Allstate of Canada’s claims managers have become efficiency phenomena. They can walk into a property with a tablet PC, measure rooms with a laser rangefinder, draw out floor plans by dragging lines on the tablet, incorporate digital photos in the electronic file, link to vendors over wireless connections, check estimates against regional pricing schedules, collect a homeowner’s signature, start the repair process and file the claim without ever returning to the office.

When they’re done, a new case appears, complete with directions to the location. All of this happens without leaving the property, without having to go back to the office or laptop and faster than any traditional claims processing method.

How? Allstate Canada is using a pen-based, wireless claims solution developed and hosted by Symbility Solutions, which estimates that its software can settle claims at least six times faster than paper-based solutions. As a user enters claim information, the software looks for common errors and alerts the user so the mistakes can be corrected before the claim is finished.

“It’s an entirely pen-based computing system that works with PDA’s or tablet PCs,” said Eric Embacher, chief software architect at the company. “It is primarily a hosted solution, and then we integrate with the back-office systems of carriers like Allstate Canada.”

When an adjuster has a claim, he manages it through the Symbility system. The adjuster in the field can interact with different parties in real time and when he is beyond the range of a wireless connection, the application runs on his tablet and then syncs with Symbility when he gets back into range.

Through this application, an adjuster going out into the field can download all the claims he has for the day onto his computer, work with them on location, lock them when he is finished and release the final claim when he returns to the office or when he finds a network he wants to connect to. The application is very lightweight so even on a slow network it sends data quickly. With images, if the network is slow, a thumbnail is transmitted and then the user can send a full version when he links to a high speed network.

Once the claim is closed it can be stored on Symbility.NET, a communications hub, data warehouse and analytics engine which can be accessed by all authorized participants in a claim from any computing device with an Internet connection. Symbility.NET also includes an analytics engine to mine the data collected with each claim. The digital photos, room measurements, vendor lists and prices all remain in a single file, which is easily located by name or date.

“This allows us to be fair to the customer,” said Greg Stephens, claims administrator at the Allstate Insurance Company of Canada, “and make sure we are doing the right thing.”

Symbility’s application is also Bluetooth enabled and can link with a Disto laser rangefinder and import room measurements directly into the program. An adjuster can draw the floor plans of even custom-shaped rooms by entering points and dimensions; the program fills in the rest.

“When you are building a floorplan, you can use the Disto with the Symbility program and in no time you can develop an accurate layout of the claims site,” explained Embacher. “We can build a claim 10 times faster than contractors do today.”

For carriers, the fully integrated system means they can usually collect all the information they need in one visit to a loss site, from measuring roof distances to inputting photographs and collecting the owner’s signature. The value proposition for carriers is that every day that a claim is open it costs them money, because the longer a claim goes unfulfilled and unclosed, the more problems stemming from the original property damage tend to increase – a situation known as claims creep. Naturally, as damages increase on a claim, the costs rise for insurance companies, cutting into profits significantly.

“Speeding up the settlement process is a critical issue for us,” said Allstate’s Stephens. “The productivity increases demonstrated by the Symbility system are startling. Symbility is a big part of our expense reduction and customer service leadership.” The system shortens the settlement process by speeding up response times from vendors and allowing Allstate Canada to be more responsive in its claims handling.

One of the key features of Symbility’s pen-based, wireless solution is how the system allows for multiple parties to be involved in a claim. It allows all claim participants to track assignments and view details of claims in progress, providing up-to-the minute information amalgamated from all claim participants regardless of where they are. For example, once a user “owns” the claim, he can obtain multiple quotes from vendors and service companies in real time to get the claim resolved quickly.

“Symbility Solutions is the only system designed for the insurance claims industry from the ground up specifically for wireless, pen-based computing,” said Embacher. “It works best on a tablet PC, but because they can cost more than $2,000, a lot of contractors prefer to use PDA’s. Installing desktop software designed for a desktop on a tablet doesn’t provide the efficiency or ease of use that comes from an application created for mobile computing.”

Symbility launched its mobile claims solution last May with Allstate in Canada and has added insurance carriers such as Economical Insurance and Gore Mutual. Symbility has recently begun software pilot programs with two US-based insurance carriers, which they expect to complete prior to the end of the first quarter 2006. The pilots are currently being carried out in the Midwest and Western United States.

www.allstate.ca

www.symbilitysolutions.com