Chaucer Syndicates is a leading specialty insurance group that generates valuable risk analysis models for the insurance industry. These are used to drive decisions for both underwriting and claims. Based in London, the organization has an expanding list of clients in more than 200 countries.
Each year, its small Exposure Management Services team assesses more than 1,000 requests throughout the world. Chaucer implemented Nintex Automation K2 to organize and centralize the huge volume of data it collects and analyzes.
Delivering business-critical reports faster
Challenge: Manual data collection
Chaucer performs a vitally important service for insurance underwriters. Its Exposure Management Services team helps them to better understand, manage and price risk.
It performs detailed, location-based analysis into catastrophes, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, so that underwriters can prevent over-exposure to risks in similar locations and make better decisions about which policies to underwrite and at what premiums.
Every year, the team of five risk analysts handles over 1,000 requests for risk models from 20 underwriters based in London, Miami, Singapore and Copenhagen. Yet this huge volume of work used to be managed in an ad hoc way through emails, phone calls and spreadsheets. Underwriters had no visibility of the status of their requests and, at busy times, risk analysts struggled to meet deadlines.
Chaucer wanted to increase productivity through an accessible process to easily view the status of their risk scenarios.
Solution: Centralized data portal
Chaucer shortlisted three potential workflow solution providers and supplied them all with a brief outline of the process that it wanted to automate.
“Nintex Automation K2 stood out clearly from the other workflow software. The professional consultants came to the meeting and showed us our process already created using Nintex Automation K2,” recalls Mark Cooper, Head of Exposure Management Services at Chaucer. “This gave us confidence in the solution.”
Over a period of several weeks, Chaucer then worked to extend and improve the solution in an iterative process, at a pace that suited the business. “The consultants were patient and flexible when we suggested different ways of doing things,” Cooper says. “It was a very positive experience, and now we have a user-friendly process that works for my team of modelers and also works for the underwriters. For such a small IT project, it has delivered big benefits, quickly.”
The new automated workflow is organized in one centralized place, saving more than 600 employee hours each year and providing instant visibility. Analysts spend less time chasing up information and answering underwriters’ emails and calls about tasks.
By providing a clearer overview of the number of analysis requests received and their due dates, the workflow process helps Chaucer’s risk analysts prioritize jobs more effectively.
“If we don’t deliver risk analysis reports when they are needed, the underwriting process is delayed and this could result in lost premiums or even reputational damage,” says Cooper. “Since launching our automated solution, the number of reports that we deliver on schedule has increased from around 90% to 99%.”
The workflow process has also improved the transparency of Chaucer’s risk analysis request process. Underwriters working in four different time zones can now see at a glance who is working on their analysis request and which stage it has reached, greatly improving their satisfaction with the overall service.
Nintex Automation K2 provides Chaucer with built-in reports on the analysis request process, showing managers how many requests the team has received and how quickly they were handled. This insight helps the business to ensure the team is properly resourced and expectations are realistic, particularly in busy policy renewal periods.
