Regardless of what digital transformation means to you and your business, the ability to extract and use information, data, and insights is critical to staying competitive and relevant in any sector. Digital initiatives also support environmental, social, and governance — ESG — strategies, a must for remaining attractive to investors and socially-minded consumers.
In this blog, we’re going to dig into how insurance companies in particular can better leverage digital mailroom solutions.
While most insurance companies do utilize digital mailrooms, the not-so-good news is the potential remains largely untapped. Vast amounts of business-critical information remain locked away, even after documents have been digitized. Digital mailrooms can do much more than manage inbound paper, emails, faxes, and PDFs. Here are two ways to boost operational value with your digital mailroom in 2023.
Unlock Usable Data to Drive Better Business Decisions
Converting paper to PDF format and saving the document with a sensible file name is just the tip of the digitization iceberg. Data capture — often referred to as indexing — lets staff search for, request, retrieve, and view the files and information they need.
Without manual or automated indexing, the bulk of critical business data remains stuck in the digitized image. Now, pair indexing with optical character recognition and intelligent capture recognition — OCR and ICR, respectively — and your digital mailroom function shifts completely.
With indexing, OCR, and ICR, your digital mailroom is no longer all about ingesting paper or faxes. It’s about gleaning usable business data for smarter operational decisions and unlocking robust automation solutions to optimize processes.
Digitize Claims and Accounts Payable Processes
Once you get a handle on what types of information can be extracted from your documents, the opportunities to digitize manual, time-consuming tasks will be hard to ignore. Starting with claims typically adds immediate value. Digital mailrooms can automatically extract and post claims-related information directly into an existing system. Automating data capture and importing information in real time addresses security concerns and risks. Claims are processed faster to deliver a better customer experience.
Along with a better customer experience, think about the impact of using extracted data from hard copy checks that come into your organization. Intelligent capture technology can pull routing numbers and account details from paper checks, and through connectivity to online bank accounts, upload relevant information to help your business get funds faster.
Digital mailroom technologies also work wonders in accounts payable processing.
In these instances, data is validated by two- or three-way pairing, matched against master files, and uploaded for payment. All information, including line-item detail in invoices, is delivered and verified against the systems of record. Immediate email confirmations are sent when an invoice is received, eliminating manual follow-ups about the status.
Automating the accounts payable function is cost-effective and efficient. It also provides visibility into typically underutilized insights in the procurement process. The real value is experienced when data informs decisions in cash flow management, working capital, spend analysis, trends, and strategic sourcing. Although digital mailrooms can become a tool to truly impact the bottom line, they’re not always leveraged this way in the insurance sector.
Does your business rely on manual data entry to populate your claims system? Do you employ clerks in accounting? If so, you’ve just identified an opportunity to get more from your digital mailroom.
Every digital transformation journey is unique.
Every digital transformation journey is unique. So is every digital transformation vendor. We are proud of our niche expertise in serving insurance companies of all sizes.
Whether you’re ready to find your first digital mailroom partner or it’s time to implement more sophisticated workflow and automation capabilities, we can help.
