New billing systems can have substantial effect on insurers, as legacy billing technologies can limit the efficiency internal operations, the effectiveness of customer service, speed to market for billing features and present obstacles to delivering capabilities to agents and policyholders, according to
“Recent studies by analyst groups and vendors have shown that at least half of insurers now consider billing to be a customer service rather than a purely financial issue,” Novarica said. “Essentially, the bar has been raised by GEICO/Progressive, as well as Amazon and Bank of America. Online self-service is now a baseline expectation of a competent provider. Expectations on mobile self service continue to increase.”
Errors can be costly and lead to cancelations, increased call volume and hurts the customer experience. As a result, more insurers now consider billing to be a customer services more so than a financial issue. Billing is an important part of insurers’ customer service strategies and presents an opportunity for them to earn and demonstrate trust to customers and agents, Novarica said. And, real-time capabilities can improve customer service and satisfaction and is a crucial element of an enterprise technology transformations, with many benefits and options for P&C insurers.
“The increased importance of new payment methods, especially credit cards, the increased need to communicate real-time billing information via new channels like the Web and mobile, and the increased need for agility in being able to support new products and new billing plans all contribute to insurers’ focus on this area,” Novarica said.
Novarica says modern, configurable billing systems, those with strong rules, tools and workflow capabilities, help insurers address a number of issues and improve:
- Time to market for new products with creative billing options.
- Customer service levels, satisfaction and personalized customer experience.
- Agent satisfaction.
- Consistency in process.
- Cash management.
- Operational efficiency.
- Identification and management of delinquencies.
- Audit trails.
- New employee training.
- Data quality and access.
Vendors profiled in the report include: Accenture, Bill It Now, CodeObjects, CSC, Exigen, Guidewire, Insuresoft, Insurity, MajescoMastek, MphasiS-Wyde, OneShield, Oracle, Sage, SAP, SpeedBuilder Systems, StoneRiver and TCS.
For insurers shopping for billing systems, Novarica recommends narrowing the search to a short-list of three or four and concentrating on staff, organization, functionality and technology.
Novarica Market Navigator reports are based on responses to a request for information distributed by Novarica and follow-ups with vendors to validate responses. The RFI covers details of organization, technology stack, client base and functionality, Novarica said. In the 2013 version of the report, Novarica said vendors completed a more detailed addendum and now include a summary of differentiators, lines of business supported, deployment options, implementation approaches and how upgrades and enhancements are handled.
