Driving Faster Data Conversions, Increasing Efficiency and Removing New-business Risks for a Rapidly Growing Insurance Carrier OPTIS
THE SITUATION In 2008, a midsize insurance carrier and third-party administrator (TPA) headquartered in Pennsylvania was enjoying a record-breaking year of business development and a significant amount of new business. That was the good news. The bad news was that the growth created the need to manage greater amounts of incoming data than the carrier had ever had to deal with before. And all of that data was being delivered in a variety of formats from all of the previous providers for the insurance carrier s new clients. Translating all of this data into a standard layout for operational efficiency became an undertaking that was both hugely time-consuming and resource-intensive. For example, it took the carrier upwards of eight weeks to complete the onboarding of a single employer s data. In addition, conversion process missteps and balancing problems added to the delay and increased the workload of an already over-burdened team. THE CHALLENGE Key stakeholders in the insurance company were becoming increasingly concerned about several risks and growing pains, any of which could easily hamstring opportunities for future growth and jeopardize the success of new implementations. Among the dangers were missed deadlines and decreased data quality; both were anathema to the carrier because of how they could hurt customer satisfaction. The company sought a solution that would support continued new growth, improve its processes, and ensure the integrity, accuracy, and security of data in every conversion and implementation project. Essentially, the carrier needed to very quickly optimize its data- reshaping process so it could: - Fit square pegs into round holes - Get back on track with promised project schedules - Free up team resources to focus on other business needs 2
THE SOLUTION The carrier selected Optis Insights data conversion services to address its growing pains and prepare it for the future by transforming its data-processing needs. The carrier chose Optis Insights for several reasons, but primarily because it: 1. Focuses solely on helping enterprise organizations that have complex people-data management needs capture and illuminate their people data 2. Adapts any people data employee benefits, risk, leave, and other operational data to the changing needs of each Optis client s business, regardless of that client s industry or market, and regardless of the complexity of their data needs 3. Delivers fast, accurate, secure, and affordable data conversions with decades of experience and a team of people data experts 4. Offers all the skills and features necessary for any enterprise data-conversion project to be considered a success by all of its stakeholders: - Data security - Data consolidation - Data aggregation - Data mapping - Vendor management - Data archiving - Flexibility - Lower cost of ownership - Data quality and integrity auditing 3
Our focus on the data allows our clients to focus on their clients. Rene Gates, Executive Vice President, Optis THE PROCESS Optis Insights followed a three-step process to get a deep understanding of the carrier s current situation and recommend improvements and new processes; create global requirements for any data conversions and implementations going forward; and immediately ease the workload and help the carrier s conversion and implementation team be more efficient. Step 1: Discovery and Assessment Optis launched a full-scale discovery assessment to get a comprehensive view of the client s current data conversion process and design a solution to optimize its future-state procedures. First, the Optis team of data experts reviewed and documented existing processes and data standards, including an assessment of existing data layouts, transmission processes, and implementation standards. With all of the details documented, Optis had a full-scale view of the carrier s data-conversion operation and was able to give feedback, identify gaps in the quality and completeness of the data, and outline process improvements. Step 2: Global Conversion Creation Next, Optis developed global data requirements that detailed all of the data field conditions necessary for data to be accepted into the client s system. This created a baseline set of rules that would be used in all future data migrations, and included determining all required fields, default values, and business logic for each field. It also included discerning quality controls required for data to be accepted into the client s system. With the global system requirements in place, the carrier gained two significant improvements: transparency into its conversion process and the ability to begin receiving quality-assured data in a predictable, usable format. In less than four months, Optis was ready to assist the carrier with its long-term data-conversion needs. Optis deep data expertise is built on a strong foundation of over 30 years of experience in managing people data, said Optis executive vice president, Rene Gates, MBA, PMP, CSM. Our focus on the data allows our clients to focus on their clients. 4
Step 3: Conversion Processing Utilizing the optimized standard data conversion process, Optis began managing the client s overflow conversions to help alleviate the heavy workload of its own conversion team. This finalized process included: Today, Optis manages 100 percent of the carrier s conversions - more than 140 conversions from 70 different data sources to date. 1. Initial assessment of the data to ensure its usability, and identify any issues as early as possible in the process. If there was an error in the data, Optis coordinated with the data supplier to fill any gaps. 2. Using proprietary mapping algorithms designed by Optis people data experts, the data was then mapped and readied for conversion into the carrier s standard format. 3. Next, an initial test conversion was run through the conversion process. After review by the carrier, any necessary changes to the data were documented and implemented for the final conversion run. 4. During the final conversion run, automated quality assurance and financial balancing checks were applied to ensure that all data fields would be accepted by the client s claims system. The final client deliverable included a conversion report detailing conversion documentation and notes. The following diagram displays how each of the carrier s conversions were transferred to the chosen standard format: 5
THE RESULTS Today, Optis manages 100 percent of the carrier s conversions more than 140 conversions from 70 different data sources to date. With each conversion, the carrier has also benefited from: - 37 percent reduction in conversion times Optis expertise enables it to convert data faster, cutting the carrier s conversion times from eight weeks to five weeks. - Greater reliability Optis works within strict deadlines, with a Service Level Agreement (SLA) in place with each client. Additionally, rigorous quality assurance checks are put in place to ensure that there are no data issues after the conversion is complete. - Renewed confidence in new-business implementations With concerns about delayed project timelines and stretched resources mitigated, new-client implementations are no longer at risk. - More-efficient use of internal resources The carrier can deploy the project resources it previously allocated to data conversions to other IT tasks and projects. - Heightened security Optis ISO 27001 certification provides additional assurance that Optis long-standing best practices provide protection of our customers most valuable information at the highest possible standard. 6
ABOUT OPTIS For your employees, life happens, benefits are used, and data is born. For you, that means ever-greater complexities and challenges from tracking absences, to complying with federal, state, and local leave laws, to getting reports that are meaningful to your unique business. Without visibility and access to all of your workforce data, without the ability to accurately and efficiently centralize and mine data from disparate systems, it s only a matter of time before you lose control, lose direction and lose compliance. Optis makes your people data easy to centralize, see, control, and understand accurately. Our flexible data solutions and cloud-based software empower your organization to manage leave events, navigate regulatory compliance, integrate all of your data sources, and obtain highly relevant business intelligence. Alleviate the burden of manual administration, save time, ensure accuracy, reduce compliance risk, get the full picture of your people data, and make better business decisions. Don t get blindsided by the data you can t see. Optis. Illuminate Your People Data. optis.com 7