers, adjusters, and attorneys, what about the driver that needs an Auto ID Card, an event planner that needs a Certificate of Insurance, a Bond requester or someone requesting a contract review and so on and so on.
E-mails, phone calls, letters… it can be a confusing mess. Maybe you outsource some of these requests and it gets even more complicated. Let’s say, for example, that you typically route certificate request to the broker. Of course you could use the brokers “online” system for that one but how does the person in the field remember to do that?
Imagine a solution where Risk Management has the capability to publish a branded “Request Center” which provides a simple way to enable your entire organization to connect to your Risk Management Department. By guiding them through the request process, you can collect the right information the first time. Requests are logged in a Request Center database and can be triaged, automatically routed if necessary, placed in the responsible party’s diary or approval que, statuses updated, and solutions documented.
The specific information you collect can be tailored to your needs:
Some examples might include…
- Contract Review Request
- Report Request
- Property Update Request
- Bond Request
- Certificate of Insurance Request
- OSHA Log Request
- Incident Report
- Training module request
- Instructions on a topic
- Etc. Etc.
- Other/Miscellaneous request
The good news is that this technology already exists and is being used in the “real world”.
ROI Series Part 9 – Process Efficiency
In this series, we are focusing on ways in which a Risk Manager can add value to the bottom line of his or her organization using RMAP technology. These avenues of added value include: lower cost, asset protection, revenue enhancement and competitive advantage through better management of tactical and strategic Risk.
Lower Cost: Today’s BLOG will focus on efficiency achieved through the use of RMAP technology.
Case in Point: State Government Department of Risk Management
A western state implemented their RMAP(1) in November 2010. The implementation consisted of four phases. The following general capabilities were included in the four phases:
Policy Renewal Process Automation Enhancements
- Outgoing Certificates Automation
- Division of Facilities and Construction Integration
- Claim Administration Enhancements
- Loss Control Enhancements
- Fleet Incident Integration
- Excess Carrier Reimbursement Management
- Custom Business Intelligence Analytical Report
Phases 1-3 completed projects:
- RMIS (risk management information system) Implementation – June 2011
- Attorney General Billing Integration – September 2011
- Financial System Integration – September 2011
- Data Warehouse Reconciliation- September 2011
- Fleet Integration – September 2011
- State and School Contacts / Property / Vehicles / Premium Renewal Database Conversion – July 2012
- Claim Administration Enhancements – July 2012
- Workers Comp Integration- January 2013
Results in current annual savings:
- Premium Billing Process: $1 million through the discovery of cumulative premium under billing, due to incorrect calculations in previous database
- Financial system integration: $22,100 and 82% increased efficiency in processing high dollar payments (from 17.1 days to 1 day).
- Attorney General (AG) integration: $7,200 and 93% increased efficiency in processing payment of bills (from 29.3 days to 2 days).
- Data Warehouse Reconciliation: $4,420 from 5 hours a week to no time because of complete automation.
- Contact Database: Significant man-hour savings due to elimination of double data entry.
- Web access to RMIS from field saves trips to office and speeds up time to generate reports (too early for exact metrics).
The state Risk Fund managed by the Division of Risk Management insures State government agencies, school districts, institutions of higher education and charter schools. The Fund insures:
- Over $28 billion worth of property
- Over 7,000 buildings
- Over 13,000 vehicles
- Liability coverage for over 120,000 employees
And, the Division offers claims adjusting, loss control services, insurance procurement and policy management.
The State Division of Risk Management recognized that several work processes were siloed. It was in need of a better reporting, communication, and workflow tools; and improved integration of all business processes, databases and systems in one place. Additionally, regarding the insurance renewal process, the DRM also struggled with paper/manual data updates, a manual billing process, cumbersome and manual reporting processes and the fact that history was not retained in one database, but rather, in a series of four separate Access databases. The DRM was forced to manually piece reports together every year for reporting.
The RMAP solution implemented offered a reliable platform to handle all insurance and claim related responsibilities, data accuracy and reporting – in a way that was not previously available before for the State.
In addition, the RMAP features of the system automated further processes to connect and interface with even more groups within the organization:
- Division of Finance for payments to claimants
- Attorney General for legal expenses
- Division of Facilities and Construction for better property information management
All of these new interfaces eliminated formerly disjointed data from disparate sources. The result:
- Significant cost savings
- Improved sharing of data
- Consistency in data
- More accurate reporting
- Better analysis for improving operations
- Better understanding of exposures
“It was truly remarkable to achieve so much ROI in such a short period of time!”
ROI Series Part 8 – Business Continuity
In this series, we are focusing on ways in which a Risk Manager can add value to the bottom line of his or her organization using RMAP(1) technology. These avenues of added value include: lower cost, asset protection, revenue enhancement and competitive advantage through better management of tactical and strategic Risk.
Asset protection: Today’s BLOG will focus on Business Continuity.
With today’s alert technology, an organization with widely distributed properties and multi-tiered suppliers can establish protocols for reacting to multiple disaster scenarios worldwide. The key to this genre of technology is a system that can poll the world in real or near-real time for dozens of event types (e.g. Earthquakes, Windstorms, Floods, Political Unrest, Pandemic, Bio-hazard, etc.) and automatically make decision based on the pre-established rules for locations in the “impact zone.” Not only can the system be set up to automatically inform of any potential damage, but can be set up to implement disaster recovery plans, contact employees through SMS text message and provide statistics on property values at risk and potential supply chain disruptions (along with the impact of those disruptions)
Assuming that we have done our BCP homework, the system may trigger notification to alternative suppliers that our mutual contingent contract for vendor replacement is now in force. The ROI on this solution includes, in the extreme, the survival of the organization.
ROI Series Part 7 – Property Renewal Efficiency
In this series, we are focusing on ways in which a Risk Manager can add value to the bottom line of his or her organization using RMAP technology. These avenues of added value include: lower cost, asset protection, revenue enhancement and competitive advantage through better management of tactical and strategic Risk.
Lower Cost: Today’s BLOG will focus on property renewal efficiency.
Using today’s technology to drive efficiency in property values collection, property risk management can now accomplish a process that typically takes weeks in only a few days. The key is to use the new technology’s ability to “push” out request for information (values, exposure, etc.) and allow field personnel to respond with just a few clicks (and at no additional cost). Through time-based workflow, the technology can also monitor the collection process – escalate when someone doesn’t respond and trigger additional workflow once everyone has completed their input (e.g. sending a renewal package to the Broker). The ROI comes in two forms: 1) the efficiency of converting a two week manual process to a two day automated process and 2) the accuracy that one is able to achieve by using reasonability checks and approval processes. The extra time you now have to analyze your values vis-a-via your policy limits and craft a story for the underwriter should yield better premium rates as well. In our next blog, we will actually see a Case in Point that illustrates this.
ROI Series Part 6 – Property Loss Control Follow-up
In this series, we are focusing on ways in which a Risk Manager can add value to the bottom line of his or her organization using RMAP technology. These avenues of added value include: lower cost, asset protection, revenue enhancement and competitive advantage through better management of tactical and strategic Risk.
Asset Protection: Today’s BLOG will focus on a property loss control recommendations.
One of the areas that have historically been missing in a proactive Property Loss Control program is an effective means of recording, monitoring and modeling the savings on Property Loss Control recommendations. In other words, we spend a lot of time doing Property Loss Control Audits, we submit our reports and recommendations, sometimes our recommendations are accepted, but what happens next. How do we monitor the implementation of the recommendations and then monitor that the recommendation is continuing to be updated over time.
A good RMAP(1) should come standard with all of this functionality at no extra cost. You shouldn’t have to go out and purchase an expensive stand-alone system to accomplish effective Property Loss Control follow-up and monitoring. Using task and diary management features along with the RMAP’s powerful workflow and a system function called “related list”, a Property Loss Control manager is able to completely manage this process from the initial property audit (including mobile audit tools) all the way through remediation and measurement of the impact.
Combining recommendations, claim financials, premium and values in the same system provides a perfect opportunity for modeling loss avoidance – a very difficult task. While it is obviously difficult to measure the absence of an event, the ROI on solid Property Risk Control is typically something Senior Management “gets.”
(1) RMAP = Risk Management Automation Platform (this is not an official term… I just made it up)
ROI Series Part 5 – Managed Return To Work
In this series, we are focusing on ways in which a Risk Manager can add value to the bottom line of his or her organization using RMAP technology. These avenues of added value include: lower cost, asset protection, revenue enhancement and competitive advantage through better management of tactical and strategic Risk.
Lower Cost: Risk Manager’s typically have influence in three cost categories. 1) Pre-Loss, 2) Point of Loss and 3) Post Loss. Today’s BLOG will focus on a workers’ compensation post-loss item… Return to Work.
Once a workers’ compensation claim has occurred, control is usually transferred to the medical community. There are certain regulations in place that allow a payer to have some level of control but the two main direct cost in WC are medical and indemnity. Consequently, one of the strongest tools to assist the medical community in controlling cost and advancing rapid healing is a robust “Return to Work” program. But since these programs required extreme levels of management, complex levels of paperwork and collaboration with a large team of individuals (some with conflicting incentives) a strong RMAP(1) is a must to achieve the potential savings. Fortunately, there is technology available to automate the entire RTW process, including real-time electronic extracts of disability guidelines, predictive modeling and monographic information about the injury. The system uses workflow to produce, distribute and receive information electronically, manage all of the forms and regulatory reports in a paperless environment and tracks all transitional duty workers as they move from injury, to transitional duty, to full MMI and Return to full duty. No injured worker gets lost in the shuffle and the result is OPTIMAL movement through transitional duty to full duty at the LOWEST COST POSSIBLE. One health care provider saw average lost time severity go from $1,200 per claim to $500 per claim on an apples to apples evaluation date basis. That’s about a 58% savings! (The system even calculates savings over the predictive model on every case)
Run Away From Old Technology! 