Cut the paperwork and insurance soars

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Published on the 19/10/2017 | Written by Fujifilm

AT A GLANCE

INDUSTRY

Insurance and Risk Assessment Services

BUSINESS OBJECTIVE

Mobility solution to support rural insurance services
Mobility solution to support fire inspection services

SOLUTION

Aon Rural Application, a mobility solution using Intelledox
Aon Fire Inspection Tablet

BUSINESS BENEFITS

Aon Rural Application – 15 percent productivity increase
Aon Fire Inspection Tablet Solution – 15 percent productivity increase; reports issued in 2 days instead of 4 weeks to 2 days
Business growth powered by improved efficiency

FOR MORE INFORMATION

FUJIFILM Business Innovation
W: FUJIFILM Business Innovation
New Zealand
E: kevin.ptak.pc@fujifilm.com
T: +64 21 275 4321

How Fuji Xerox worked with Aon to digitise key field processes, improve customer service and drive better results…

When the time came to look for more efficient ways of delivering rural and fire inspection insurance services, Aon New Zealand turned to Fuji Xerox for the digitisation of previously paper-heavy processes. As a result, the insurer today delivers quotes and cover faster, with reduced administrative overhead, and vastly improved customer service. Even the brokers benefit from easier-to-use systems and rapid results.

Aon New Zealand is a leading provider of insurance broking, risk management and HR consulting services. It works with a diverse range of customers at the local, regional and national level.

Jonathan Cook, Information Technology Manager for Aon, said, “We started on a new technology journey about three years ago, and were looking for partners who would become an extension of our team. Fuji Xerox fitted the bill because of our 20-year business history with them, and the work they’d been doing in the insurance sector.”

Situation
Aon’s insurance broking service to rural clients relied heavily on dedicated brokers, who made personal visits to collect the information needed to price and prepare a proposal. It was a paper-heavy, manual process that Aon wanted to transform.

“We had challenges to solve in the rural industry, and a vision of how to do that,” said Cook.

“One of the main issues was the speed of data collection. Our brokers might be out on the road visiting clients for days on end. Over that time, they’d collect all this handwritten information, which they’d carry around until they made it back to their offices. Only then could they finally copy the information into our two insurance rating engines and prepare a quotation.”

The manual process meant that Aon took a week or more to provide rural clients with proposals; it recognised that a mobility solution, with brokers inputting data directly into an application and providing on-the-spot ratings for the client, would be far more effective. That way, different premium and excess options could be discussed with the client at the time. Decisions can be made instantly, rather than weeks later.

At the same time, Aon’s ISO17020 accredited fire inspection services which verify Building Act compliance to qualify for insurance cover, were also paper-based. Inspectors made extensive hand-written notes as they moved from room to room and floor to floor, recording issues or faults to remedy.

They usually visited a series of sites before returning to the office. This meant it could take several days before their extensive notes were handed over to the administration team to enter into Aon’s system and generate a report. The entire process – inspection, preparing the report, producing invoices for services – could take up to four weeks.

Solution
Together, Fuji Xerox and Aon developed the Rural Application solution, making engagement with rural clients faster and more rewarding for broker and customer alike. Aon brokers capture client information directly onto a form on a tablet, generating instant electronic insurance quotes.

Options can be discussed there and then. This level of professionalism works to strengthen client trust in Aon, leads to quicker decisions and, in many cases, increased revenue. Rural Application also generates a processing sheet for the Aon processing hub which automatically completes all the back-end ‘paperwork’. Brokers only need to collect the client’s signature and head to the next appointment.

For the fire inspection services, Aon and Fuji Xerox developed a tablet-based mobility solution which includes easy-to-use smart-form questionnaires to which inspectors can attach digital photographs. Now, official findings go back to the office via the tablet on completion of the inspection. The application automatically generates a report – which is reviewed, rather than compiled, by the administration team – reducing the time to generate reports from four weeks to two days.

“The whole process is so much quicker now,” said Cook. “Our inspectors don’t need to worry about doing the administration side of the job. They just concentrate on completing the form on their tablet. Our admin team can quickly review and electronically dispatch the report and the invoice to the client.”

Results
Aon’s rural brokers are now more efficient, and don’t have a daunting pile of paperwork to face after a week of travelling the rugged rural backroads of New Zealand; the company estimates the Rural Application has already delivered at least a 15 percent boost to broker productivity. “The streamlined workflow processes behind the app have halved the number of manual steps required to generate, modify and present quotations and options,” said Cook. “It’s effectively consolidated a week’s worth of work down to just a few days. The quality of the brokers’ reports has improved significantly, and the data they’ve collected is far more consistent.”

“The streamlined workflow processes behind the app have halved the number of manual steps required to generate, modify and present quotations and options.”

As requests for fire inspections are often urgent, the substantial improvement in turnaround has delighted Aon’s clients, and further sharpened its competitive edge. The solution also resulted in an immediate and measurable 15 percent improvement in productivity.

“Our fire inspection business is growing year on year at a big rate,” said Cook. “The mobility solution has given us the ability to be more aggressive in the marketplace, and gain even more new business.”

Cook has been nothing but impressed with their technology partner. “Fuji Xerox were fantastic at learning how we work, and being flexible in meeting our needs. We wanted a partner who would be an extension of our team, and that’s exactly what we got in this relationship.”