The Power & Speed of Workflow, RPA & Integration

This is a case study that shows the power of Low-code Workflow, RPA, and Integration for a large healthcare insurance company.  It's great to see a case study that enables an organization to enter a market swiftly for a reasonable cost. The power of this combo is illustrated in this video

The Challenge:

When a large, American health insurance company wanted to service a new marketplace that became available after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted, it found itself tangled in a web of manual, cumbersome internal processes that needed to be digitized, automated and integrated. The company, which wanted to grow this market in less than three months’ time, desperately needed help selling and provisioning insurance since its multi-step customer onboarding process involved several systems, including older, mainframe technology. Penetrating the targeted market effectively was simply beyond reach without a digital overhaul. What this organization needed was to tackle this multi-pronged project: someone to provide improved customer experience and coordinate a long list of processes across disparate technologies. And fast – before missing out on open enrollment for 2019, which started Nov. 1, 2018.

Since the ACA went into effect in 2010, millions of new clients have flooded the insurance market, and many insurance companies have scrambled to revamp their systems to reach this steady stream of customers. Especially since newer, digitally native insurance companies continue popping up to try and snag their share of the business. “Our focus was to create an easy, smooth experience for our customers and sales partners,” said an executive of the large, multimillion-dollar insurance company. “Equally important, we needed to catch up with the rest of the marketplace. We were lagging behind our competition, so we needed to move the needle quickly.” Like many companies undergoing digital transformation, the U.S. insurance provider was trying to leverage both legacy and newer systems, including Robotics Process Automation (RPA), but having difficulties doing so. Therefore, it searched for a solution to help it collect, validate and clean incoming customer data – 75 percent of which was inaccurate or incomplete – to ensure systems’ interoperability with limited manual intervention.

The Solution:

This organization picked an integrated solution that combined a low code workflow capability, with industrial-strength integration and robotic process automation (RPA). The platform orchestrated the data flow processes after the collection and validation of data through the solution’s customer-facing portal. Specifically, the platform delivered workflow automation with five different web service integrations, including the creation of documents, the collection of electronic signatures, and the initiation and monitoring of RPA.  “The platform enabled us to streamline, automate and coordinate processes through multiple mechanisms – not just web services – while removing the manual processing required for everything other than exceptions,” the insurance company executive said. “This allowed us to be open for business 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

The Results: 

The insurance provider was able to cut the customer onboarding timeline from two to three weeks in half, which has improved relations with insurance brokers and customers and enhanced its overall net promoter score. The platforms orchestration allowed the company to offer a digital, self-service, customer onboarding experience, which was implemented in about 10 weeks – a significantly shorter time than the 5 months the original solution was going to take. Furthermore, the cost for the platform to orchestrate this new process was 10 times less than the initial quote. Constantly looking for ways to improve, automate, and compete, the insurance company hopes its new processes continue to improve so it can reach an even wider market during the next open enrollment.

Net: Net:

In this case,  necessity was the mother of invention. The challenge drove this organization to the powerful combination of Workflow, RPA, and integration. I expect to see more organizations moving to powerful digital platforms of all types that have this powerful combination. See a compelling Infographic by clicking here.  I had a small role in creating this short and sharp video.

This solution was enabled by PMG https://www.pmg.net/