Lowering the cost of compliance

Insurers are facing pressures on margins and competitive threats are growing especially from international or new market entrants. According to Christoffel Klimbie, UK Sales Director for Aia Software, a reliance on manual methods of working and legacy systems that require constant patching up has left the insurance industry several steps behind other markets such as banking, where the concept of and projects to implement automated straight through processing (STP) have been commonplace for years. One such area where operational efficiency can be improved is the process of Document Composition which allows business users to create and manage the output for business critical documents and supports templates, intelligent text production and efficient multi-channel communications. It automates key processes as a means to achieve efficiency and compliance. Here, Mr. Klimbie addresses the critical issue of why, if the benefits of document composition software are so clear, are insurers not falling over themselves to sign up for these projects?

The reality is slightly different. Document composition is seen by insurers as an activity that doesn’t create and add business value. Without a clear appreciation of the business case or the risk implications from lack of compliance many brokers and insurers are still using inefficient document production techniques resulting in a lack of conformity over the content of documents.