**Managed Document Service (DocuWare)** Insurance
Case Study | Alan Blunden
Cloud-based document management solution proves a game-changer for UK insurance business
UK insurance business Alan Blunden had an old document processing system that threatened the company’s high customer service standards. It was replaced with a Ricoh Managed Document Service and DocuWare application that has become mission-critical and is helping the company grow and remain competitive. Business operations are more productive and agile, and it is meeting customer needs quickly and efficiently.
Name
Alan Blunden
Location
Westcliff on Sea, Essex
Size
80 staff
Activity
Insurance
Challenges
Existing document management system no longer fit for purpose
Benefits
Transforms functions into efficient, automated processes
Increases business agility and productivity
Cloud storage supports remote working, enables file access anytime, anywhere
Automates and transforms customer service
Solution
Ricoh Managed Document Service
DocuWare
Founded in 1947, Alan Blunden & Co Ltd is a family-run insurance business in South-East England providing home, vehicle, property and business insurance products locally and nationally. Despite its growth and development over many years, the business still offers a highly personal and one-to-one service to customers.
One of the key enablers to providing customers, brokers and staff with effective business operations and high-quality, personalised services is the company’s use of technology. As an insurance business, documents are essential and everyday it creates around 6,000 insurance-related forms and policy papers, letters and customer emails all of which needs some kind of action. Operating in financial services means the company is under strict regulations from the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) related to policy documentation, auditing, compliance, GDPR and document retention.
Early on the company invested in a desktop-based document system to process the growing number of documents more efficiently. But over time this system became tired, outdated and unsupported and was starting to impact customer service. It no longer met the needs of an expanding and customer-focused business. The company researched various options and decided to partner with Ricoh for a new solution.
As part of Ricoh’s Managed Document Services, Alan Blunden has signed a five-year deal with Ricoh to deploy the latest version of DocuWare. The application automates business processes and workflows by electronically managing and sharing documents regardless of their format or source. The application is hosted in the cloud using Microsoft Azure.
The contract with Ricoh includes ongoing support and application implementation and development. Ricoh helped Alan Blunden deliver two key projects. The first was upgrading the existing system to the latest version of DocuWare and moving it to a UK datacentre to take advantage of the latest Microsoft OS platform and to mitigate any regulatory risks around GDPR. Second, Ricoh helped the company migrate four million documents to the new platform. There is a ‘dummy’ version of DocuWare which the company uses for development and testing.
Hosting DocuWare in the cloud enables the company to reduce cost of ownership; improve resiliency, backup and security; and have full control of data which makes FCA audits easier. Andrew Jackson says, “We wanted a simple cloud-hosted, web-accessible document management system and with DocuWare we got that out of the box. We didn’t have to invest in a lot of development time since the system came with exactly the features we needed. And because DocuWare is simple to use, it was easy for our developers to write APIs to integrate with our back office systems and broker platforms.”
DocuWare has now become a mission-critical application for Alan Blunden enabling the business to service customers and brokers quickly and efficiently. Andrew Jackson says, “The Ricoh DocuWare solution is very important to the business and serving our customers. It’s been a game-changer for us because it is so configurable and has so many add-ons. Alongside our insurance broking system, it’s our most important IT system and we really couldn’t live without it.”
One of the key benefits of DocuWare has been its impact on business processes and workflows. Andrew Jackson says, “The workflow engine in DocuWare has improved internal processes in nearly every area of the business. We now use the workflow engine to process all our customer interactions including emails, post, faxes and website requests. It has increased our productivity and business agility by streamlining all business enquiries into one, easy-to-use system.”
The workflow engine enables the company to apply a series of tasks to a document to create a business process which is transforming operations. Paper-based workflows have been automated which increases speed and reliability. This allows customer service staff to respond quickly to customers who may need renewals or new quotes. For instance, when a customer calls in and their number is put into DocuWare, the customer’s entire history is pulled up immediately through the self-learning capabilities. As well as specific insurance policies this also includes correspondence and any other related documents.
“With the DocuWare workflow engine customer service staff and managers have one pane of glass to all enquiries across the business. We’re able to handle very large volumes of documents coming in from our customers quickly and efficiently,” says Andrew Jackson.
DocuWare reports show how the business is performing and, if necessary where a particular team is struggling and needs extra support.
Another key benefit of DocuWare is ease of integration with existing business systems. Alan Blunden has a portal where brokers access information and policy-related documents. An API enables the company to manage and process these documents in DocuWare, but then seamlessly present them to brokers via the portal. Andrew Jackson says, “Integration and API support in DocuWare allows us to brand our document portal whilst using a responsive storage system as the back-end.”
Simple customisation lets Alan Blunden create storage ‘cabinets’ specific to the insurance business such as customer number and name, policy number and insurer product name. It can also customise fields, that can be automatically populated, within each cabinet specific to insurance, so that documents can be searched easily.
Alan Blunden is now receiving positive feedback from customers and brokers on improved service levels. One broker mentioned that during the COVID-19 pandemic Alan Blunden operated as if there had been no disruption.
Ricoh Solution/Products
Ricoh development services
Ricoh support
Ricoh is empowering digital workplaces using innovative technologies and services enabling individuals to work smarter. For more than 80 years, Ricoh has been driving innovation and is a leading provider of document management solutions, IT services, communication services, commercial and industrial printing, digital cameras, and industrial systems.
Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group operates in approximately 200 countries and regions. In the financial year ended March 2020, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 19.06 billion USD.
For further information, please visit www.ricoh.co.uk