FBD Insurance Finds Shelter From the Claims Storm
FBD's new claims system withstood the challenge. "Four months later, we knew exactly where our book stood," Whelehan reports, adding that previously, the situation would have been unclear for much longer.
Yet a few kinks remained, Whelehan admits. For example, FBD "over-engineered" processes by dicing them into too many tasks, he says. "So we began amalgamating tasks after the first couple months."
Two other issues were technological, the least complicated of which FINEOS quickly fixed. The remaining challenge centered on a lack of summary screens. "FINEOS's greatest strength is capturing and managing mountains of data," Whelehan says. "The downside is that this creates many layers of screens — document screens, notes screens, contact screens, etc. — for each event level: claim, claimant and incident."
As a workaround, FBD built a custom summary screen. Meanwhile, FINEOS developed a more elegant solution, which is now available in the claims platform's most recent version.
Still, Whelehan says, the ongoing benefits are tremendous. "We're facing new Solvency II regulations and a new Irish consumer protection code," he says. "We'll be able to build most of the necessary tasks into the system. And we'll be able to engage with our third-party partners to automate data transfers between their system and ours."
He adds, "Best of all, we now proactively drive the claims life cycle, rather than reacting to customer inquiries. In retrospect, adopting FINEOS is probably the most adept move we could've made."
CASE STUDY SNAPSHOT
Company: FBD Insurance, a division of FBD Holdings (Dublin, Ireland; US$1.3 billion in total assets).Lines of Business: P&C.
Vendor/Technology: FINEOS (Dublin) Claims platform.
Challenge: Replace legacy claims system to ensure proactive claims management and processing.
[For more on the claims upgrades that Farm Bureau Financial and Millers Mutual are planning, IT, see Nathan Golia's related article.]
Anne Rawland Gabriel is a technology writer and marketing communications consultant based in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area. Among other projects, she's a regular contributor to UBM Tech's Bank Systems & Technology, Insurance & Technology and Wall Street & Technology ... View Full Bio
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