A new processing centre is up and running, featuring a lot of automation and low-touch policies that require little to no handling by an underwriter – a sign of what may be to come for the industry.
Economical Insurance opened its new national processing centre at the company’s Riverbend facility in Kitchener, Ont., this week.
“This national processing centre is a key pillar of our new operating model, which is making our underwriting operations more automated, consistent and agile,” said Tom Reikman, Economical’s senior vice-president and chief operating officer. “We have implemented new technologies to automate processes and established a new organization structure to bring consistency to our processes. These changes are enhancing our productivity, efficiency and effectiveness.”
Some 130 employees will be working at the new facility – where hiring for the centre began back in March.
“We are managing all personal and small commercial business through this centre,” said Pamela Marson, vice-president, underwriting transformation. “The business flowing through here is the automated, low-touch policies that require little to no handling by an underwriter. This will allow us to be very competitive in personal lines and simple commercial lines (including IRCA), with greater pricing sophistication, higher flow-through, and superior service. Just as importantly, we have underwriters — both personal and small commercial — and underwriting processing teams at the national processing centre dedicated to specific regions. They understand their regions, and know their brokers.”
Although operating under a new operating model, Economical will continue to have local presence across the country.
“Being close to our broker partners is an absolute fundamental to our business model,” said Reikman. “Our mid-market underwriters, like our claims and business development teams, will continue to operate out of our local branches. This will allow our underwriters to dedicate more time to one-on-one interaction with broker producers. Our underwriter’s mission is to work closely with our broker partners to find solutions.”
