When Sanlam decided last year to demutualise, one of the biggest challenges it faced was coping with the flood of forms returned by millions of its policyholders. To solve the problem, Sanlam contracted Exsol for an imaging solution in a contract worth some R7 million.
All returned forms were to be scanned in and the resulting data submitted to Sanlam`s DB2 database. So began the largest document imaging exercise ever undertaken in the Southern Hemisphere, one that at its peak saw a team of 18 operators process up to 80 000 forms a day.
At the heart of the demutualisation project is the Exsol imaging platform and AFPSpro, the form processing software created by Total Imaging Solutions, the Israeli imaging company represented locally by Exsol.
"AFPSpro is world-class software and has saved us millions," says Willem van der Spuy, technical support manager, imaging, at Sanlam.
Van der Spuy says all of Sanlam`s internal processes revolve around imaging. Using IBM`s ImagePlus, the insurance giant has saved as images some 27 million documents. It scans in more than 200 000 pages a day, sourced from more than 500 branches, each equipped with its own scanner. In addition, Sanlam uses more than 100 Bell & Howell high-volume scanners to capture day-to-day documents as they enter the company.
"Imaging is vital to our business," says Van der Spuy. "On our imaging systems we have stored all core policy details. All new business, policy services and claims are stored as images. This has given us a paperless operation, putting us years ahead of the competition. What used to take days now takes minutes."
With all supporting processes centred on imaging, Sanlam naturally turned to imaging for its demutualisation project. And the solution was Exsol/AFPSpro, in conjunction with high-speed scanners from Kodak, supplied by Exsol.
The key to Sanlam`s success with its demutualisation forms processing has been the ability of AFPSpro to compress image data by an average 70%. This means an A4 sheet is reduced from 50kb to 15kb, which, as Van der Spuy comments, "has yielded and will continue to yield incalculable savings".
To put the value of proper data compression into perspective, Sanlam had been spending R2 million a year on upgrades to its optical jukebox storage systems. With AFPSpro, Sanlam not only reduces the amount of physical storage needed, but also the network traffic.
In total, Sanlam scanned and processed 1,7 million documents in three months, peaking at 80 000 documents a day. "Had we tried to do the job manually," notes Van der Spuy, "it would have taken 1 000 operators two years, working around the clock."
Processing Sanlam`s forms followed a structured workflow:
- Batches of forms were scanned, endorsed and extraneous data removed to leave only client data - name, address, telephone number, ID number.
- Batches of 50 forms were submitted to Intelligent Character Recognition. Multiple engines scanned each handwritten character and "voted" for what it was most likely to be. The results were then scanned by operators and either verified or changed.
- The data was saved as text and submitted to Sanlam`s DB2 database through an ODBC link. The TIF images were then archived.
"Our first mailing is complete," says Van der Spuy. "Now we have a second mailing to remind those who didn`t return their forms first time round. Then we have a vote mail in which people are asked to vote for or against the demutualisation. By law the vote mail must be 100% accurate and the results processed the same day we get them. Finally we have a bank mail where policyholders are asked for their banking details so we can pay out dividends after our listing."
The data will be used to create and maintain the Register of Members database required by the JSE. Once the demutualisation is complete, Sanlam will use the Kodak scanners, Exsol and AFPSpro to scan in its millions of policies, and to speed up the imaging of the flood of paper-based communication that enters Sanlam each day.
"This was a great solution that has given us a clear competitive advantage," says Van der Spuy. "It creates a solid underpinning for our imaging infrastructure and will allow us to press on to our goal of becoming a totally paperless organisation."
Share
Editorial contacts