Farmers Insurance wanted to streamline its automobile claims processing to improve customer experience. It partnered with ProcessClaims, using their ClaimsPort software. ClaimsPort integrated with Farmers' system using the .NET Framework and web services. This automated the workflow and provided data integration between Farmers and repair shops. It gave Farmers tools to remotely monitor shops, reduce claim settlement time from days to hours, and improve repair oversight and customer satisfaction.
21 Secrets of Self-Service IT Request FulfillmentnewScale
This presentation was given at the itSMF Australia ‘Power On’ Conference in Sydney - 18 August 2009. For more information, contact newScale at www.newscale.com
Communications Inustry : innovation solutions for Service ProvidersRiccardo Romani
A full set of Innovative solutions, spanning from MVNO software stack, to Next generation Contact Center, to Internet speed optimization. All based on industry standard infrastructure, fully interoperable with your OSS/BSS application stack.
21 Secrets of Self-Service IT Request FulfillmentnewScale
This presentation was given at the itSMF Australia ‘Power On’ Conference in Sydney - 18 August 2009. For more information, contact newScale at www.newscale.com
Communications Inustry : innovation solutions for Service ProvidersRiccardo Romani
A full set of Innovative solutions, spanning from MVNO software stack, to Next generation Contact Center, to Internet speed optimization. All based on industry standard infrastructure, fully interoperable with your OSS/BSS application stack.
Whilst there are many intangible benefits that can result from use of the ProAct solution, the list below focuses primarily on tangible ones that could result in some level of direct cost saving
Self Service Customer Care For Next Generation NetworksGreen Packet
Smartphone devices have dramatically changed the way consumers consume data. The need to be connected anywhere and anytime is driving service providers to put focus into customer experience to grow customers, build loyalty and drive profits through new services. As a result, the expectations of service experience from the end-user are heightened and cannot be underestimated.
Service providers are under pressure to deliver customer experience that separates them from the competition, while at the same time trying to delicately balance their revenues and managing costs for near term gain and longer term success. In this paper, we outline the scale of issues faced in mobile device and service care that impacts both service providers and end-users beyond connectivity. With a broad range of services and wide variety of applications, the smartphone requires more complexity to handle a multitude of firmware and software configurations which legacy CRM systems are inadequate to deal with today’s customers.
Remote device support and service care is a key component to tackle the demands of escalating costs in customer care. Service providers are seeking integration onto backend systems without incurring heavy infrastructure changes and ensure the best fit into the existing operations through automated and proactive customer care mechanisms to ensure service excellence and thus prevent service quality degradation.
Describes how to provide an enterprise app store as part of a phased software asset management implementation. See the BrightTALK webcast at https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/9443/71885
Taction’s CRM experts assist businesses in identifying the right CRM platform using best practices and tools to build most cost effective customized CRM applications as per the business process automation & customer relationship management strategy. We have extensive experience in Process Re-engineering, CRM Development, CRM Customization, CRM Migration, Workflow Automation and CRM Implementation across technology stack to different industry verticals around the world. Our key strength lies in building an end-to-end CRM ecosystem with tight integration with legacy and front end systems.
A selection of success stories that show how some IBM clients in key industries have optimized processes to conduct business quickly and effectively across dynamic business networks.
NEC Backup as a Service reduces administrative tasks, helping it departments...InteractiveNEC
Cloud solutions continue to grow not only in adoption but also in importance in customer IT strategies. In typical risk-averse practices, cloud solutions were initially used near the fringes of IT environments, delivering test and development functions far outside most of the core mission-critical workloads sustaining internal and external business operations. Likewise, customers in regulated industries such as healthcare or government were initially wary of the security and performance of services delivered from third-party data centers. These dynamics are changing rapidly, however, as both the customer and vendor behavior around cloud have matured considerably. Cloud providers have expanded their data center locations, added almost every flavor of regulatory compliance, and enhanced security capabilities. These developments have dramatically lowered the traditional barriers to cloud adoption, allowing customers in almost any industry to have at least the possibility of deploying most of their workloads through cloud delivery methods.
Going Mobile Is Smart
Utility companies are quickly adopting mobile technology to drive efficiencies.
This is because mobile solutions present countless opportunities to improve employee workflow, maximize the quality of data in back end systems and cut paperwork from everyday processes.
Smart Grid Operational Services: Selecting the Right Mobile SolutionCapgemini
Whether you manage field service operations within the utilities industry or some other large business operation, a mobile computing solution can strengthen your field service capabilities, lower your operating costs and improve customer service.
With mobile devices in hand, field technicians, engineers and supervisors alike discover that information flow increases and costly data entry errors become issues from the past.
The mobile computing market abounds with “cool” devices, but embracing innovative technology alone can easily distract an organization from finding an intelligent mobile solution that will ultimately meet the needs of its users.
In other words, preparing for the technology is every bit as critical as selecting it.
This paper describes the 3 stages recommended for deciding on, and ranking the importance of, available solution options, and how proper planning can improve the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the solution. It also reviews common obstacles that impede deployment and thwart a positive return on investment.
Case Study: E&T Plastics Reduces Risk and Takes Control with NetSuite from MIBARMIBAR.net
Customer Profile:
E&T Plastics was faced with aging hardware and software that was no longer supported by their relevant providers. While MIBAR.net is fully committed to supporting their clients, when Microsoft ended support for SQL server 2005 and FoxPro (the language of business application, AccountMate, was written in) it presented too much risk to the company’s business continuity to ignore. Such excessive levels of risk, coupled with the increasing possibility of encountering larger problems that were beyond MIBAR’s ability to resolve, were a reason for MIBAR to strongly recommend to E&T that it was time to move on.
Given the long standing business relationship that had developed over 17 years of service and partnership with MIBAR.net, E&T Plastics trusted the team to explore implementing an industry leading cloud solution from Oracle.
MIBAR’s NetSuite recommendation was rooted in its deep understanding of E&T’s operational business challenges and started with the premise that a new solution needed to be agile and offer centralized reporting across all nine North American subsidiaries.
See what we did and how we helped E&T become more agile by reading the entire case study.
Whilst there are many intangible benefits that can result from use of the ProAct solution, the list below focuses primarily on tangible ones that could result in some level of direct cost saving
Self Service Customer Care For Next Generation NetworksGreen Packet
Smartphone devices have dramatically changed the way consumers consume data. The need to be connected anywhere and anytime is driving service providers to put focus into customer experience to grow customers, build loyalty and drive profits through new services. As a result, the expectations of service experience from the end-user are heightened and cannot be underestimated.
Service providers are under pressure to deliver customer experience that separates them from the competition, while at the same time trying to delicately balance their revenues and managing costs for near term gain and longer term success. In this paper, we outline the scale of issues faced in mobile device and service care that impacts both service providers and end-users beyond connectivity. With a broad range of services and wide variety of applications, the smartphone requires more complexity to handle a multitude of firmware and software configurations which legacy CRM systems are inadequate to deal with today’s customers.
Remote device support and service care is a key component to tackle the demands of escalating costs in customer care. Service providers are seeking integration onto backend systems without incurring heavy infrastructure changes and ensure the best fit into the existing operations through automated and proactive customer care mechanisms to ensure service excellence and thus prevent service quality degradation.
Describes how to provide an enterprise app store as part of a phased software asset management implementation. See the BrightTALK webcast at https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/9443/71885
Taction’s CRM experts assist businesses in identifying the right CRM platform using best practices and tools to build most cost effective customized CRM applications as per the business process automation & customer relationship management strategy. We have extensive experience in Process Re-engineering, CRM Development, CRM Customization, CRM Migration, Workflow Automation and CRM Implementation across technology stack to different industry verticals around the world. Our key strength lies in building an end-to-end CRM ecosystem with tight integration with legacy and front end systems.
A selection of success stories that show how some IBM clients in key industries have optimized processes to conduct business quickly and effectively across dynamic business networks.
NEC Backup as a Service reduces administrative tasks, helping it departments...InteractiveNEC
Cloud solutions continue to grow not only in adoption but also in importance in customer IT strategies. In typical risk-averse practices, cloud solutions were initially used near the fringes of IT environments, delivering test and development functions far outside most of the core mission-critical workloads sustaining internal and external business operations. Likewise, customers in regulated industries such as healthcare or government were initially wary of the security and performance of services delivered from third-party data centers. These dynamics are changing rapidly, however, as both the customer and vendor behavior around cloud have matured considerably. Cloud providers have expanded their data center locations, added almost every flavor of regulatory compliance, and enhanced security capabilities. These developments have dramatically lowered the traditional barriers to cloud adoption, allowing customers in almost any industry to have at least the possibility of deploying most of their workloads through cloud delivery methods.
Going Mobile Is Smart
Utility companies are quickly adopting mobile technology to drive efficiencies.
This is because mobile solutions present countless opportunities to improve employee workflow, maximize the quality of data in back end systems and cut paperwork from everyday processes.
Smart Grid Operational Services: Selecting the Right Mobile SolutionCapgemini
Whether you manage field service operations within the utilities industry or some other large business operation, a mobile computing solution can strengthen your field service capabilities, lower your operating costs and improve customer service.
With mobile devices in hand, field technicians, engineers and supervisors alike discover that information flow increases and costly data entry errors become issues from the past.
The mobile computing market abounds with “cool” devices, but embracing innovative technology alone can easily distract an organization from finding an intelligent mobile solution that will ultimately meet the needs of its users.
In other words, preparing for the technology is every bit as critical as selecting it.
This paper describes the 3 stages recommended for deciding on, and ranking the importance of, available solution options, and how proper planning can improve the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the solution. It also reviews common obstacles that impede deployment and thwart a positive return on investment.
Case Study: E&T Plastics Reduces Risk and Takes Control with NetSuite from MIBARMIBAR.net
Customer Profile:
E&T Plastics was faced with aging hardware and software that was no longer supported by their relevant providers. While MIBAR.net is fully committed to supporting their clients, when Microsoft ended support for SQL server 2005 and FoxPro (the language of business application, AccountMate, was written in) it presented too much risk to the company’s business continuity to ignore. Such excessive levels of risk, coupled with the increasing possibility of encountering larger problems that were beyond MIBAR’s ability to resolve, were a reason for MIBAR to strongly recommend to E&T that it was time to move on.
Given the long standing business relationship that had developed over 17 years of service and partnership with MIBAR.net, E&T Plastics trusted the team to explore implementing an industry leading cloud solution from Oracle.
MIBAR’s NetSuite recommendation was rooted in its deep understanding of E&T’s operational business challenges and started with the premise that a new solution needed to be agile and offer centralized reporting across all nine North American subsidiaries.
See what we did and how we helped E&T become more agile by reading the entire case study.
IBM Enterprise Content Management Solutions -Making your industry our businessGanesh Rajapur
IBM® Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions
help organizations unlock the value of their content and
transform business processes to enhance productivity, reduce
risk, cut costs and increase revenue. Today, organizations
from a wide range of industries use IBM ECM solutions to
facilitate and automate information access, help ensure
regulatory compliance, enable knowledge workers to make
better decisions and increase competitiveness in new and
innovative ways. Organizations also use IBM ECM solutions
to create a single view of their customers, providing better
insight and customer service. The specifics for each industry
may vary, but IBM ECM solutions help organizations of all
sizes make better, smarter decisions
Find out how DATA Inc. improved client experience and efficiency, eliminated manual overhead and ensured consistency in results for a brokerage firm by automating a client’s end of day summarization procedures through a simple, yet powerful user-friendly tool.
How CMMS Software streamline Service Based Engineering Company Maintenance Op...Srinivasan AT
CMMS software can streamline maintenance operations for service-based engineering companies by providing a centralized database of information on equipment and maintenance tasks.
This can be accessed by technicians and maintenance staff in real time, allowing them to quickly locate the information they need to perform maintenance tasks.
CMMS software can also help companies to track and manage their inventory of spare parts and equipment, as well as track the performance and maintenance history of their equipment.
By using a CMMS, service-based engineering companies can improve the efficiency of their maintenance operations, reduce downtime and costly emergency repairs, and improve the overall reliability and performance of their equipment.
Next-generation treaty reinsurance application for a property-casualty and ge...Mindtree Ltd.
Reinsurance-the practice of reinsurers indemnifying insurers against a portion of underwritten risks via binding contracts-is an integral part of the insurance industry. Industry participants leverage information technology to help them manage the inherent complexity of their reinsurance arrangements. Here is how Mindtree helped.
Find out how DATA Inc. worked with a financial services client to develop a new custom application aimed at streamlining and speeding-up the process behind the trading of credit derivatives.
Sigma Infosolutions leveraged its expertise on Jasper BI Suite and Reporting technologies to develop application along with its web engine for a healthcare solution provider company in North America. The web application is an automated reporting engine which allows the users to monitor, analyze and manage, forecast and report the performance of various high-level business objectives. The automated engine leverages Jasper Reporting, Dashboards and Analyzer tools for additional analysis and visualization. Built on Jasper BI Suite, the application extends numerous customization capabilities to users with analytical front-end.
Taking the Next Step in CTRM Cloud SolutionsCTRM Center
In the last decade, a quiet revolution has occurred within the E/CTRM (Energy/Commodity Trading and Risk Management) software category as vendors and users have increasingly adopted the cloud-computing model. This move has been driven by demand largely for more affordable E/CTRM software as reflected by a lower total cost of ownership. Increasing regulatory and shareholder scrutiny has meant that even smaller commodity traders need to abandon spreadsheets and similar unstructured and difficult to audit tools in favor of more robust solutions. However, even the smallest of commodity trading companies has pretty broad and complex requirements meaning that they actually still require a fully-fledged application to meet their needs, but one that fits within a budget that reflects the size of their business.
In recent years, consumer and business cloud-based applications have begun to catch on and that familiarity does seem to have benefited the E/CTRM in the cloud market as well, as customers are now much more familiar with the benefits than they were 5 years ago. It is important to note that it’s not just the smaller commodity traders that see the potential benefits of a cloud-based solution either. Recent ComTech research suggested that, in general, all buyers of E/CTRM software are increasingly open to considering alternatives to the traditional “on premises” implementation model. While a small, but committed, minority continue to resist anything but the traditional on-premises implementation approach, the overwhelming majority of respondents will consider cloud deployment for a variety of vertical application areas in and around commodity trading.
Sales enablement and user friendliness through an online interface for a lead...Mindtree Ltd.
The growing popularity of browser-based interfaces across software types has also found resonance in the file transfer software industry sector, replacing or complementing traditional desktop-based software. Here is how Mindtree helped.
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
Neuro-symbolic is not enough, we need neuro-*semantic*Frank van Harmelen
Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as “predictable inference”.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and GrafanaRTTS
Watch this recorded webinar about real-time monitoring of application performance. See how to integrate Apache JMeter, the open-source leader in performance testing, with InfluxDB, the open-source time-series database, and Grafana, the open-source analytics and visualization application.
In this webinar, we will review the benefits of leveraging InfluxDB and Grafana when executing load tests and demonstrate how these tools are used to visualize performance metrics.
Length: 30 minutes
Session Overview
-------------------------------------------
During this webinar, we will cover the following topics while demonstrating the integrations of JMeter, InfluxDB and Grafana:
- What out-of-the-box solutions are available for real-time monitoring JMeter tests?
- What are the benefits of integrating InfluxDB and Grafana into the load testing stack?
- Which features are provided by Grafana?
- Demonstration of InfluxDB and Grafana using a practice web application
To view the webinar recording, go to:
https://www.rttsweb.com/jmeter-integration-webinar
Slack (or Teams) Automation for Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Soluti...Jeffrey Haguewood
Sidekick Solutions uses Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Solutions Apricot) and automation solutions to integrate data for business workflows.
We believe integration and automation are essential to user experience and the promise of efficient work through technology. Automation is the critical ingredient to realizing that full vision. We develop integration products and services for Bonterra Case Management software to support the deployment of automations for a variety of use cases.
This video focuses on the notifications, alerts, and approval requests using Slack for Bonterra Impact Management. The solutions covered in this webinar can also be deployed for Microsoft Teams.
Interested in deploying notification automations for Bonterra Impact Management? Contact us at sales@sidekicksolutionsllc.com to discuss next steps.
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
"Impact of front-end architecture on development cost", Viktor TurskyiFwdays
I have heard many times that architecture is not important for the front-end. Also, many times I have seen how developers implement features on the front-end just following the standard rules for a framework and think that this is enough to successfully launch the project, and then the project fails. How to prevent this and what approach to choose? I have launched dozens of complex projects and during the talk we will analyze which approaches have worked for me and which have not.
Let's dive deeper into the world of ODC! Ricardo Alves (OutSystems) will join us to tell all about the new Data Fabric. After that, Sezen de Bruijn (OutSystems) will get into the details on how to best design a sturdy architecture within ODC.
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
FIDO Alliance Osaka Seminar: Passkeys at Amazon.pdf
6930 Farmers Ins Cs
1. Microsoft Windows Server System
Customer Solution Case Study
Insurance Company Streamlines Claims
Processing with Web Services–based Solution
Overview “Web services give us a great deal of agility. Our
Country/Region: United States
Industry: Financial Services
managers can make decisions for the good of the
business without worrying about whether technology
Customer Profile
The Farmers Insurance Group of
can keep up.”
Companies is the third largest home and Matthew Matter, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Farmers Insurance
auto insurer in the United States.
Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, The Farmers Insurance Group of Companies, the third largest home
Farmers provides a range of insurance
services to more than 10 million and auto insurer in the United States, wanted to expedite
households. automobile claims processing and improve the customer’s
Business Situation experience after an accident. Although Farmers had implemented
Farmers wanted to streamline its claims many standards and efficiencies in its claims-settlement process,
management process to eliminate
inefficiencies. It wanted to monitor repair some aspects were still manual, paper-based, and complex.
shop performance, make better use of Farmers turned to Microsoft® Certified Partner ProcessClaims and
claims staff, and quickly add new
functionality to key systems. its material-damage management software, ClaimsPort. ClaimsPort
integrates seamlessly with Farmers’s claims-processing system
Solution
The ProcessClaims ClaimsPort solution, through use of the Microsoft .NET Framework. The automated,
based on the Microsoft® .NET Framework, Web-based solution gives Farmers the ability to remotely monitor
has automated Farmers’s claims-
processing system, providing an all-digital repair facilities, eliminate manual handoffs, reduce cycle time, and
workflow and the ability to track make the claims-settlement process more satisfactory for
performance.
customers.
Benefits
Four-hour claim settlement
Greater staff efficiencies
Greater customer satisfaction
Improved repair shop oversight
Increased business agility
2. Microsoft Windows Server System
Customer Solution Case Study
Insurance Company Streamlines Claims
Processing with Web Services–based Solution
3. Situation “However, there was no data integration
For insurance companies, making claims between the body shops and Farmers. We
settlement as fast and convenient as wanted live data interactions to eliminate as
possible is imperative, because the likelihood many delays as possible between the
of the customer changing companies multiple stages of estimation and repair
decreases significantly with a positive work.”
experience.
Farmers also wanted the ability to analyze
The Farmers Insurance Group of Companies, and compare the estimates, repair
the third largest home and auto insurer in the completion times, and other attributes of
United States, provides home, auto, various repair facilities so that it could
business, and life insurance, as well as recommend the top-performing facilities to
financial services, to more than 10 million customers who requested them. Farmers
households. Farmers continuously strives for tracked this information by using
greater efficiency and productivity as to spreadsheets and other simple tools, but the
maintain a competitive edge in a crowded company still did not have timely access to
marketplace. the detailed information that it needed.
In 1992, Farmers took a major step in Lastly, Farmers wanted the ability to
improving its claims process when it created electronically review all claims information in
the Farmers Circle of Dependability (COD) a central location so that it could accelerate
program. Through this preferred vendor the estimation and payment of small, routine
program, Farmers identifies repair shops that repairs and allow field adjusters to focus their
focus on quality and customer service. Shops valuable time on more complex repairs.
admitted into Farmers’s COD meet certain
equipment and staff-training requirements, In summary, Farmers was searching for a
agree to provide estimates in a digital format, solution that could:
complete repairs in a timely manner, and
provide a positive customer experience. Improve management and connectivity to
Through this program, Farmers has been able approved repair facilities.
to expedite the settlement process with Automate workflow to reduce internal
minimal intervention by Farmers staff. touch points.
Fulfill Farmers’s specific performance
However, even with an approved set of repair expectations.
shops that adhere to Farmers high standards, Provide more robust data analytics.
the claims process remained manual and Integrate seamlessly with internal
paper-based. Communications about each enterprise systems.
claim traveled from department to
department at Farmers, and then from
Farmers to body shops to customers, often as Solution
faxes, phone calls, and paper documents. Farmers evaluated the products of the
market-leading material-damage
“The Circle of Dependability program was a management companies and chose
good first step in eliminating a great many ProcessClaims of Manhattan Beach,
unknowns and inefficiencies from claims California, for several reasons.
processing,” says Matthew Matter, Director of
Strategic Initiatives at Farmers Insurance.
4. “The ProcessClaims solution has great seen how an ASP environment combined with
workflow capability as well as great statistics- a Web services architecture can provide the
collection capability,” says Mike Hickey, flexibility we need to protect our technology
National Director of Auto Physical Damage for investments,” Matter says. “Equally
Farmers Insurance. “The ProcessClaims impressive was the ability of ProcessClaims
software also provides tremendous to deploy such a mature and robust
customization abilities, which we required to integration in only 90 days.”
integrate the solution with our claims-
processing system. It also has the ability to The Microsoft .NET Framework is an integral
integrate with a variety of third-party component of the Microsoft Windows
estimating software packages, which is ServerTM 2003 operating system and provides
important to us because it increases the a programming model and runtime for Web
number of body shops that we can work services, Web applications, and smart client
with.” applications.
ProcessClaims, part of the Microsoft ® ProcessClaims created ClaimsPort by using
Insurance Value Chain, provides a .NET and the Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET
configurable standards-based solution that 2003 development system. ProcessClaims
can be applied to diverse business processes evaluated both Visual Studio .NET 2003 (in
without the cost and lengthy development particular, Visual C#® .NET 2003) and Java;
cycles of large-scale, custom integration in the end, C# proved to be the superior
efforts. Insurance Value Chain solutions allow language due to better performance,
insurers to offer new products and serve scalability, development tools, and ease of
current policyholders more quickly and more conversion.
efficiently. These solutions also address
privacy, security, and compliance issues, “Integrating our product with Farmers’s
making it easier for carriers to comply with claims management system was a breeze,”
myriad federal and state regulations. says Simon Politakis, Chief Architect for
ProcessClaims. “Using Visual Studio .NET, we
Faster Integration with Web Services created XML schemas that defined the data
Another thing Farmers liked about the format to be exchanged between our
ProcessClaims solution was its use of Web respective systems; a Web service for
services. Web services are programmable Farmers to use in sending its data to us; and
application components that can be a client to call a Web service to send the
accessed over the Internet with standard appraisal, photos, and other supporting
Web protocols. Farmers wanted to use Web documents back to Farmers. The Microsoft
services and the Microsoft .NET Framework .NET Framework provided us with the classes
to extend the functionality of its current we needed to quickly and easily implement
enterprise claims systems and to integrate security and error handling,” he adds. “Also,
ClaimsPort into its claims system in a fraction because Web services can be used
of the time and cost of traditional synchronously, there was no need to create
development methods. control log files.”
Web services also enabled Farmers to create ClaimsPort runs on the Microsoft Windows
a solution that operated on an application Server 2003 operating system, part of the
service provider (ASP) model and was thus Microsoft Windows Server SystemTM
easy and cost-effective to deploy. “We’ve integrated server infrastructure software. The
5. application stores information in a Microsoft automatically to the most appropriate
SQL ServerTM 2000 database. company representative. That individual can
then make notes and communicate with the
Rethinking and Redesigning the Process shop—all electronically. After approval of the
Following the implementation of the repair estimate, the claim is routed
ProcessClaims technology, Farmers has automatically for payment processing.
redesigned how it handles claims in its COD
program and reduced the time required to The shop makes the repair, returns the car to
process them. When a customer telephones its owner, and closes the claim. ClaimsPort
Farmers with news of an accident, the call then consolidates all the documentation for
center representative retrieves the the claim in an electronic document and
customer’s account information from sends it to Farmers for archival in the FileNet
Farmers’s claims-processing system, called document management system.
the Customer Restoration Network (CRN). The
ClaimsPort solution is tightly integrated with At each stage of the claims process, the
Farmers’s CRN system so that company solution provides each user with a list of
representatives have one easy-to-use predefined tasks, time limits, and actions to
interface for accessing and recording all facilitate the user’s daily activities. Because
claims information. the solution uses Web services at all
integration points, the transfer of data
After the customer service representative between adjusters, repair shops, estimating
records the accident details, they make a software packages, and other parties is easy
repair shop assignment in CRN and send to implement.
pertinent loss information by means of Web
services to ClaimsPort. ClaimsPort, Management receives reports detailing not
simultaneously and in real time, electronically only estimate content, but also appraisal
notifies the repair facility and internally performance, auditing performance, and
directs the claims volume among the performance reports on all groups using
appropriate Farmers personnel. Within its ClaimsPort. With these reports, Farmers can
centralized claims-processing environment, monitor and compare the performance and
Farmers has created work groups that turnaround times of its repair shops, claims
specialize in handling specific types of claims. representatives, and field adjusters.
The repair shop, which also accesses
ClaimsPort through a browser, receives the
assignment and is ready when the customer Benefits
arrives at the shop. The shop then digitally Moving claims processing to a standardized
photographs the damage and compiles an configurable solution has automated
estimate. Farmers’s old manual, time-intensive
process; enabled rapid, electronic transfer of
The repair shop uploads all the details about data from party to party; reduced cycle time;
the estimate—including photos, labor rates, and given Farmers a way to compare and
parts costs, and so on—into an electronic file thus improve the performance of repair
and sends the file to Farmers for approval. shops and claims representatives. The Web
Before any Farmers personnel even see the services architecture also gives Farmers
estimate, it is run through a customized set increased business agility by giving the
of business rules that flags any irregularities. company a way to extend outdated
This tool allows Farmers to route the estimate
6. quot;ClaimsPort allows us to applications that can’t adapt quickly to
market needs. “Our response time to simple claims is now
better measure the within four hours, thanks to the Process-
overall service that Metrics for Comparison and Improvement Claims solution,” Hickey says. “ClaimsPort
One consistent unified process provides the allows our claims personnel to organize their
repair shops are quantitative data and analytics that allow day and more efficiently utilize their time.”
providing so we can Farmers to monitor and compare the
performance of repair shops and claims Of course, all these efficiencies translate into
make better business representatives for the purpose of continuous cars being returned more quickly to
decisions in choosing improvement. Farmers’s customers. “We know that with
ClaimsPort we are approving estimates faster
facilities.” “The repair shops are an extension of and paying shops faster, all of which
Mike Hickey
Farmers,” Hickey says. “If customers are contributes to getting customers their cars
National Director of Auto Physical Damage unhappy with a vendor, they’re unhappy with faster,” says Matter. “This application has
Claims Farmers. ClaimsPort allows us to better allowed Farmers to be much more responsive
Farmers Insurance
measure the overall service that shops are to customer needs.”
providing so we can make better business
decisions in choosing facilities.” Heightened Business Agility
Farmers has designed a best-in-class solution
Process Improvements for Shortened Cycle that extends its CRN claims management
Times application. “The Microsoft .NET Framework
By automating its claims-resolution process, connects applications such as ClaimsPort to
Farmers has been able to make several big applications to help companies like
organizational and process improvements Farmers improve their business model faster,
that would otherwise have been impossible. less expensively, and more effectively than
Previously, the company’s COD claims- can be accomplished by any other means,”
processing business model was organized by according to Paul Farber, Chief Executive
geography. The new technology has allowed Officer of ProcessClaims.
Farmers to change its model to achieve
significant gains in productivity. Now Farmers In addition to the claims-processing solution,
can receive claims centrally (in Oklahoma Farmers and ProcessClaims have just
City, Oklahoma) and push them to any completed a rental invoice application that
available resource. As a result, Farmers can allows rental car vendors to post bills to a
now handle an increased volume of claims portal. The bills are then automatically
with the same staff. passed to the appropriate person at Farmers
for approval and then to accounts payable for
Farmers has the ability to examine and rate payment. “We’ve been able to reduce our
claims by using automated rules. rental car payment process between 30 and
Representatives in the Oklahoma City office 40 percent,” Hickey says. “We couldn’t have
handle small, routine claims electronically. done this without Web services and the
Farmers’s personnel can view the new claims Microsoft .NET Framework.”
that they will be addressing that day and sort
the claims according to complexity. The “Web services give us a great deal of agility,”
representatives can review and approve Matter says. “Our managers can make
minor repairs to shops without involving field decisions for the good of the business
adjusters, maximizing the use of those without worrying about whether technology
valuable resources. can keep up. We no longer need to hew to a