Like it or not, cost of motor claims are rising as a result of more expensive repairs of increasingly complex autos and rising amounts being claimed for personal injury (PI).

If competitive pressure keeps a lid on increasing prices the only alternative is to focus on efficiency and cutting unnecessary costs. All, of course, without adversely impacting customer satisfaction.

After much hype and over-optimistic announcements of applying AI and automation the technology is coming to market to tackle those issues.

Combining all vehicle parts and components databases with visualisation/AI to easily decide on write-off or repairable decisions was the first step.

Now technology is getting close to the magical 80% accuracy rates to be able to predict repair costs and times and better schedule repairs and credit hire/courtesy vehicles. Adding telematics data i.e. speed and point of impact data to the vehicle age/spec adds more accuracy. Even being able to simulate the road traffic accident (when telematics data unavailable) helps the process.

For optimal efficiency and cost saving insurers will demand that all this data and decisioning is on a platform leveraging a single digital record offering transparency for all participants.  

How many insurers cannot store video evidence never mind join and analyse it with photo, telematics and text data? All in one claims management platform sharing records (securly and redacted where necessary)  with all participants- not just the motor claims handlers, fraud team and underwriters but also the repair network.

That leads us to the next challenge- the repair network. How many insurers have the partnership relationship and trust of repairers so that policyholders can book their vehicles in online? 

Body shops are jealous of the control they have and will only give access to their own repair management systems if hey get something in return. There is more than technology involved!

This is key as most phone calls into an insurer's call centre are "What's happening to my car?" calls. The claims handler can't say because they don't know and that initiates an increasing number of calls across the supply chain. Meanwhile the customer gets hotter under the collar.

Effective claims management platforms reduce incoming and outgoing phone calls by 65%. 

An overarching strategy for the whole claims life cycle involving every process and participant from FNOL to vehicle being delivered back to customer is required.

PLUS an agile,  no code claims management platform that allows insurers to easily integrate best of breed technology solutions to decide on repair or total loss. 

 AND is an effective communications and orchestration platform from FNOL to happy customer.

Without having to rely on an army of consultants, developers and integrators to scope, plan and implement. Usually with a multi-million price tag and excessively long lead time.

Insurers deserve better. They need to be able to:- 

Delight customers, collapse costs and motivate the claims team.