Inspection optimisation with resource constraints – is it a risky digital transformation project?

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The past 15 months were full of transformation milestones for regulators and inspection teams in big organisations. However, the next 5, 10 and 15 months are not going to be any less different in terms of reaching new milestones, because the economic sectors stood still and now started reopening again. 

What does returning to normal means for regulators and inspection teams?

As we already touched on a previous topic, adopting a new inspection model was and still is crucial for the reopening of the economic sectors that were closed during the peak covid-19 waves. Increasing the capacity of resources by hiring more inspectors, more gadgets and more stuff may sound like a natural effect of the increased inspection workload. But resource optimisation of the existing finite resources is the smartest decision.

The big question is how regulators can deliver an increased level of customer support in an environment of a growing inspection workload, finite resources and inspection teams that are adapting to new operational models?

When speaking of digital transformation, we should always keep in mind that public sector regulators are rarely the first movers in adopting new and innovative inspection models compared to other sectors like insurance risk inspection & claims, financial inspections, etc. So when we consult our clients from the regulatory sector, very often we have to explain to them why resource optimisation is not a high-risk digital transformation project by giving them practical directions that can lead them to successful adoption of resource optimisation.

Here are some of them:

Regulators in different states are at a different level of digital maturity. For some of them, resource scheduling and optimisation is the first move towards digital transformation, for others, it is thе next step after digitising their case management system. Regulatory agencies must plan not only their first digital transformation step but also their next steps in that regard. If they digitise the regulatory case management process in 2021, they must have a plan for digitising the resource scheduling and inspection planning in 2022 and 2023. Expanding the digital transformation scope must be done with the right partners who have industry expertise and can help regulators move their process gradually on one platform. Whenever they decide to adopt an inspection allocation optimisation system into their operations, they will have a readiness that will lower the risk of failure.

  • Change the service mode into a more user-oriented experience.

With or without pandemic, the public sector services faced a trend toward improving the customer experience for citizens and businesses. However, the post-pandemic expectations for a more digital and value-driven user experience have raised. In the regulatory inspections aspect, it means that users are more accustomed to receiving real-time insights into inspection resolution timelines. If regulatory agencies are going to keep improving the user service, they will have to start planning the introduction of more visibility for the inspected entities. This is extremely valid for organisations that embrace the self-service and remote inspection models. Optimising resource scheduling is one side of the coin towards regulatory process optimisation. The other side is having a well-informed end user with whom to realise the digital moment that the inspection management platform is creating.

  • On-site inspections must be dynamic.

Even though complex and high-risk inspections must be conducted on-site, it doesn’t mean that their process should not include self-service points as an alternative to unexpected issues like blocked access to an inspection point, etc. Having an alternative solution for unexpected disruptions during on-site inspections to avoid shutting down the whole inspection is what makes sense to reach inspection resolution on time, as planned resource-wise.

How Canalix transforms the world of regulatory inspections?

Regulatory inspections are more prone to change now than in the past few years. Acceleration in the digital transformation strategy is advancing throughout the regulatory sector. This means that inspection teams must be encouraged to deliver value while also learning to work in a new operational model. Following these three directions is a sure way to bring the digital transformation efforts to their expected realisation with low risk of failure.

Canalix is an inspection management platform that helps regulators to transform their inspection process effectively. Contact us now to help you transform yours.

Insurance Loss Control Inspections – How To Optimise Risk Assessment?

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Insurance carriers spend hundreds of millions on inspection programs each year. However, researches report that 75% of insurance loss control inspections bring no actionable information to optimise losses. These numbers point that something is being handled wrong in the inspection management process. This is why inspection carriers are looking for inspection optimization strategies that can improve the risk assessment and reduce the costs of the inspection program. So how can we build up a scenario where insurance loss control inspections are bringing more value without being too expensive?

Bringing value with insurance loss control inspections

When we speak of efficiency in inspection management, mentioning digital transformation is inevitable. A lot of companies, including insurance carriers, are sticking to the old fashion pen and paper inspection model. But performing digital insurance inspections and improving the quality of the process is not a guarantee for efficiency. The digital transformation start with changing the workflow but ends with the way of thinking.

Changing they way of thinking in risk assessment

The performing of risk assessment is a process based on on-site field inspections. The goal of field inspections is to gather data, assess risk factors, record conditions for hazards or other variables that may increase the insurance loss potential. Controlling the loss potential is not very efficient when only general risk factors – like age and value – are used as risk indicators. This is where the new thinking is required to come at play.

Many large insurance carriers spend up to 3 % of their annual budgets on field inspections. Also many of them are outsourcing this process so that they can achieve cost optimisation. In other words optimizing costs of field inspections is definitely a priority.
A few years ago MSB reviewed approximately 2 million field inspection projects for insurance carriers. According to their findings only 25% of the inspections were bringing back actionable information. It means that only 25% of the information helped carriers to actually mitigate a risk by taking an action.

Data suggests that the insurance loss control inspections are tightly associated with traditional guidelines like age and value that are not always on a risk-specific basis. Looking at the 25 percent from the MSB review statistic, we can assume that the industry is spending hundreds of millions per year for inspections that are not bringing much valuable actionable information.

Optimising insurance loss control inspection programs

It all starts with the use of proper data. The detailed and pre-defined inspection checklists that aim to identify specific risks are the key to achieve this. The adoption of inspection management platform, designed for the use of insurance loss control programs is a good starting point towards optimisation. Such inspection platform must be able to provide automated risk assessment based on the data that is being gathered.

Adopting the right inspection management solution can be the key to solving the inspection optimisation problem of insurance loss control programs.

Related: The Complexity of Inspection Management Made Simple

How to implement insurance loss control inspection program?

The key word here is configurability. Your need to optimise loss control inspections? Good. Then aim for a configurable inspection management software. There are  hundreds of kinds of risks and inspection models. The inspection software must be able to solve this problem by offering a configurable solution designed for the specific needs of the insurance company. That’s why insurance carriers need proof-of-concept that will allow them to test if the risk-specific inspection approach can actually deliver more valuable data.

Related: How To Approach Cost Efficient Cloud Adoption?

How proof-of-concept helps you decide?

By projecting a demo environment designed for specific inspection programs, insurance carriers can test first-hand how the new way of thinking can work for them. This is an important insight that can help them decide if they want to put their money on specific inspection loss control software. Are you ready to change your insurance loss control inspection program? Then contact us.