Overview: Optimizing operational performance for enhanced value  

As the insurance landscape grows exponentially, the role and responsibilities of third-party insurance administrators (TPAs) are also seeing a steep rise in complexity and scale. In addition to claims processing, underwriting, and customer service, third-party administrators are also increasingly playing a pivotal role in optimizing the insurance processes & offerings for end customers through an efficient, easier, and simpler administration process with comprehensive considerations for data management. This is where enhancing internal operations for utmost efficiency, security, and value has become crucial for third-party administrators to continuously meet and exceed the expectations of diverse insurance stakeholders.   

The Bitwise client is one of the largest insurance brokers in the US with a diverse portfolio of brokerage services and products, including workers’ compensation and general liability. The company sought to build a robust web-based application with the help of Bitwise to effectively manage various insurance categories such as Life, Property, Firefighters, and Employee Benefits. 

Challenges: Absence of a comprehensive insurance management system catering to diverse stakeholder needs  

Over the years, the Bitwise client had been catering to a wide range of product and service portfolios and dealing with volumes of diverse data through independent legacy applications which were used by brokers, underwriters, and support staff for daily operations. This posed various challenges for the company:  

• The stakeholders had to jump from one legacy system to another to perform different activities, causing high inconvenience and inefficiency 
• The persistent use of different legacy applications led to increasing data siloes and hindered overall visibility 
• Having disparate systems also posed data access, discoverability, and security challenges in absence of a cohesive data governance strategy 

• The departmental and customer data siloes made it increasingly difficult to build and manage successful customer relationships 
• Daily operational challenges due to disparate systems hindered efficiency and agility, ultimately impeding value for both the company and its clients 

Bitwise helped the company build a comprehensive, web-based, and highly secure insurance management system for the required product and service categories which holistically improved performance in addition to solving the outlined challenges.  

The client’s perspective: Why Bitwise  

The company looked for a comprehensive yet flexible solution that would offer a significant advantage in today’s highly competitive insurance landscape. The solution envisioned by the client company had to offer sustainable cost-effectiveness, enhanced maintainability, and data-driven agility. Bitwise, with its rich experience in data-driven digital solutions, offered the following key advantages to the partnership: 

• 25+ years of experience in delivering cutting edge technology solutions  
• Extensive experience in the financial services domain  
• A wide array of data, digital & cloud services  
• Agile methodology & robust implementation frameworks  

The Solution: A secure, flexible, stable & cost-effective system  

Bitwise designed and built a robust, Microsoft .NET based insurance management application which would efficiently incorporate diverse functionalities for both internal and external stakeholders while ensuring high security, flexibility, maintainability, and cost-efficiency for the company. 

The Bitwise solution offered the following key features: 

• Define and enable access rights for the users through a specific menu as per the pre-defined roles and divisions in the database  
• Add, modify and maintain customer information 
• Add, modify and maintain agency information, contact information, and meeting information of employees with a specific agency 

• Assign and track daily tasks as well as display user-wise task list 
• Manage submission creation, expiration & versioning 
• Manage policy creation, extension, cancellation, and renewal 
• Utilize customized letter template tool 
• Maintain all documents using Microsoft Sharepoint 

• Implement underwriting-related business rules in Microsoft Excel-based (Drools based) rating sheets provided by various insurer agencies or brokers 

The Result: Holistically improved performance through streamlined business processes 

The growing product complexity, frequently changing regulations across geographies, and the evolving economies are putting significant strain on insurance operations. Consequently, the need for efficient systems and processes that can optimize value at all edges of the business functions has become increasingly urgent.  

The Bitwise client leveraged the comprehensive insurance management application to simplify and streamline its operations, enhance customer experience, and employ better data governance across various functions and stakeholders.

The solution created by Bitwise offered the following key advantages: 

• Faster & more efficient claims processing 

• Improved data security & governance  
• Better data discovery 
• Enhanced, unified user experience 
• Higher visibility for management 
• Reduced operational & maintenance costs 

Technology  

• Microsoft .NET  
• Microsoft Sharepoint 
• Drools