* ARCADE: Agis Regular Correspondence Architecture and Development Environment
The insurance industry is probably one of the most paper-intensive industries in our global economy. It seems that every action begins and ends with a piece of paper. Enrollment applications. Claims forms. Customer invoices. Reimbursement checks.
Perhaps the only thing more complex than all the paperwork is the source of all the data that goes on all the forms, and ensuring that the right information gets sent to the right person in the right form at the right time. It’s a monumental task, to say the least.
This is certainly the case for Agis Zorgverzekeringen, one of the largest health insurance companies in The Netherlands. Agis has about 1.2 million customers, representing almost 10% of the country’s population. For all of these customers, Agis processes about 12 million documents a year, and sends out 150,000 invoices every month. Needless to say, the company orders paper by the ton.
I recently had a discussion with Bertjan Teunissen, the project manager for a large undertaking called the Agis Regular Correspondence Architecture and Development Environment, or ARCADE. The need for ARCADE became apparent after several major changes to Agis’ business. First came the privatization of The Netherlands’ healthcare system, and then came a series of mergers with regional insurers. All the changes left the IT department with significant challenges as well as opportunities.
Most of the challenges stemmed from the number of disparate IT systems where customer information was stored. The company eventually merged the data into just one system, but it had to keep multiple systems running for a number of years during the consolidation.
Teunissen says they felt this transition time was the right time to introduce new processes for improving the output of documents. With the old IT systems still in place, there were just too many solutions for correspondence streams. This meant that the numerous types of documents sent to customers were confusing, hard to read, inflexible and not standardized across the board. So many disjointed documents led to a higher call volume at the support center. And, the archiving of these documents was done locally on each system, which meant that customer service representatives could not view all the correspondence that a customer received from Agis – causing further confusion and low customer satisfaction ratings.
Teunissen’s team evaluated several document output solutions before selecting StreamServe. They liked that the product would allow them to draw data from multiple sources, compose an output document, and then use multiple channels to distribute the document. They favored StreamServe’s high performance capabilities, too. Teunissen says they are able to process 50,000 documents for output in an hour.
“Output,” by the way, doesn’t just mean printing. While Agis still does print many documents to send to customers, the company also sends a copy of every customer correspondence to its Documentum document archiving system, filing the documents in private customer folders. Now, when a customer calls the customer service hotline, the service representative can look in the customer’s folder and see all correspondence that has taken place with him. In addition, Agis sends some invoices digitally to electronic payment systems. The digital documents reduce errors in electronic payments and cuts down on the use of paper.
Agis has been operational with StreamServe and the ARCADE system for about one year. The company expects to achieve complete ROI in three years or less. Beyond the money savings, Agis is already seeing numerous benefits from using the new document presentment technology. Customer satisfaction ratings have already increased, from an average of 6.2 to 7.5 on a 10-point scale. Teunissen attributes much of the increase to the easier-to-understand correspondence the company now sends to customers. The new documents also lead to fewer customer service calls. Before, many of the calls dealt with explaining information on invoices and other records. Now those documents are more self-explanatory.
Another benefit is that Agis now uses its customer correspondence as a means for customized communications. This helps to build customer loyalty and reduce churn. A year ago, Agis had a 25% customer turnover rate; today it is estimated to be less than 5%.
Teunissen plans to roll out the new Persuasion version of StreamServe soon. This Web-based software will allow each business unit to compose its own documents and allow publishing on customer portals. Teunissen believes this will further improve the communication side of the company’s business. He speaks of the ARCADE system with intense pride, pointing to how it has enabled Agis to be more competitive.
