Enterprise content management at work

Best of Breed is the Best Approach for Insurance Document Management

How many of you have purchased a new policy administration or claims management system from a vendor that said, “Oh, you don’t need an ECM system, we have built-in document management…”

Now I’m not going to say that they’re lying, but there’s a HUGE difference between just manually attaching an electronic image to a policy detail screen or an activity record and truly managing the content across your enterprise. So, here’s a quick top 10 of questions to ask your vendor when they say you don’t need an ECM system:

  1. Can I scan my inbound mail directly into your system?
  2. Will I have the ability to automatically connect new documents to a policy or claim?
  3. How do I know if I am missing any documentation for a transaction?
  4. Can I implement my records management strategy into your system?
  5. Where do I store all of my accounts payable or human resources documents?
  6. If I want to see claims documents from my policy screen, do I have to make copies?
  7. When exceptions occur what do I do – is that now a manual process?
  8. How do I provide access to documentation if legal doesn’t have rights to the claims system?
  9. Is there a way to search for images if I’m not on a specific record?
  10. Can you automatically notify our agents when they don’t send all the required documents?

Insurance systems and ECM platforms are designed to do two different things – and they both do them very well. There may be more upfront cost with a best-of-breed approach, but you’ll reap the benefits in the long run.