IT Challenges as Insurance steps to a permanent remote workforce

Countless insurance carries today are not equipped with the digital tools and platforms needed to enable their employees to work solely remote.

As the current global pandemic continues, insurance carriers are accelerating their innovation timelines in the areas of automation, machine learning, and big data analytics.  Each of these emerging areas will help carriers attain a competitive advantage, improve productivity, and create a more satisfying customer experience.  

Accelerating Innovation Strategies

COVID-19 offers new challenges to the insurance sector.  More than ever, it is essential that carriers continue to innovate to prevent potential claim disruptions, poor customer experiences, and more. 

At the front, solving the demand for the remote workforce is the pressing challenge. Current insurance technology does not provide the internal IT function needed.  Instead, it helps front-line sales, underwriting, claims management, marketing, and product development.  However, the abrupt move to a permanent remote workforce requires IT services to answer at once.   

Setting the ‘New’ Cybersecurity Standard

Implementing security standards and placing a robust security program in place is vital.  To reduce the risk of both insurers and policyholders, JW Software applies “end-to-end” encryption, identity access management, and 24/7 cybersecurity monitoring. 

Here is a few of the insurance business process changes and technology demands brought on by the COVID-10 pandemic: 

Work-life balance: Staff may struggle to work remotely full-time and will need time adjusting to this new way of claim processing.  Consider FileHandler Enterprise’s business automation to assign tasks, run scheduled reports, confirm coverages, and generate customer contact at first notice while staying fully remote and safe.

Transitioning to a full-time remote workforce:  Because of COVID-19, the impact on P&C claims adjusters who visited sites to file and record adjustments to the claim for claims managers to review have switched to entirely electronic processes. With permanent virtual desktops and home offices, claims management is changing.  FileHandler, however, is already built to support a fully remote office as a cloud-based application with daily backups for secure data. 

Security challenges: Enforcing security policies is vital for all industries, especially insurance.  Most carries still harness legacy software systems which create security concerns, but also make remote workforces unproductive and challenging for employees.  Utilize FileHandler’s cloud-based solution designed to ensure maximum uptime with fast performance, high levels of security at data centers, built-in triple redundancy od data, and hot-site disaster recovery.  

IT Support pains:  Because IT service desks cannot physically fix end-user issues, wait times and repairs are rapidly increasing.  In this case, tools to support remote work may become standard. For example, if a claims processor, paying customer service or any resource that provides support to an insurer, are not able to help their customer due to the system or issues at home office, it could result in poor customer service.  Avoid the burden and costs associated with hosting and let JW Software handle the hosting, maintenance, management, backups, and upgrades with our industry-leading claims management software, FileHandler Enterprise.   

Encourage water cooler chat:  While work has physically moved to an entirely remote workforce, business culture is still essential.  Increase your team’s productivity and morale by staying connected.  Easily email and message back and forth from within the claim and make the most of remote work.   

Let FileHandler Enterprise handle that remote workforce burden and host your business today!

About JW Software

JW Software was started in 1989, as a software company designed to create custom business applications for small businesses in the St. Louis area. The company found a niche in the insurance industry, specifically Third-Party Administrators that needed Claims Management Software to manage their business needs and launched the claims management software. FileHandler™ has become a trusted software solution in the claims and risk management market for the past 31 years. JW Software is continuing its growth and evolution in 2020 with the launch of FileHandler Enterprise™, the newest claims management solution incorporating the newest technology and security to the system. FileHandler Enterprise™, the flagship claims management software, and PolicyHandler, a complete Workers’ Compensation Policy Management System, have evolved to develop a comprehensive web-based software solution for businesses to effectively manage policies and insurance claims.