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:
- Can I scan my inbound mail directly into your system?
- Will I have the ability to automatically connect new documents to a policy or claim?
- How do I know if I am missing any documentation for a transaction?
- Can I implement my records management strategy into your system?
- Where do I store all of my accounts payable or human resources documents?
- If I want to see claims documents from my policy screen, do I have to make copies?
- When exceptions occur what do I do – is that now a manual process?
- How do I provide access to documentation if legal doesn’t have rights to the claims system?
- Is there a way to search for images if I’m not on a specific record?
- 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.
