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Browsers Enhance Self-Service 
By Ritza Vaughn, vice president of strategic accounts
at Valley Oak Systems, Inc.
The self-service economy isn't a new phenomenon. It started with ATMs to
avoid teller lines at banks. Then, it expanded to pay-at-the-pump gas
station service, and now can even be found at department store
check-outs and airline ticket counters. The era of self-service has
arrived, and the benefits are clear. Self-service is fast, convenient
and economical.
Customer self-service is also being embraced via the
Internet, which today provides companies with an information
infrastructure that continues to grow in functionality and bandwidth.
As a result, Web-based self-service has significantly helped to increase
customer satisfaction and lower transaction costs. Gartner claims it
costs 24 cents for automated service on the Web versus $5.50 to service
a customer on the telephone.
Most companies today offer Web-based
self-service capabilities enabling data searches on Web sites, providing
answers to frequently asked questions, or accessing other static Web
content.
Now, customers are demanding higher levels of self-service
functionality. To enable this level of self-service, many organizations
are turning to the power of browser-based technology.
The browser revolution
Browser-based applications are specifically designed to run
over the Internet, and as the name suggests, they only require a browser
to run.
The model helps to satisfy a client's need for instant access to
information when and how they need it, and improves their ability to act
on problem areas. Additional benefits to browser-based self-service
capabilities include:
Remote access to information.
Traditionally, many companies lacked the technology to track, report and
access appropriate risk management information. Due to the hard
insurance market and the need to carefully protect assets, risk
management professionals are demanding more timely and accurate
information to account for losses, to pinpoint critical areas of risk,
to hold down future costs, and to facilitate improved outcomes.
In addition, most large companies have employees and managers scattered
throughout the country. These organizations need real-time communication
with their staff - as if they were down the hall, not across the
country. Browser-based technology resolves these issues, enabling risk
management professionals to directly access and analyze information from
anywhere, at any time.
Seamless and transparent integration of information.
In our consumer-driven society, convenience is of utmost
importance. Everyone wants easy access to the information they need,
without being bothered with where the information came from or how it
was compiled. Browser-based systems are vital to delivering critical
information where and when it's needed most.
At the same time, the
transfer and management of this information remain transparent. Instead
of having to access multiple applications or Web sites, users simply
retrieve what they need from one convenient location. This saves an
incredible amount of time,money and hassle. A good example of transparency is a
browser-based claims administration system that automatically integrates
the latest labor codes, compensation rates, medical bill price
schedules, and PPO contracts.
Real-time notification through browser-based business rules.
By using browser-based business rules, an
organization can program their online application to immediately notify
risk managers of an urgent claim or loss through e-mail, or via wireless
notification to a pager or cell phone. For example, if a serious
accident occurred, the system could notify key decision-makers, so they
could initiate appropriate response measures.
Customization of risk management reports.
Risk managers — under tremendous pressure to
control costs — are demanding a higher level of customization in their
risk management reports. There is a greater need to perform ad hoc
reporting and to build actuarial triangles to make more sophisticated
projections.
In the past, risk managers had to request this information
from either third-party administrators, carriers, or extrapolate the
information from other basic reports.
Today, the power of browser-based
reporting enables risk managers to have direct access to real-time data
and the ease-of-use to generate their own reports that contain the
specific, drill-down information.
In the future, these reports will help
them implement timely and expense-focused interventions that save money
and improve the bottom line.
Meeting unique needs
Clients want to use
self-service technology with different and unique goals in mind. One
client may want to improve standards of care. Another client may want to
reduce their IT costs, and still others may want to improve efficiency
of their claims management process.
Online self-service capabilities are
appealing to many companies intent on reaching out to large percentage
of customers now connected to the Internet.
Browser-based systems are
the next step in self-service solutions, presenting a real-time
connection between critical information silos, consolidating multiple
data sources, and providing exactly the type of access to information
that executive decision-makers need to protect their assets and improve
future performance.
Ritza Vaughn is vice president of strategic accounts
at Valley Oak Systems Inc., an Alamo, Calif.-based provider of claims
and risk management systems.
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Kevin Confetti