OneBeacon's Claims Contract

As part of an effort to eliminate the need for manually entering first-notice-of-loss-data received from its independent agent force via fax, Boston-based OneBeacon Insurance Group has awarded a contract to EasyLink Services Corp. (Piscataway, N.J.) for use of its claims solution. As a result of the agreement, electronic and paper ACORD (Pearl River, N.Y.) first-notice-of-loss-forms sent by OneBeacon's independent agents are received by EasyLink. Data is then converted to ACORD XML and populated into OneBeacon's claims processing system.

OneBeacon's Bob Woods, vice president, personal lines claims, was, "frankly, intrigued by the [EasyLink] product," he relates. "We had a large volume of claims, especially in Massachusetts, where we collect $220 million in premium." Prior to this solution, "we needed a large clerical staff to key claims information." The inefficient manual process led to slow response times.

"In yesterday's world, notices of loss would be coming in from agents" at all hours and after OneBeacon's clerical staff had already gone home for the day, Woods explains. "Now, EasyLink's claims system accepts notices 24 hours a day, seven days a week."