Eddie Longworth, chief executive at E2E Total Loss Claims Management, discusses the efficacy of working with partners to design technology that serves a need
A key goal for any supplier of services to the insurance and claims management sector must be to continually develop their offering, stay ahead of the technology curve and improve the benefits that clients receive as part of the supply arrangements.
This is a continuous and never-ending process. Signing a contract for, say, a three year supply arrangement is not the end of the effort, but merely the beginning.
The start of the relationship should be viewed as firing the starting gun on the race for our clients to be more competitive, more efficient and more relevant to their customers – and it is our job to help them achieve those goals.
Client engagement
Perhaps because the request for proposal (RFP) process is often brutal and short, everyone can be made to feel that they are in a battle for supremacy and it can be end up being a slow process to restore mutual faith and trust between all parties.
However, it is this process of real understanding and strategic integration that will ultimately see the benefits flow to everyone – especially the clients.
This process applies even if you are an existing supplier and the contract negotiations are around renewal rather than starting afresh.
The opportunity to look again at how services are being delivered, used and refined should form a major part of any buying process.
Client engagement and a depth of mutual understanding, which can be difficult to achieve, is the real source of future benefits.
Too often, the buyer-supplier relationship is built around a transactional environment that will inevitably fail to deliver maximum benefits. Protecting margins and established ways of working takes precedence and innovation, which is not a sustainable way forward.
Mutual problem solving
At E2E, we are currently engaged in a major development of our total loss claims management capability. What is already very good needs to become truly outstanding as the challenges and opportunities within the claims market continuously change.
Our approach has been simple – talk to our clients and listen very, very carefully to their thoughts. Bring them into the fold as we decide to adopt different routes, functions, automation, adoption of AI, best use of imagery and video and a host of other applications.
We might think that we know what clients are seeking but, actually, they know best about their shorter-term tactical and longer-term strategic developments. We do not want to design any new systems without their significant input to what it should look like.
Long term value
Our aim is also to look beyond the immediate challenges and establish the solid foundation for all our clients, large and small, to build new approaches that will build and deliver value over time.
Insurers and their claims agents can be notoriously slow to change and adapt, so we have taken the approach that we should be planning months – and maybe years – ahead to jointly design and deliver new solutions.
This process should not be unique to E2E. Too often, we see supplier-client relationships in the marketplace that are not really working. You only have to look at credit hire and repair, faltering insurtech movement and the failure of many large IT projects to see that working relationships are not delivering all that they should.
The phrase “with the benefit of hindsight” should be abolished and replaced by “with the benefit of foresight”.
Real, meaningful and in-depth two-way partnership are the key foundation stone on which to build real value.
