SITUATION
• Reliance on manual, paper-heavy processes
• Legacy document management system did not provide intelligent capture, process automation or integration capabilities
RESULTS
• Migrated content to Laserfiche and automated processes including CATICTrac service, records management, claims and compliance
• Saved over $325,000 annually
• Created up to 90% more efficiency in some processes
• Increased capacity without creating the need to hire more staff
CATIC is one of the largest title insurance companies in the United States. The organization has been a trusted resource for policy-issuing attorneys, insured lenders and homebuyers, and other members of the real estate community for over 50 years.
The organization offers a number of services, including underwriting consultation, title information products, legislative and case law reporting, release tracking, flood compliance and more. CATIC’s approach is one of continuous improvement, constantly looking to improve efficiency in operations to maintain its strong reputation for high-quality service.
Using continuous improvement methodologies and the Laserfiche content services platform, CATIC has digitally transformed many of its processes.
Benefits include:
- Accelerated processing time
- Cost savings
- More opportunities for staff to serve real estate professionals and commercial customers
To date, the organization’s efforts have resulted in cost savings of over $325,000 annually. Additionally, CATIC has seen a nearly 50% increase in efficiency in both customer-facing processes, such as claims, and back-office operations, including records management.
A Vision to Automate and Optimize
Like many organizations, CATIC previously relied on manual, paper-heavy processes. Unsatisfied with the status quo, CATIC Senior Operations Analyst Chris Cooper had a vision to optimize the way the organization managed information. He and his team sought out a platform that would support more efficient, automated processes.
This search led to Laserfiche, which satisfied CATIC’s requirements for a system to centralize content and support information governance — while opening doors to workflow automation, which wasn’t available with the legacy system. Following continuous improvement practices, Cooper saw the opportunity to improve:
- Efficiency and productivity by simplifying and automating processes
- Information governance and compliance through automating and standardizing records management practices and procedures
- Collaboration by giving people frictionless access to the information and processes they need
- Customer experience as a result of more responsive services, and reclaiming time from previously manual processes
CATIC partnered with Laserfiche solution provider Accelerated Information Systems (AIS) to implement Laserfiche — starting with migrating content from the organization’s legacy system.
The first workflow the CATIC and AIS teams automated was for the company’s CATICTrac service, which tracks, obtains and records the appropriate documents needed to clear liens. The automated process eliminates the need for clients to submit paper forms, which can be cumbersome, error-prone and lead to delays. Instead, clients submit an electronic Laserfiche form, which automatically routes information to the appropriate personnel for review and approval.
Using the Laserfiche-driven solution, CATIC was able to simplify the process from 12 steps down to five and improve efficiency in the process by 76%. Cooper estimates that the CATICTrac workflow alone saves the organization over $84,000 per year.
Enabling Enterprise-Wide Continuous Improvement with Laserfiche
After the initial success with CATICTrac, Cooper and his team expanded the use of Laserfiche into other areas of the business, including records management, claims and compliance.
Digitizing records and automating records management processes was an impactful initiative that had a profound effect across the enterprise. By centralizing content in Laserfiche, CATIC created a robust information backbone for the organization that is searchable and accessible, while maintaining the granular access controls needed to support information governance. When policies are filed, they are now immediately available for processing, rather than the next morning as was with the legacy system.
This also streamlined the policy request process when stakeholders needed to pull policies, for example for finance to recognize revenue; if a claim was ever filed against the policy; or if a modification needed to be made to the policy. Requests to pull policies previously resulted in wait times of around 11 days, which have been shortened to six. The first-time quality of information pulled has also increased by more than 10%. Finally, the entire initiative has simplified activities for stakeholders, who pull an average of 150,000 policies per year.
In claims, the goal was to simplify and standardize the process, cutting down wait and processing times while increasing the quality and capacity for claims. Using Laserfiche, Cooper automated the process and reduced the number of steps to process a claim from 27 down to 11. The processing time for a claim is now 50% more efficient, with a 5% boost in, first time quality. The elimination of paper in the process also saved CATIC over $25,500 per year.
CATIC isn’t stopping there, however, and is currently pursuing an integration between legal management solution CounselLink and Laserfiche that will make the process even more efficient. Today, claims are filed through Laserfiche Forms, which allows claimants to input necessary information and upload supporting documents. Laserfiche then sends the supporting documents to CounselLink. “Phase two is about eliminating keystrokes,” Cooper said. “With the integration, all of the data entry that claimants are putting on the notice of claim form will be pushed into CounselLink, because paralegals are currently rekeying that data.”
Cooper’s continuous improvement approach has been embraced internally, too, within the compliance department. Each year, employees must acknowledge that have read and agree follow company codes and policies, which is now done through a Laserfiche form.
“We launch this project every year, and every year we make changes,” Cooper said. “This is probably the most picture-perfect example of continuous improvement. Every year it gets more and more efficient.”
The previously paper-driven, manual process would take about 60 days, while today it takes just 15. The Laserfiche form has cut down the amount of time employees need to spend with the document, making it 90% more efficient.
As a result of these systematic improvements, CATIC saves over $325,000 annually, while also supporting information governance and compliance practices and policies and enhancing the customer and employee experience.
Supporting Future Growth
Cooper continues to make updates to existing processes and find new areas to improve efficiency and productivity across the organization. “With new Laserfiche processes, as more work comes in the door, we now have the ability to increase units completed or throughput,” Cooper said. “And the whole industry has moved toward focusing on profitability per unit. So, we’re able to also facilitate growth without having to hire more staff.”
In the works are integrations with financial management and accounting software Sage Intacct that will allow for easier reimbursement requests, and an integration with Microsoft Power BI to create a dashboard for policy issues that agents and senior management can view and address any missing information.
Cooper is also working to use Laserfiche’s process automation capabilities to sync information from an FTP site daily so he doesn’t have to do it manually. “The bot is like a personal assistant,” he added.
“Laserfiche is something I felt that I could be great at, but also could help me to help others be great,” Cooper said. “I see that as a powerful tool. I enjoy making processes better and I feel Laserfiche is the most powerful thing I’ve encountered, where I could achieve my own personal goal of helping others achieve their goals.”
