Article written by Stephanie Onofri
You heard me: the WALKING DEAD. It’s not just a thrilling fictional drama about what will happen to humanity in the grips of a zombie apocalypse, but also a metaphor to describe what happens to office personnel during a slightly different, yet just as disturbing, event: the paper apocalypse.
To understand what the paper apocalypse is, you just need to ask yourself a simple question: what happens when your Insurance document paper starts managing you? Imagine that scenario and you have walked a mile and a half in the outdated loafers of an insurance claims department. To sum it up, desks pile up with files that at times literally seem to “eat things”, documents get utterly lost (or eaten, as aforementioned), clients/customers who depend on the data in those sensitive documents begin to doubt the credibility of your company, compliance standards are jeopardized, and coffee spills EVERYWHERE.
So why do Insurance claim departments continue to invest such a hefty sum in a system that causes unnecessary delays and poses regulatory compliance risks from the inception of the claim process to its approval?
Industry leaders have already turned to Enterprise Content Management (ECM) to handle their information management. Among a myriad of customizable options, without causing any set-backs, a properly tailored ECM system accomplishes the following things:
- It safeguards electronic documents: paper documents are converted and stored in electronic format into the ECM system and are available for retrieval at the click of a mouse.
- It applies security controls: documents can be accessed by authorized personnel only. In addition, multiple authorized parties can view the same document simultaneously, cutting processing time exponentially.
- It slashes paper and storage costs: If all files are stored electronically, there is no need to spend on paper storage, which increases ROI and allows claims departments to invest in more growth-oriented projects.
- It has workflow capabilities: automating your claims process is the best part of ECM, alleviating the weight of data entry, minimizing the risk of human error, and speeding approvals.
Is your paper process turning you into one of the Walking Dead? For more information, download our whitepaper below – “The CIO Challenge: Creating the Information-Driven Enterprise.”
