An advanced home insurance claim workflow and estimating system designed to speed up the claims process is being trialled in New Zealand for a November launch.
The system, which has been adapted for the Australasian market in partnership with data and analytics firm
CoreLogic and cloud-based software group Symbility Solutions, has already been launched in Queensland, Australia with insurance provider Auto & General being the first to implement it there.
The system works by enabling home assessors to scope and price repairs in minutes, using sophisticated software and advanced analytics, either offline or online.
CoreLogic NZ’s insurance solutions director
Richard Deakin said: “So if you’re in a post-catastrophe event an assessor can be out there conducting assessments, gathering data, taking photographs even if they are not connected to the internet at that point.
“But when they do connect, all of that is synchronised with the central claims connect workload tool.”
He said a key part of the technology was it integrated full 3D diagramming of a loss site.
“So you can create your floor plan, put in walls, windows, doors and roof all using 3D tools and then you assign your repair strategy to the parts that have had the damage.
“It automatically estimates what the typical reconstruction costs for those pieces should be.”
The system also allowed the assignment of multiple vendors, builders and suppliers to participate in a claim, all working in parallel, from the insurer’s existing panel of suppliers.
“Everyone can see what everybody else is doing and where their piece fits in, making that a much more efficient process,” said Deakin.
“The more efficient the claims process is, with less re-work and duplication, so the less it’s going to cost, and on top of that you can also get a massive increase in customer satisfaction because the quicker you can close down the claim the happier the customer’s going to be.”
Deakin was confident that the system, which is already being used by big insurers in the UK and US, would have a dramatic effect on the insurance industry here in New Zealand.
“Having talked to insurers, a lot of their existing processes are still very manual and labour intensive, and involves old-fashioned tape measures and big SLR digital cameras, whereas we can do all of that clever stuff just on the tablet these days, so it is a revolutionary process.”
He said that while it was disruptive, it was also tried and tested worldwide.
Said Deakin: “And that is the other key thing with insurers, we’re not expecting them to take a leap of faith.”
Auto & General, which spent two years putting the right system and suppliers in place, said it was already seeing efficiency gains and a much faster turnaround in approval and repairs, and importantly, great feedback from customers.
As a provider of residential and commercial property information, CoreLogic is the reseller for the Symbility product suite in Australia and New Zealand, and will focus initial deployment on insurers and its supporting vendor network.
Since its acquisition of Cordell in 2015, CoreLogic had been able to integrate Cordell’s construction cost data sets and align it with the Symbility insurance claims workflow and loss estimating software.
Deakin said this would give consistency of data used in both underwriting and claims.
Deakin has previously told
Insurance Business that the acquisition of Cordell also has great benefits for insurers wanting to help policyholders achieve a more accurate Sum Insured figure.
You can watch his interview
here where he explains how this can help insurers to tackle the issue of chronic underinsurance New Zealand homeowners are experiencing.
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