Claims Gets Its Piece of the IT Pie
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Claims has long waited its turn at the table for technology investment dollars, but recent trends suggest the fortunes of claims departments are improving. Organizations that take a strategic view of claims technology—and can articulate the benefits to those who hold the purse strings—are best positioned to get their fair share of the budget pie.
As the “money out” side of the business, claims has long struggled to gain the budget attention of the “money in” side.
“Claims has always been at the end of the line when it comes to spending because for years, the more compelling places to put investment were producer portals, new business functionality in policy administration systems, or other sales-focused systems,” says Donald Light, director of Celent’s Americas Property/Casualty practice. “The challenge for claims has been to articulate the business value created by claims projects and to get closer to its fair share of IT investment resources.”
Those drivers include better decision-making, reduced claims leakage through faster settlement, intelligent claims assignment, and other advantages gained through modern claims systems that impact the bottom line. They also include objectives that target top-line growth, such as improved customer service that leads to increased retention and new sales.
“Companies with a strategic view of claims see the connection between claims and increased brand awareness and building customer loyalty. They see the potential for expense management, using analytics to reduce loss payments, and reserving adequately so they can deploy capital elsewhere,” says Frank Petersmark, CIO advocate at consultancy X by 2. “However, it takes the right sort of person to articulate those benefits and frame the conversation in the right sort of way.”
Read original articleTags: Claims, technology investment dollars
