Greater operational efficiency and improved end-customer experience for insurers

“From the idea to the automated process” – How does the team work and how was Camunda first introduced?

With the introduction of Camunda, a new team was created. This SQUAD works predominantly autonomously and consists of subject matter experts, IT specialists, and process designers who automate processes based on BPMN in what they call “Epics” (implementation projects) from start to finish in a workshop format. This method facilitates short development cycles and with it the associated rapid value creation.

The first processes to be automated successfully were the partially automated support for cancellation of motor vehicle insurance policies and several self-services such as changing an address and requesting a copy of policy and invoice documents. According to Heiko Schauß, “When introducing small-scale or partially automated processes, it is important not to lose sight of the bigger picture. Automation works very well, especially when it comes to automating manual processes, and means that we are able to quickly bring real benefits to our customers – in terms of time savings for claims teams and faster response times for insurance customers. That’s what we’ve done in the past and that’s what we’re doing right now.”

80% automated processing for online reporting of storm damage

This also applies in the case of mass loss events, such as those caused by storms. When events like these occur, insurance companies can receive thousands of damage reports within a few days. These come in on top of the day-to-day business for the claims teams and present a huge challenge since processing these claims at very short notice requires a large capacity. At the same time, of course, they want to help policyholders whose property has been damaged by a storm as quickly as possible.

Previously, customers could fill out a claim form online in the event of a claim, but the report then had to be manually transferred to the relevant insurance system. This reporting process was automated through Camunda, and a damage report now can be created directly in the system and linked to the corresponding mass loss event.

Only a few weeks after the introduction, catastrophic floods and storms hit large parts of Germany in the summer of 2021. Although the majority of claims were still being reported by phone or email and processed manually, 12% of claims were automatically entered into the system via the website – which was a great relief for the claims teams. In addition, 80% of the claims created via the website could be forwarded for further processing without the intervention of a claim’s handler.

Furthermore, there was greater transparency throughout the process: Live views in Camunda Optimize meant the smooth progress of the automated process could be tracked at any time and it was possible to see how the number of claims notifications was developing each day. In the past, it had not been possible to access real-time information.

Further optimizations with Camunda Optimize and Camunda Cockpit

The processes described above are monitored using Camunda Optimize and Camunda Cockpit, and potential problems – whether professional or technical – are detected and solved at an early stage. Both tools also help with ongoing optimizations. This has enabled existing processes to be further monitored and optimized, gradually eliminating the need for manual checks.

Elimination of processing

In another Epic, where the creation of orders for administrators’ to-do lists was optimized, the existing manual process was even automated to the extent that 75% of the orders no longer needed to be checked by the administrator. “Even we were surprised at the impact of optimizing this process,” reported Heiko Schauß. “Often processes are done a certain way because that is the way they have always been done. If you take a look with your process and automation glasses on, you quickly realize that there is a lot of optimization potential in the process alone, even before you start thinking about automation.