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Insurance and Robotic Process Automation<\/h2>\n
Being risk-averse by nature, the insurance industry is historically slower to adopt newer data management technologies. Carriers also remain painfully aware of the significant investments required to update systems for policy, claims, underwriting and other functional areas.<\/p>\n
The size and scope of these projects often require years of effort and millions of dollars. Even then, you still have gaps requiring manual entry of data. Robotic process automation<\/a> (RPA) allows carriers to quickly reduce cost, gain efficiencies and increase associate satisfaction.<\/strong><\/p>\n To get a sense of where RPA is most effective, let\u2019s view the insurance industry as an information business. We require accurate information to be effective and successful. Data comes in all shapes and sizes (fax, web forms, email, paper and more) and flows into a carrier from agents, customers, vendors, regulatory agencies and other sources.<\/p>\n Companies need to apply data to specific locations to route new business and drive claims, underwriting, billing and servicing to provide the most value. Information is the primary driver across the insurance value chain.<\/p>\n Insurance Value Chain<\/p><\/div>\n RPA is a software technology that captures, interprets and replicates the actions of humans. It is a simple concept, like the screen scraping applications of old, but those older technologies proved challenging to create and maintain and had minimal functionality.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s generation of RPA software can support or supplement human employees in processing transactions, manipulating data, triggering responses and communicating with other systems.<\/strong> It\u2019s especially valuable to organizations using people for knowledge-process work that is:<\/p>\n The RPA application, or \u201cbot,\u201d performs various tasks, depending on need, from a simple one-task process to a complex multi-step process. Unattended bots sit and wait for work to appear \u2013 or are scheduled to run at specific times \u2013 and then process it once it does. Developers program attended bots for humans to kick off the bot to perform a particular set of tasks. Ultimately, RPA offers a lot of problem-solving flexibility.<\/p>\n To understand what RPA does, we need to know what it won\u2019t do. RPA can offer an interface between legacy systems, but it may not cover an entire process. In addition, RPA is not a recommended way to reduce headcount. Instead, it is a way for employees to add value to their current workflow, which increases their job satisfaction and allows a carrier to achieve more productive activities from its workforce.<\/strong><\/p>\n Finally, RPA is not synonymous with machine learning<\/a> (ML) or artificial intelligence<\/a> (AI) but is usable in conjunction with these technologies. We address this differentiation in another blog<\/a>, as we believe the impact of these combined technologies can provide profound benefits.<\/p>\n Currently, there are over 15 vendors listed on Gartner\u2019s magic quadrant. Today\u2019s leading RPA vendors (including UiPath<\/a>, Automation Anywhere, BluePrism and Microsoft<\/a>) have made the creation, installation and maintenance of bots cost-effective and straightforward. RPA toolsets typically offer a visual development environment and do not require a technical background, although we recommend developers have a certain degree of technical acumen and design experience to work with these tools.<\/p>\n This experience assists in creating more efficient and scalable bots for your company\u2019s environment. That said, we are seeing an increased interest in citizen development<\/a>, and some vendors offer scaled-down versions of their tools to support this.<\/p>\n![\"Insurance](\"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Insurance-value-chain-graphic-1024x404.png\")
<\/a>How Does RPA Work?<\/h2>\n
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How Do We Get Started?<\/h2>\n
A Successful RPA Approach<\/h2>\n