Insurance

Insurance outsourcing has continually evolved to meet market needs. In the past, the need was for data entry and call center representatives. Today, there’s growing excitement and momentum surrounding new automation capabilities and the opportunities this will provide for insurance-focused business process outsourcing (BPO). Outsourcing providers are taking
different approaches to keep up with these developments.

Outsourcing has become an integral feature of the insurance industry as companies seek to remain relevant in a competitive global market. The primary drivers of the shift to outsourcing in recent decades have cost savings and access to strategic domain expertise especially in the area of business acquisition.

Due to intense competition, insurance products tend to be similarly priced. The customer has to look at other factors before making a purchase decision. As more consumers go online to compare prices and look at reviews of the life and non-life products, insurance companies find that they have to provide superior customer service to stay on top of the game. Outsourcing not only reduces costs but also helps insurance companies become more efficient and profitable. The goal of insurance outsourcing is not to replace in-house employees, but to maximize the productivity of existing staff. When companies export or outsource non-core or routine tasks, their employees can perform the expertise-driven tasks that they were hired for.

An Impartial View to Insurance Outsourcing

There is already a large number of businesses that have benefited from outsourcing. These businesses were able to completely transform their business operations while offering top-notch services to their customers. Historically, the financial industry was the first to leverage outsourcing and now, insurance companies have started to investigate the possibility of outsourcing various business processes.

Skill Shortages

Companies usually face challenges finding the right staff, business process outsourcing is a direct response to this challenge. For insurance companies that already have employees that are skilled and experienced, outsourcing can augment productivity and profitability by transferring routine tasks. This allows these employees to focus more on expertise and deliver high-value output instead.

Here are some areas that successful businesses outsource:

Data Processing

This is one of the critical day-to-day functions that insurance companies outsource. As insurance companies grew, so did the demand for data processing. This led insurance companies to purchase additional computers and other related technology equipment leading to higher operational and administrative costs.

This is where insurance outsourcing came to play. Business process outsourcing companies give insurance companies the benefit of reducing costs, accurate data, and enhanced operational efficiency.

Data Mining

Data mining helps insurance companies by finding useful customer patterns. Data mining produces great results and helps in critical decision-making. The traditional way of handling large amounts of transactional had proved to be complex and takes a lot of time. By outsourcing, data mining insurance companies can quickly identify risk factors that can give an insight on profit, losses, and claims. This data also provides customer level, sales and marketing analysis, insights on product development, provides a way to estimate outstanding claims provision, and can predict fraudulent claims.

IT Services

Utilizing state-of-the-art technology can help insurance staff respond to customers’ needs while providing crucial information about almost any concern they have about insurance. IT outsourcing helps insurance companies reduce the amount of paperwork in dealing with proposals and policies. This can be done through the various web or mobile applications that
automate most of the processes and tasks. With outsourced IT services, insurance companies are able to meet customer needs in less time and can remove the need for handling and travel costs.

IT Outsourcing allows insurance companies to generate more insurance proposals, policies and process more applications hence, creating different sales funnels and adding convenience for customers.

Call Center

A best-in-class call center outsourcing should help insurance companies meet regulatory requirements, retain customers, maintain customer loyalty and be able to enter new markets. Insurance companies can take advantage of call center services to help manage customer inquiries and issues primarily via phone. Other channels of communication include email and chat. A single customer service representative (CSR) can be tasked to follow up on an entire process and see through it until the end.

Not only that, call centers are helpful in boosting the trust of the insurance company’s customer when a claim is being filed by providing emotional and professional support.

Underwriting

Insurance underwriters evaluate insurance proposals with the goal of determining the feasibility and finding out the potential risk that is involved. This enables insurance companies to gain a competitive advantage through process excellence that includes catastrophe modeling, renewals and underwriting support.

Insurance outsourcing companies can provide a full spectrum of underwriting services which can range from business process management to analytics. Other services may include submission and clearance in which application processing eligibility checks, liability coverage, data cleaning, and account verification is done.

Finance and Accounting

Insurance companies manage the risks of their customers in exchange for a premium. Historical data is gathered from similar policies is used to determine the premium for each policy. This premium is then paid in advance of the service delivery. With the insurance company’s customers growing, so are the financial transactions. The insurance industry has a fiduciary responsibility to the general public, special rules in accounting practices have certainly evolved. Insurance companies can work with outsourced finance and accounting service providers to design, transform and run finance, billing, and accounting-related tasks to improve cash flow and maintain top customer satisfaction ratings.

If your company is considering outsourcing, look no further than the expert team at Staff Boom. Our outsourcing specialists can schedule a meeting with you to discuss your company needs, goals, and current state. Contact Outsourcing Alliance today!