Graham Newman, Product Marketing Manager, FINEOS
The final day of the conference began with a thought provoking talk from Chuck Johnson of Celent. The title of Chuck’s speech was Life Claims in the 21st Century: Connected Insurer and he talked about the changes happening in the life insurance markets and how these are reflected in changing claims processes and technologies. Chuck drew on his wide experience of research in all aspects of life insurance technology and business strategy and ranged across his subject matter taking in new regulation, the multi-channel commercial world and growing consumer power. He tied this all in to how claims management has to meet these demands but also how it can benefit from new opportunities. Chuck’s talk was packed with detailed information on the state of the Life markets in the US, the increasing regulations and how the insurers have to change to deal with customers better, to be more configurable and adaptable.
We had our final customer case study next. Bruce Crossett, of the Transport Accident Commission in Australia talked about the scope of the organisation and the changes they have gone through to make huge improvements in the lives of their clients. My colleague, Dave Matthews will be covering this presentation in a separate blog post.
This was followed after the break by two back-to back Product Roadmap updates. James Hehir took us through Customer Service and Better Claims Outcomes and Guy McClintock, Solution Architecture Team Lead, talked on Agility and Reduced Cost of Ownership.
In his first session James talked about the ‘science’ of claims handling, the mechanical aspects that must be done a certain, prescribed way such as calculations. In his second instalment James moved on to the ‘Art’ of claims handling showing how new developments in the FINEOS Claims system such as richer email integration can support claims handlers in drawing upon their experience to provide better customer service and improve outcomes.
Guy McClintock covered both recent and upcoming enhancements that enable greater agility in claims handling and also reduce the cost of ownership. He covered some highly specialised developments in FINEOS modules such as the new Web Services Composer framework, enhancements to various aspects of business rules configuration, improvements in document and template handling and the migration of the user and security provisioning Management Console module to within the web application. All of these enhancements have been designed to simplify and reduce the effort of integrating FINEOS into the wider IT ecosystem and continue to improve the claims handlers’ working environment.
Paul Barry, Head of Customer Management at FINEOS delivered the final session with a talk on Driving Operational Excellence. Paul returned the delegates’ focus to operational change that we had covered on the first day. He expanded upon the idea and introduced a framework that will facilitate FINEOS Solution Owners to re-imagine their current implementation and identify opportunities for quick wins, and to do so with a clear and tangible pathway for future transformation.
In closing the conference Michael Kelly drew attention back to the theme: “Putting the customer first: Driving innovation in claims” and said that FINEOS would be happy to keep that theme for all conferences as we have always put the customer at the centre of what we do. He thanked our customers, not just for attending the conference and making it the success it was but for their continued investment and advocacy. He reiterated FINEOS’ commitment to continue to listen to its customers and encouraged them to keep talking to us. We will be sending out an on-line survey next week for all delegates and this helps us to keep our conferences relevant and continue to improve them. All the presentations from the conference will be available to download for our clients. Finally, Michael thanked Alison Murphy for her tireless work in organising the conference.
So, the 7th Annual FINEOS Claims Summit drew to a close during the afternoon. As always, it was a blend of experiences; stimulating and interesting at all times and much more fun than a conference ought to be. Perhaps that’s down to the trust and friendship that has grown over the years between not only FINEOS staff and our customers but between the customers themselves, people whose business paths would not normally cross in the general run of things, but who have been brought together by the commonality of being users of the FINEOS Claims system. These are professionals who inhabit different worlds with widely differing environments, differing legislation, claimant expectations and demands and different lines of business. Their shared experiences however, are much greater than their differences. Despite coming from all corners of the globe and dealing with different claim demands they all strive for excellence, they all want to provide the best claims experience for their customers that they possibly can, the best service, the best advice and get the best outcomes. It is our mission at FINEOS to see they can do this with the best technology available.
The quality and variety of the external speakers has, once again, been first class. We have been provided with a fascinating insight into the potential of innovation and the benefits of great customer service that puts the customer at the centre of the claims operation.
The theme of “Putting the Customer First: Driving Innovation in Claims” is very timely. Claim handling is the ‘shop window’ of the insurance world – customers will judge insurers by the claims service they provide. Insurers now are vying with each other to provide the best customer service; as products converge the quality of service becomes the primary differentiator in the eyes of the consumer. It should be clear to all that the way insurers handle claims, the service they provide at that time defines their relationship with the customer. With consumer requirements changing faster than ever it is even more important to understand how innovation can lead to continued customer satisfaction.
I have said this before but it’s worth repeating here: If you are a FINEOS client who was not able to make it to this year’s conference, or are not currently a FINEOS client but may be considering working with us then I highly recommend that you consider making a date in your diary – whatever physical or electronic form that may take – to come to next year’s Claims Summit. Our clients choose the venue each year and I suspect that there will be a vote to return to Ireland again next year, but we shall see, the decision is in their hands.
The blend of challenging ideas and practical experience, the breadth of coverage across classes of business and the sheer, world-wide experience of senior insurance and claims executives from 40 organisations, over 10 countries, four continents and both hemispheres made this a uniquely valuable experience.
I hope we shall see you next year.
