Leading third party claims administrator Gallagher Bassett and Origami Risk, the award-winning provider of software and services for the risk and insurance industry, co-hosted the half-day discussion at The Gherkin. Besides assessing the implications of the GDPR, participants identified several current and emerging management information issues and opportunities, including:

• Inconsistent historical claims data. Firms with multiple insurers reported difficulty obtaining historical claims data in a standard format, requiring a time-consuming manual process to reconcile data into standard reporting platforms. A related challenge: claim information retrieved often is missing key elements, such as allocation to a business unit, placing an added burden on the insured.

• Data maturity. Executives found they need at least 2 – 3 years of claims to perform effective trend studies and other analytics. While obtaining past loss data from insurers helps analyse prior trends, the collection of new data from current claim and incident reports may require another 2 – 3 years before sufficient data are captured for effective analytics.

• Large loss data more complete. Participants found loss data from large claims to be more robust and useful for analytical purposes, while that collected from reports of smaller, more frequent losses often was lacking.

• Barriers to internal data utilization. Risk managers at some global companies reported difficulties getting all their business units to make use of loss data, such as in making necessary adjustments in loss prevention, safety programs and other performance and productivity improvements.

• Simplified loss reporting, a best practice. Participants identified a reluctance by employees to report incidents when reports required too many details; they concluded that making it easier to file an incident report helped facilitate higher completion rates.

• Improving loss reporting: Carrot vs. stick. Risk managers use a variety of techniques to motivate employees to file timely loss reports. These range from penalising individuals and their units for failing to report incidents on a timely basis to using incentives, such as ranking business units based on the timeliness of their incident reporting rates and rewarding top performers with more favorable premium allocations.

• Voice technology, key words may aid more robust reporting. Risk managers expressed enthusiasm about the use of voice recordings to facilitate faster and more complete claims reporting. The use of key words to pinpoint causality and flag other issues to be captured was also considered a valuable element of free- or open-text-field claim and incident reporting modules.

“In recent years, cloud-based technology has given risk managers the ability to gather, analyze, and share greater volumes of claims and loss data in exciting new ways that are driving more effective claims management and better worker safety and loss prevention,” said Neil Scotcher, client service and sales executive for the UK at Origami Risk in London. “At the same time, as the full implementation of GDPR approaches, the entire industry is working to exercise even greater vigilance to protect data and safeguard privacy.”

“Forums, such as the roundtable, give risk managers the opportunity to identify common challenges they face with respect to their data and organisational cultures, and accelerates their ability to identify and collaborate with us on new solutions to improve their results,” said Simon Pemberton, director – Sales & Marketing, Gallagher Bassett International Ltd in London. “The takeaway for all of us is that as an industry we’ve come a long way, but still have a great deal of work ahead of us.”

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About Gallagher Bassett

Gallagher Bassett is the premier provider of global claims services, dedicated to exceptional customer service and demonstrably superior outcomes. A subsidiary of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE: AJG), GB helps people, teams and businesses overcome adversity and loss through the guiding expertise of over 5,000 claims professionals, all committed to going beyond expectations in the continuous pursuit of a better way.

About Origami Risk LLC

Origami Risk was founded by industry veterans committed to designing intuitive web-based software that streamlines how risk, insurance and claims data is collected, analyzed and shared—ultimately helping users to be more productive and manage the total cost of risk for their organizations or for their clients. Origami Risk has consistently been ranked the top RMIS Provider in Advisen’s annual RMIS Review; and in 2011 and 2016, it received the Business Insurance Innovation Award for leadership, inventiveness and ingenuity in risk management products and services. To learn more about Origami Risk, visit www.origamirisk.com, or contact Origami at info@origamirisk.com.