Discover Latest Insurance Priorities: Embrace the Power of Process Automation
The insurance industry has embraced digital technology in pursuit of gaining a competitive edge. Despite ongoing economic uncertainties and various significant challenges, insurers and their distribution channels are currently grappling with disruptions. These disruptions encompass a rise in claims and incurred costs, as well as a surge in operational expenses. Given these evolving circumstances, insurance leaders must remain adaptive and flexible with a steadfast commitment to digital transformation.
Join us for a panel of industry experts who will unveil the latest Digital Insurance survey findings. These insightful discoveries shed light on how technology and operational leaders at insurance carriers are strategically redefining the priorities of digital transformation and shaping the new normal.
Topics covered in this webinar include:
The critical business priorities that are driving the state of insurance digital transformation
How to navigate common pain points related to process automation
The best strategies for technology adoption across your organization
How other insurance firms are demonstrating ROI with digital transformation
Build a Seamless, Integrated New Account Opening Solution with Laserfiche
Opening a new account has traditionally been a cumbersome process within the financial services sector, burdened by paperwork and time-consuming steps. Firms have sought to improve this process by either building their own workflows with existing technology tools or deploying new point solutions. However, these approaches often lack the true automation needed, as they involve manual and repetitive procedures and are disconnected among line-of-business systems.
Join this complimentary webinar to discover an end-to-end integrated solution for new account opening using Laserfiche process automation, coupled with integration tools that enhance the client experience, reduce operational costs, and address compliance challenges.
The webinar will cover the following topics:
Trends for the new account opening process in the wealth management industry.
A live demonstration of an automated new account opening solution in Laserfiche.
Real-world use cases from the global Laserfiche financial services community.
• The university needed to retire a legacy document management system
• Content needed to be migrated to a system that offered information management and process automation
SOLUTION
• Improved information retrieval time and efficiency
• Automated processes accelerated response times and increased transparency
• Enhanced student, staff and faculty experience
The American University in Cairo (AUC) is a leading English-language, U.S.-accredited institution of higher education. With a diverse community of students, faculty, alumni, trustees and supporters representing more than 60 countries, the university prides itself on being a crossroads for the world’s cultures and a vibrant forum for reasoned argument and spirited debate.
While the university is over 100 years old, it has prioritized offering a modern student experience. Its New Cairo campus features a state-of-the-art facility for advanced research, innovative teaching, lifelong learning and civic engagement. Recently, the university’s technology solutions team set out to modernize technology systems and processes to better align with its students, faculty and staff’s needs and expectations.
“Before Laserfiche, we were facing many challenges in managing a legacy content management system,” said Soumaia Al Ayyat, Ph.D., lead applications development analyst at AUC. “We had an overflow of paper-based documents and student records stored in our warehouse.”
The technology solutions team worked with BMB, a Laserfiche solution provider with locations across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, to implement Laserfiche as a modern way to manage information and automate processes campuswide.
Building a Strong Information Governance Framework
AUC outlined its requirements for a new system for managing content. The technology solutions team had the vision to go beyond traditional document management and implement a full content services platform.
“We were looking for a centralized content management system for improving process automation and enforcing governance rules on the content,” Al Ayyat said. The technology solution team selected Laserfiche for its ease-of-use, flexibility and integration capabilities.
The plan was to migrate content from the legacy system to Laserfiche with documents’ respective template fields, and implement access controls and forms-based audit reports of the legacy system’s actions. The team also embraced Laserfiche’s records management capabilities by applying retention polices on the migrated content as well as new content.
“All departments reported a noticeable improvement in retrieval time and efficiency due to the accompanied metadata and proper access rights,” Al Ayyat said, adding that documents for over 25,000 students were successfully migrated. “We’ve saved a great amount of paper, time and budget with Laserfiche records management.”
Early Adopters: Automating Enrollment and Admissions Processes
Once the team had brought content over from the legacy system, they turned their focus to automation for four different user personas: for students, staff, faculty and external users (such as visitors). One of the most pressing needs was streamlining the admissions process.
“Just before COVID-19, the university was transforming into a paperless and cashless campus,” said Mohamed El Fadly, technology solutions director at AUC. “One of its main goals was to enhance and automate the admissions process, so that students could submit their files online and track their documents at any time.”
Before using Laserfiche, students were required to submit around 10 types of documents — including grades, birth certificates, national IDs, photos, etc. — in physical form.
“The Enrollment and Admissions Office was our early adopter of Laserfiche Forms to automate the admissions checklist process,” El Fadly added. The office launched a Laserfiche form that enabled students to submit documents online and routed the information automatically to admissions and related departments for review, approval and follow-up. Students can track the progress of their applications at any time in the process.
Students can also opt to visit AUC’s Student Service Center to submit documents. For in-person submission, students sign a signature pad, whose system is integrated with the Laserfiche form so that it may be stored in the repository for future reference.
An API integration between Laserfiche and AUC’s student information system, Ellucian Banner, streamlines information sharing and the creation of students’ Laserfiche accounts once accepted.
Since the success of the admissions checklist, AUC has also used Laserfiche Forms for a number of other student-facing processes including:
Scholarship checklists
Research grants
Overload requests
Withdrawal requests
Leave of absence requests
“Any of these automated processes enable students to submit academic and administrative documents online, receive approval quickly and track their status,” said El Fadly. “We’re able to offer these responsive student services because we’re using Laserfiche as a campus-wide solution.”
Campus-wide Process Automation and Modernization
“Laserfiche’s ease of use and integration capabilities with our core systems like Banner and SAP enable the university to quickly extend its workflow and online forms solution capabilities to other campus departments, including the Registrar office, the Provost office, the security office and the Controller office,” said El Fadly.
For faculty and staff, AUC has automated processes that previously required many manual, repetitive tasks and physical copies, including:
Faculty grants
Faculty report requests
Faculty grade change requests
Clearance requests
Visitors to the campus, too, use Laserfiche as part of the visitor request process. Once a request is submitted, Laserfiche generates a QR code with dynamic information extracted from the request form, which is presented at the entrance gates. An integration with the CodeREADr app enables security guards to scan the codes with the app and record check-in and check-out.
“These modern, automated processes have enabled AUC to manage increased information flow without additional burden on students, faculty and staff. Adopting Laserfiche in the Enrollment and Admissions office has led to the migration of over 1 million admissions records and the processing of over 320,000 records in two years, while AUC has also managed over 350 School of Continuing Education petition submission, 1,000 visitor requests and nearly 200 clearance requests in the same amount of time. Additionally, the use of Laserfiche aligns well with AUC’s sustainability goals. “We’ve eliminated the use of millions of paper documents,” Al Ayyat said. “Laserfiche has helped us to achieve our paperless goal and go green.”
Today, the technology solutions team continues to optimize operations and digitize more departments’ content. The team has more than 20 business processes in their queue for automation.
“The smart process automation in Laserfiche and its capabilities to design very complex processes facilitated the improvement of AUC’s internal processes and enhanced the student experience,” said Al Ayyat. “Laserfiche provides efficiency via intelligent forms with the proper workflow and the proper repository access rights. The smart reporting and analytics of Laserfiche empower the stakeholders in monitoring and identifying process bottlenecks. Overall, Laserfiche enables us to offer our services more quickly and with greater accessibility.”
While the feature set of a business process management (BPM) platform can be robust, it’s not always easy to identify where and how to use the tools effectively. Below are a few use cases that highlight the benefits of implementing business process management within your organization.
Use cases for finance departments
A highly regulated part of any business, a finance department can find many benefits in using a BPM platform:
Customer invoicing: Find new efficiency with the ability to quickly route documents to relevant parties, including key approvers and stakeholders, creating transparency throughout the invoice management process.
Cash flows: Gain a clear view of incoming and outgoing funds with processes you can follow using robust analytics dashboards.
Invoice processing: Automatically extract relevant data from scanned or imported invoices, making invoice information easier to verify and match with relevant purchase orders.
Expense reimbursement: Streamline the expense reimbursement process with the ability to efficiently route documents between requesters and approvers.
Budget transfers: Enhance your organization’s ability to move allocated funds between departments with prebuilt automation templates from a solution marketplace.
Use cases for HR departments
As the department responsible for employee onboarding and support, Human Resources can have many processes to manage on any given day. Here are a few ways a BPM platform can help:
Employee onboarding: Get employees started faster by automatically routing onboarding paperwork between them and the HR department.
Employee forms and requests: Enable a quick turnaround for employee requests with the ability to automatically direct forms and paperwork between stakeholders.
Vacation requests: Give your organization the opportunity to field vacation requests more effectively with prebuilt automation templates obtained from a solution marketplace.
Professional development requests: Support employee growth with fast response times to requests for professional development, using tools that can route information automatically to relevant parties.
Timesheets: Get automatic reminders of when timesheets are due and automatically route information to approvers.
Benefits enrollment: Automatically set reminders to notify employees of key benefits enrollment deadlines.
Use cases for legal and compliance departments
For legal and finance departments, accuracy and efficiency is an essential part of conducting business, and helping to ensure audits of their organizations go smoothly. Below are some ways these departments can benefit from using a BPM platform.
Legal review and contract approvals: Speed up approval processes with process automation functionality that directs information to appropriate stakeholders with ease.
Contract negotiation: Quickly route contracts between relevant parties as items are updated or changed, and use integrated digital signature tools for signoff.
Use cases for supply chain management
Supply chain management can be a challenge for many businesses and can cause ripple effects throughout an organization if not regarded as critically important to operations. Here are some use cases for BPM platforms that can help supply chain managers create new efficiencies:
Procurement: Enable a responsive and quick-to-act procurement process with the ability to move information about materials readily between appropriate stakeholders.
Operations: Identify bottlenecks with analytics dashboards that enable your organization to get an informative overview of ongoing processes.
Incoming materials and outgoing products: Leverage powerful process dashboards to identify trends in how your organization is procuring materials and producing products.
Quality control: Use prebuilt automation templates from a solution marketplace to build workflows that streamline how quality control information is collected and delivered.
Use cases for customer service departments
Customer service departments rely heavily on the accuracy of their information in order to provide the highest level of service possible. Here are some ways a BPM platform can help:
Customer requests for service: Meet the needs of customers on their schedule with the ability to provide automated service as requests come in.
Case management: Easily route information between team members to stay up to date on cases and provide automatic status updates for customers.
Application processing: Automatically route applications for services and programs to the appropriate approvers.
Customer service follow-up: Enable any staff member to provide follow-ups to requests with automation tools that make case information easy to move between team members.
Support ticket submissions: Quickly route support tickets to relevant personnel based on expertise and availability.
Use cases for IT departments
Information technology departments are usually fielding many projects and requests at once. Without the right tools, resources can run thin quickly. Here are a few ways a BPM platform can help your IT department utilize its resources effectively:
Case management: Provide automatic status updates on cases and easily route relevant case information between team members as needed.
Data analysis and insights: Gain actionable insights on processes department-wide with robust analytics dashboards.
Helpdesk support: Streamline operations and information-routing with prebuilt automation templates obtained from a solution marketplace.
Network access requests: Leverage automation to accelerate approvals of requests from staff to access applications and functionality critical to their roles.
Use cases for sales teams
The more information salespeople have, the more empowered they are to inform customers and close deals. Here are some ways a BPM platform can assist Sales teams in generating revenue for their organizations:
Sales contracts: Accelerate deals with the ability to automatically route contracts between relevant parties as items are updated.
Travel and expense requests: Jumpstart workflows your organization can use to furnish requests quickly using prebuilt automation templates from a solution marketplace.
Use cases for business continuity
Whether an individual unit or a group of individual experts across multiple departments, teams need effective tools to mitigate the risk that comes with disruptions to business. Here are a few ways a BPM platform can assist your organization in its efforts to create a more resilient enterprise:
Communicating with customers: Keep customers up to date on requests for information and services from anywhere with automation tools.
Business continuity planning: Leverage digital, automated workflows to keep processes moving, even if in-person staff are unavailable.
Crisis management: Automate key crisis management processes to boost your organization’s ability to respond effectively in critical situations.
Business impact analysis: Evaluate performance of key processes during simulated disruptions with analytics tools to get an overview of your organization’s preparedness.
Customer Spotlight: Sky Telecommunications
Learn how the HR department at leading telecommunications company Sky was able to deliver more efficient services for its 25,000 employees by leveraging automation.
Continue Your Journey
Compare top digital process automation (DPA) vendors on G2
Grace Nam, strategic solutions manager: manufacturing, on ways in which manufacturers can boost efficiencies and keep up with customer demand, even as inflation and supply chain issues continue to put pressure on the industry.
• Capturing, routing and storing member information was manual and lacked consistency
• Operations needed to scale at a pace that aligned with the credit union’s growth trajectory
• The credit union sought a platform for automation that would integrate with existing tech stack
RESULTS
• All staff now use Laserfiche regularly in a variety of key processes
• Saved hundreds of hours each month
• Alleviated the burden of mergers as the credit union grows
“We address people’s needs and solve problems — it’s what credit unions do,” said Matthew Tingey, senior applications specialist at American United Federal Credit Union (FCU).
The philosophy has powered American United FCU since 1952, driving the organization’s growth to serve more than 26,000 people today. And along with that growth has come transformation, to create a single source of truth for records, integrate core technology systems and enable easier self-service for members.
“I was originally asking questions like, ‘Can I automate this? Can I batch process these things? Where can I take the annoying parts out of this process?’” said Tingey. “But it’s never good enough to solve my own problem. I need to solve problems for everyone in the organization. That’s where Laserfiche came in.”
The credit union now uses Laserfiche as its repository for member information, and the main workflow engine for automated processes across the organization, including finance, member relations, money movement and more, saving hundreds of hours each month and alleviating the burden of mergers as the organization continues to grow.
Centralizing and Standardizing Records Management
Like many growing organizations, American United FCU had information — including member documents, HR employee records, financial records and more — incoming from a multitude of channels, being handled in a variety of ways. Tingey, a dedicated credit union professional who has worked in every department across the organization, recognized a need to standardize archival of documents. At the same time, he saw an opportunity to automate information capture.
The credit union began using Laserfiche process automation to automate records management activities, routing documents to where they needed to be stored within the repository, with the needed metadata, no matter the source.
“We’ve processed multiple millions of documents through there,” said Tingey. “Employees just need to click, and it gets to where it needs to go.”
American United FCU, supported by Laserfiche solution provider Millennial Vision (MVi), has built out a Laserfiche program that also supports the organization’s total quality management initiative, which aims to improve processes with an eye toward growth and profitability.
“These tools help us do things more efficiently, bridge the gap between some of our other software tools, and let our teams work in better collaboration. They really solve a lot of problems.”
With the initial solution in place, it was time to connect other systems to eliminate human error and make the repetitive tasks around document capture and storage even easier.
“From there, I wanted Laserfiche to talk back to our core [account system] to verify the information being captured,” Tingey said. “Now, it’s not just member documents that we’re processing through the system but applications, loan documents, and other daily work. The process has expanded and grown. It’s the single source of truth, and really the backbone of our process automation.”
Connecting the Dots: Automating Processes Across the Organization
In addition to having Laserfiche verify information from the organization’s core, CUProdigy, the credit union has a number of integrations that support a more seamless everyday work experience for employees.
“We’ve also built a large database of information that we want to track and report on in Microsoft Power BI, and Laserfiche plays a big role in that,” Tingey said, adding that he keeps track of data issues — caused by activities like an employee leaving the organization, for example — through daily reports. “Laserfiche is a big part of managing the data that is used to create those Power BI reports.”
Similarly, Tingey has transformed the way that the organization validates data, identifying potential issues through Forms processes (started by Laserfiche Workflow) that trigger when an issue occurs. These items were previously actively tracked by an employee on a continual basis; today, no one needs to remember to review the reports since processes are triggered in Forms when issues occur — plus, instructions are integrated into the form so that less training and individual knowledge is required to address them.
“More recently, we’ve added some API integrations with the core to this process,” Tingey explained. “We pull information out of CUProdigy to use in Laserfiche Workflow and Forms via database queries. Notes can be pushed back to accounts with a click of a button in a form. A couple of the items that instructed the user to fix an issue can now be resolved automatically via the API without human intervention. These data validations and the automation around them have allowed our QA to be more efficient, effective and consistent.”
One game-changing integration for the credit union was between Laserfiche and DocuSign, which allowed Tingey to automate a common activity for credit unions: member information changes. The legacy process was manually driven and admittedly not very employee- or member-friendly.
The organization has enhanced the overall experience for employees and members by embedding the entire process into Laserfiche Forms:
An employee pulls up the member information change form, which auto-populates the member’s information.
The employee identifies what needs to be changed.
If the member is in-branch, the member uses the signature pad.
If the member is not in-branch, Laserfiche interacts with the DocuSign API by sending information from Laserfiche Forms to DocuSign, and then to the member for signature.
The employee attaches the signed document to the form and submits it in Laserfiche Forms.
Laserfiche automatically routes the information to the relevant teams for review, approval, and task completion.
Similarly, the credit union’s wire transfer process has benefited from Laserfiche Forms and an integration with DocuSign.
“In terms of solutions, I borrow from myself,” Tingey said, explaining that he’s often able to build on successes by taking a process and repurposing it by making tweaks to forms or steps.
The legacy wire transfer process, which involved many manual activities performed by employees, left members and auditors with little visibility into the required steps. The new Laserfiche process, however, gives the credit union the ability to provide helpful context to the member about what they are signing and the wire disclosure via the DocuSign integration.
“Once complete, employees only need to click a button to attach it to the form, and processing of the wire in our core is done via API, with minimal tasks required by the employee,” Tingey said. The form is automatically routed to the necessary employees for review and processing, and all supporting documentation is archived in the Laserfiche repository with standard naming conventions and metadata.
The new wire transfer process saves up to 25 hours of staff processing time per month, while also reducing opportunities for human error and increasing staff satisfaction.
“We’ve taken all the annoying little parts out of the process, like downloading a PDF, uploading it to DocuSign, marking fields on it, manually sending it to the member, downloading it again, etc.” said Tingey. “Another benefit is that when the member is prompted for signature, information will pop up to tell them exactly what they’re doing. It will let them know we’re doing a change of information process and here’s that we’re changing, or a wire transfer and here’s our wire disclosure. So instead of just signing something because they’re being asked to sign something, members feel more informed and taken care of.”
Transforming the Member Experience
Since the initial implementation of Laserfiche for process automation, American United FCU has had a lot of success automating back-office activities as well as some member processes that employees handle. Going beyond the back office to positively impact the member experience has always been the ultimate goal, however.
“These automated processes are all increasing member satisfaction,” Tingey said. “Whether our members are in-branch or doing things remotely, they are saving time and don’t have to wait for a teller to manually find all the documents they need to get things done.”
Today, Tingey is focused on transforming the member experience with the launch of a new website, which will feature enhanced self-service features powered by Laserfiche Forms. One such feature is the rewards claim request, which enables members to claim an end-of-year dividend that the credit union offers as a perk for members based on the products and services they’ve used throughout the year. The claim form lists all of the possible products and services that qualify for a reward amount, and the member enters a few details to verify themselves. The form verifies this information against the database to qualify the submission, and a Laserfiche workflow sends an email confirmation, recording all activities into a database so that rewards can be paid out at the end of the year.
Laserfiche digitization and automation projects have supported increased focus on the member experience, even through significant periods of growth for the credit union. Since 2007, the organization has completed 10 mergers, enabling asset growth from about $39 million to just over $370 million (as of April 27, 2023).
While mergers are always a huge undertaking, the process was made less painful with standardized and automated processes in place. “Mergers are very, very large projects — everything gets dumped into a central location, and there’s cleanup and moving things around,” said Tingey. “If it weren’t for the structure from Laserfiche and the tools like Workflows, they would be nearly impossible.”
Laserfiche has become such a vital part of American United FCU’s infrastructure that many employees aren’t able to imagine life without it today.
“Laserfiche is a cornerstone of our environment. The automation functionalities alone save us thousands of hours annually, but on top of that it helps us in so many ways to gather, process, and document nearly every piece of information that passes through our organization. There isn’t a single member of our team that doesn’t interact with Laserfiche, and most of them are working with the system throughout the day, every day.”
• Needed a way to centralize information
• Reliance on manual processes such as order management and accounts payable
• Lack of standardization and automation in processes
RESULTS
• Automated manual processes and created a digital-first, streamlined employee experience
• Increased productivity, transparency, and accountability
4Front Engineered Solutions has nine facilities in North America, and designs, manufactures and installs loading dock equipment solutions that are aimed at supplying the critical needs of customers across warehousing, manufacturing, retail, and distribution centers. As a result, productivity is a high priority. Commanding that accounts payable processes conform to the demands of today’s digital world is imperative. Like the modern and efficient approach taken with its products/solutions, 4Front wants to ensure it complies with industry regulations and more importantly, that customer needs are met with speed and accuracy.
“We initially wanted a quick way to process and access files ranging from order records, invoices and credit memos across different offices,” said Amy Skoug, director of IT — Applications at 4Front. “By developing a system that employees can use to manage core business documents from across the country, we have been able to use Laserfiche to improve efficiency and transparency for our customer service teams and other departments.”
4Front has been able to centralize information across departments in multiple locations, including accounting, customer service, engineering, and distribution, using Laserfiche repositories that enable standardized records management practices and simultaneous collaboration on documents. Employees use Laserfiche to digitally capture, manage and process order documents from purchase orders through invoicing, boosting accuracy and accountability. These initiatives have also enabled employees to work remotely during the pandemic, contributing to the company’s long-term business continuity and resiliency. Additionally, 4Front has leveraged Laserfiche to gain greater insight on how to continually improve efficiency, using to the process data from Laserfiche to rapidly identify and address process bottlenecks and opportunities for optimization.
Digital Transformation Covering Thousands of Miles
4Front initially implemented Laserfiche in 2016, driven by a need for a digital document management system that could provide long-term access and easy retrieval for manufacturing order information. With a previously paper- and manual task-driven order process, the organization scanned existing files and input new orders into a centralized Laserfiche repository for office locations in the U.S. and Canada. 4Front used the Laserfiche platform to build a digital customer and order information system, enabling staff to search for files with metadata and monitor real-time status for orders. This digital system has improved responsiveness to customers in need of service, as well as enabled departments such as accounting and customer service to digitally update and approve amendments to orders. Through an automated Laserfiche workflow, documents in need of review are routed to the relevant team, who can then cross-reference submissions across multiple locations and approve of changes within the system. Staff can work off one master copy of the document, which minimizes errors associated with managing multiple document versions.
“We gained a lot of interest from many departments after implementing Laserfiche Forms, including customer service to distribution, accounts payable and accounting,” said Skoug. “It provided us with a new way to do approvals for many of our existing processes.”
Implementing Laserfiche has also supported global expansion at 4Front. The company used the solution to digitize the check filing process within its Canada office. Using this system, staff can now process large batches of checks, which are digitally paired with corresponding invoices and filed within the repository by vendor name.
The company also integrated Laserfiche with 4Front’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to process invoices and work orders more easily. Files are automatically sorted and populated with the relevant sales order metadata, allowing interdepartmental collaboration, digital search and retrieval by leveraging metadata for order information. Using Laserfiche, 4Front also automated the three-way match between invoices, receipts and order forms. Laserfiche generates reports and checklists throughout the approval processes to help staff stay on track, identify areas of improvement, and minimize manual errors. Starting as a manual, paper-intensive process, the new invoice and work order processes have enabled more transparent customer and order information and opened up new opportunities for digital transformation.
The Road Ahead
After implementing its automated invoice and order management system, 4Front has achieved substantial savings in time originally dedicated to manual, paper-based tasks. This has been especially crucial during periods of expansion, as well as during pandemic-related operational disruptions.
Digital, centralized information has supported business continuity at 4Front as well, providing employees with a means to access and share files during the pandemic when staff needed to work remotely.
Solution-driven metrics are another component contributing to 4Front’s digital transformation initiatives, utilizing monthly reports that provide insights on overall productivity, staff performance and trends on reason codes. Additionally, the company is actively identifying other departments and processes where Laserfiche could be deployed, including the HR department to centralize employee files, facilitate the onboarding process and track trainings and safety reporting. 4Front is also looking to digitize common manufacturing industry processes such as generating and managing bills of lading (BoL), as well as new product information documentation. To continue driving change, plans are in place to deploy Laserfiche in departments handling input and feedback from external stakeholders, such as the warranty team and in-records retention processes, as well as engineering change processes.
“The manufacturing sector is becoming increasingly data driven. Our digital transformation initiatives have enabled us to provide a better experience for our customers and staff members. We can respond to customers more quickly, retrieving relevant documents in seconds while speaking to them.”
