Xactware president on triaging claims and the analytics buzz

In his upcoming fireside chat—between 2:25pm and 2:45pm ET on Wednesday, October 28—Fulton will discuss a broad selection of topics relating to technology for handling claims.

More specifically, industry veteran Fulton will cover how analysis of those claims and their related data points is helping insurers, claims handlers, and contractors complete their work more quickly and efficiently while maintaining or improving customer satisfaction. Paul Carroll, editor-in-chief of Insurance Thought Leadership will moderate the session.

Here’s a brief preview of what Fulton will address in his wide-ranging discussion.

How are advanced analytics helping insurers triage claims more efficiently?

Analytics permeates nearly every aspect of claims handling today, from first notice of loss through to claim settlement. Triaging claims is one of those critical phases that can set the tone for the rest of the process in terms of expediency, efficiency, and policyholder satisfaction.

At Xactware, we’re helping our customers triage their claims with a pretty big range of analytics technologies, using data that includes weather, claim histories, geography, property-specific information, and new tools that can make some initial scoping activities virtually hands-free.

For example, in advance of a hurricane our weather team will provide analytics-based forecasts that will tell our customers where they can expect to see the highest levels of claims as well as their severity, type, and complexity. This helps our customers know exactly where and when to deploy their resources, or how much to strengthen their response efforts before the losses are even called in.

We’re also implementing artificial intelligence-based object recognition that’s tied to material and labour databases, which will allow adjusters to remotely view damage and almost instantly provide an initial estimate for needed repairs.

Can you briefly outline how data and analytics can benefit both insurer and insured?

This question comes up often, and the answer is two sides of the same coin. Ultimately, an insurer’s success is closely tied to how well they take care of their policyholders. One of the biggest factors in policyholder satisfaction is how long they have to wait for a settlement.

Data and analytics have a huge impact on claim response times. As I mentioned before, Xactware’s weather analytics allows our customers to have resources in place in anticipation of increases in claim volume. This drastically reduces service queues and frustration on the part of the insured. Our customers have seen their Net Promoter Scores (a metric used to gauge the health of the customer relationship) improve as a result.

On the carrier side, data and analytics are a key tool for honing an operation, whether it’s in determining which adjusters could use additional training, what kinds of claims to be prepared for, or tracking projected expenses. Industry benchmarks are also extremely important, and we provide analytics tools that help our customers know precisely how they compare with the industry as a whole both generally and very specifically, down to zip codes and loss types.

What do you hope listeners will take away from your presentation?

There’s a lot of buzz these days about the importance of analytics and new insurtech, and I echo those sentiments. But it’s also important not to invest too heavily in a direction that hasn’t been proved in the industry at large.

A lot of promises are made by various suppliers that, in theory, would be extremely valuable to any number of carriers. But when put into practice, those technologies either fall short of their promise or simply don’t have the depth of data they need to work as effectively as they should.

My message to listeners would be to explore these technologies while paying significant attention to how the technology will be implemented. Will it be effective enough to benefit your firm, or will it be another learning experience for a growing insurtech company?

Will it integrate with the core tools you rely on? Or will it be one more app added to the stack of technologies that have to be manually supported?

How do Xactware and Verisk stand out from their competitors?

Xactware and Verisk have a very long relationship with the insurance and restoration industries, and we’ve always tried to let our level of service and product excellence speak for us.

That may be one way we stand apart—people already know and trust us as a well-established provider with a proven history of making claims handling more effective. And we take that approach as we implement new analytics-based technologies.

We have claims data resources that no other firm can match. We’ve been thorough in vetting new technologies through extensive testing and pilot programmes. And, as a business unit of Verisk, we have access to the most cutting-edge analytics technology and data scientists in the industry, so we’re particularly well-positioned to compete in the insurtech market.

The virtual Claims Innovation conference, which was originally scheduled to be held in Miami, will be held across three days (October 26, 28, and 30) and feature over 30 speakers from across the insurance ecosystem, including personal lines, commercial lines, brokers, and new entrants. More than 1,000 attendees are expected throughout the week.