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Cure To Claims Data Overload – Information on Demand

Go ahead, admit it, we won’t tell anyone:  You can’t handle the information.  It’s ok, we can’t either, and this has become the real challenge to business.  And, we can tell you:  There is a solution – it’s called Business Intelligence.  And It’s showing its use in Claims.

First, what’s the problem.  The overwhelming amount of data being sent our way combined with the increasing speed of the business cycle has simply overwhelmed our personal information management systems.  According to a recent survey reported in the National Post, 45% of the executives surveyed believe that corporate data is the most under-utilized asset within their corporations, but they “continue to feel overwhelmed by the amount of information and data” that they possess.

Simply storing the data is a challenge, but turning it into actionable information is the major stumble point.  Executives are beginning to realize that the only answer is to develop new processes, involving systems and people, to address corporate needs.  In the same article, Kathryn Brohman, professor of  management information systems at Queen’s University, says: “Executives are starting to recognize that it’s less about the data and more about the procedures that are around the data …so now they’re trying to figure out incentives and new job titles and new ways to leverage the people that know the data and get that up to the executives.”

Claims is a leading example of the problem and the solution.  A recent article in Claims Magazine titled ‘Intelligence on Demand‘ notes that “Virtually all claims organizations now have true business intelligence (BI) available to analyze and use their increasing volumes of data.” This has come to the point where the authors predict “the next wave of BI innovation facilitates making use of that information virtually automatic at the point of decision.”  They site an example of litigation management data being linked with automated invoicing and reporting to create a point -of-need system for claims professionals and executives.

The key is the integration that the BI system offers.  Within such an environment, “organizations are able to focus on creating strategies and processes to address those matters generating the most activity.”

This suggests that BI has gone from offering competitive advantage to a literal necessity to stay in the game.