As an innovative systems supplier, SV Informatik GmbH provides tailor-made IT solutions that make property and life insurers fit for the future. SV Informatik employs 450 people across 5 locations and is a wholly owned subsidiary of SV SparkassenVersicherung, one of the largest public insurers in Germany with 5000 employees. This means SV Informatik knows the insurance industry inside out – from product development and IT operations to sales and partners.
The iteratively working SQUAD team at SV SparkassenVersicherung and SV Informatik, where Heiko Schauß works as Solution Designer BPM, has been working with Camunda since 2018. The decision came as a solution to SV SparkassenVersicherung’s search for a new modeling tool for business processes. In addition to the technical requirements for process documentation, their (partial) automation and the closer and earlier cooperation between the specialist area and IT were also defined as selection criteria. The motto “From the idea to the automated process” was born and BPMN 2.0 was established as the basis for process documentation and automation. After validating several modeling tools and BPMN engines as well as carrying out a PoC, the decision was made to use Camunda as the engine. Over the following months and years, other Camunda solutions were incorporated into the engine.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
