The need to comply with new government regulations is compelling insurers to align and adjust their resources in order to meet the challenges presented by these legislative requirements.
June Julyan, Mobius product manager of Bateleur Software, says simply keeping pace with the costs of ever-increasing compliance requirements is a major challenge in itself. "For example, accelerated reporting schedules demand access to and consolidation of data across multiple, disconnected systems throughout the organisation," she says.
"In addition, companies must conform to different requirements by the government, a cumbersome process that needs to be automated. Data must be 100% accurate, and must be automatically validated to reduce dependence on labour-intensive, error-prone manual processes."
Bateleur Software is the local agent for Mobius Management Systems, the leading provider of total content management solutions which support e-business and streamline internal operations.
Commenting on whether information technology (IT) can help insurers meet these compliance challenges, Julyan says it is pivotal. She believes finance and IT must collaborate to acquire or develop systems that automate the collection, verification, audit, balancing and reconciliation of financial information across all corporate applications and platforms.
"There`s no doubt that IT plays an integral role in supporting initiatives to bring automation to a company`s compliance programme. IT support is essential in the implementation of automated applications to monitor for money laundering activity. Compliance departments need to partner with their IT resources to seek out and develop ways to systematically support compliance initiatives," she says.
It is important, however, that the IT organisation working with HR and the lines of business within the organisation defines and develops a strategy to restructure employee roles and responsibilities as well as the organisation`s processes. In this way, a cross-functional team can be created to manage enterprise-wide IT compliance efforts effectively.
According to Julyan, insurers are looking for compliance management systems that will provide their businesses with appropriate tools to help control the documenting and testing of compliance procedures. In addition, insurers are adopting technology for managing documents, the lifecycle of those documents and business processes.
"These tools help to automate processes and ensure policies and procedures are followed. Going forward, IT departments should make certain that new technologies can be used in conjunction with existing core technology investments," she points out.
Julyan recommends a robust solution for automating the balancing and reconciliation of a wide range of information, from financial reports to hospital billing codes and transaction data. This capability will enable companies to integrate business systems, automate processes and link procedures with audit trails, ensuring accountability by archiving and tracking all processes.
Mobius Management Systems recently released ViewDirect TCM for Agent Extranets, a Web-based agent portal solution that connects insurance companies with their independent agents and creates a paperless claims environment. The solution provides agents with the ability to view reports on screen in the same format as the printed version, and the ability to save reports in any format, including spreadsheets for easy analysis.
Share