Automation Improves Document Processing Efficiencies for Insurance Companies – Mass Printing Case Study

BUSINESS CHALLENGE

Moving from manual and homegrown systems to Commercial Off the Shelf Technology (COTS)

The people at MassPrinting are experts in policyholder communications for insurance companies. They work with property and casualty insurance carriers to help them with the challenges of document printing and mailing to policyholders. MassPrinting typically manages the printing of policies, notices, invoices, renewals, and endorsements for its clients, and then handles getting them into the hands of policyholders.

Insurance companies generate huge volumes of documents for their agents, members, customers, and partners. Operating in a highly regulated industry, their documents must be accurate, punctual, and easy to understand. This is hard enough by itself, but complicated further by a patchwork of state-specific laws and regulations governing insurance company operations and the communications they send to their customers. The insurance specialists at MassPrinting help Carriers manage this complex environment of policyholder communications.

Prior to engaging with Racami, MassPrinting was growing rapidly. However, their existing tools and workflows for document production and distribution workflow prevented them from scaling the business as quickly as they desired. Onboarding new clients involved coordinating with a network of partner print companies spread throughout the country. This approach was hindering the company’s ability to meet their growth objectives. They needed more control over the front-end document processing, specifically a centralized, customized
dashboard for their clients to review and approve their print output and preparation of communications in various formats appropriate for the complexity of output in the delivery channel.

“As we grew our insurance industry business, we became dependent on our print company partners to handle critical parts of new client implementation and technology changes. That was impeding our ability to provide simple, fast, innovative solutions. We knew we needed to invest in our own process to do this work.”

— Julie Webster, Vice President of Finance and Operations, Mass Printing

MANY MOVING PARTS & PLAYERS

MassPrinting accepts data from their insurance company clients in multiple formats of pre-composed print ready documents (PDF, PS, PCL etc.) These documents are first logically organized and grouped together based on complex customer requirements. Using document composition and document workflow applications, the company can adjust layouts and order, add elements such as cover pages, bar codes, IMB mail codes and then provide their print partners with final documents to meet their specific internal print requirements. They do this while also maintaining conformity to the specific state regulatory guidelines and standards.

As in many document production operations, workflows to process the documents at MassPrinting varies among clients and document types. Data arrives in different formats and in unique file layouts. Each client’s document production workflow can require a distinct set of steps, integrations, and settings. This is where MassPrinting’s insurance knowledge really stands out. Their ability to leverage the Racami application and embedded tools enables them to support the Carrier’s multi-faceted document distribution workflows.

A nationwide network of print/mail partners allows MassPrinting to print documents and enter them into the mail stream close to the delivery points. This network of partners also provides MassPrinting the flexibility to leverage a specific partner’s expertise whether it be roll-fed print, check printing, geographic coverage, or volume related discounted pricing.

As they send print jobs to printing partners, MassPrinting includes information about the job, including individual mailpiece identifiers. Printing partners use this information to process the work. They append new data such as mail dates and send this information back to MassPrinting. Once these confirmation files arrive, MassPrinting balances, reconciles, and reports back to the client about the disposition of their work. Historically, reporting was a manual effort. The time required to create reports necessary to provide client feedback, generate client invoices, and analyze process productivity kept the company from expanding at the fastest possible rate. Reconciliation of processing from when the Carrier sends their files through to invoicing and confirmation of USPS receipt of individual documents is an incredibly powerful value proposition.

Racami helped MassPrinting setup their workflow with an online payment processing business partner and tie it to the Racami Alchem-e™ production control system. The payment service allows insurers to collect payments from policyholders through a modern, secure digital presentation. The partnership with MassPrinting extends the service offering beyond just EBPP and allows the Policyholder electronic access to all of their insurance documents. Because of the tight integration between the Alchem-e™ and the payment system, MassPrinting receives new leads drawn to the quality and ease of the process.

“Our first goal with Racami was to replace our existing workflow and reduce our reliance on our print company partners for new
client set-up. The product stood up to the challenge and has performed very well for us.”

— Bill Crowley, Vice President of Sales, Mass Printing

SOLVING THE PROBLEMS

MassPrinting sought a solution to automate, connect, and control their workflows, offer their clients status updates, and generate the reports they needed to bill their clients and manage their processes more efficiently. Solving these problems would allow the company to pursue aggressive expansion goals and serve all their clients more effectively.

MassPrinting chose Alchem-e™ from Racami as the system best suited to address their concerns. Alchem-e™ connects all the components of complicated document processing workflows. The system automates processes and allows companies to control and monitor their entire operation from a single, comprehensive dashboard.

The implementation at MassPrinting took a good amount of effort. Like most companies that come to Racami for help, MassPrinting’s systems were a complex collection of point solutions the company compiled over time as they grew. Working together, Racami and MassPrinting were able to significantly improve existing document processing workflows, manage exception handling, and provide visibility and information/reporting. Racami also enhanced Alchem-e™ with features that were not known to be needed when the project started, but would allow MassPrinting to get more done with the product. Racami showed their flexibility and dedication to helping MassPrinting achieve their goals.

Racami coordinated with MassPrinting, their print/mail partners, and vendors to design, build, and install an Alchem-e™ solution that met all MassPrinting’s needs and positioned the company for future growth.

THE RESULTS

Alchem-e™ now provides MassPrinting with a real-time picture of all the work in progress. Should a workflow be interrupted, Alchem-e™ sends alert notifications so MassPrinting employees can address the problems immediately and stay on schedule. Regardless of the complexity of a particular workflow, Alchem-e™ handles the flow from one step to the next.

Tracking files as they pass from one entity to another is now simply a matter of logging into the secure Alchem-e™ dashboard. The company no longer consults spreadsheets, clipboards, or email chains to confirm the data was successfully transmitted and received.

MassPrinting’s customer implementation process has greatly improved. Mr. Crowley points out that MassPrinting is onboarding clients much more efficiently now that Racami has more control over their document processing and – workflow. “We are not limited at all to the number of new clients we can bring on,” he explains.

“We can turn around some client change requests in a day now, where before it could take weeks or months.”

— Julie Webster, Vice President of Finance and Operations, Mass Printing

MassPrinting’s ability to respond to client requests has also benefited from the investment in Alchem-e™. Clients are seeing rapid application changes, which improves the customer experience.

MassPrinting recognizes a big benefit in the connection between Alchem-e™ and the payment processing software, achieved through the Alchem-e™ API. When a policyholder decides to go paperless and access all of their insurance documents through their insurer’s branded payment processing website, the payment software sends a request to MassPrinting’s Alchem-e™ document archive. The requested documents and any transactional data also stored by Alchem-e™ is then instantly viewable via the branded website. All the data exchanges are handled automatically on demand by Alchem-e™.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Thanks to this investment in Document Processing workflow, MassPrinting’s insurance carrier customers have access to detailed information about their file and document processing jobs. MassPrinting provides their clients access to an Alchem-e™ dashboard that allows insurers to check on status — right down to the document level. They can approve and release jobs, cancel them, or even request that individual documents be pulled from a job and not mailed. All this will be accomplished without interrupting the production operation or waiting for phone calls between MassPrinting and its partners to provide client-requested status information.

“After optimizing the implementation and production workflow, our next priority is adding value to our product through the capabilities Alchem-e™ provides,” says Webster, “We can create more products and services that will appeal to our clients, thanks to our investment in Racami.” This is a critical component enabling MassPrinting to continue to deliver on our vision of providing simple solutions and innovative technology to the P&C Insurance Industry. Extending our document output product and solutions offering beyond Print/Mail is a large component of our future growth strategy.

MassPrinting feels the time and effort it took to design and implement their Document Output solution powered by Alchem-e™ has contributed to their recent success. The constraints to growth have been lifted. The company grew by 46% and added nine new clients in 2020 — during a pandemic!

“Racami is a big part of the future for us. We’ve done the research and we know there is demand with our existing clients for these value-adding services.”

— Andy Pallotta, President, Mass Printing

Andy Pallotta, President of MassPrinting, is confident they would not have reported such stellar results had they not invested in a strategic document processing/workflow platform that eliminated the processing bottlenecks and automated workflows and procedures that were limiting their ability to grow.