BT plans to offer commercial claims services: a new market emerges for software vendors

Within the next three years, UK enterprises may be using commercial claims management services from BT instead of commercial insurers. Why? Prior to 2005, BT looked to external claims management providers. However, driven by its dissatisfaction with financial recovery amounts and customer service, BT decided to manage commercial motor claims internally. Unprompted, insurance brokers told BT that it is very good at managing commercial motor claims, and they would recommend its claims management services to other corporations if BT made them available. In 2012, BT has decided to pursue the opportunity and offer commercial motor claims management services to other corporations. It is not planning to build claims management software. Ovum believes BT is opening up a new marketplace for technology vendors to offer claims adjudication software and fraud management analytics to it and other large corporations that decide to follow the same path toward managing commercial claims internally.

Success in the corporate commercial claims market will require different strategies from those used for commercial insurers

Technology vendors’ strategies to offer commercial claims software solutions to UK corporations should differ from their approach to selling to commercial insurers. Ovum realizes that technology vendors will offer UK corporations a mix of generic and customized claims management or fraud analytical management components. However, Ovum believes that technology vendors that take the time to customize their go-to-market strategies for each corporation, or at least for each major industry segment such as telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, or manufacturing, will have a higher likelihood of succeeding in the UK commercial claims corporate marketplace. Specifically, technology vendors offering claims management software or claims fraud analytical solutions in this corporate marketplace must base their strategy on: each corporation’s reason for not using the claims management services of commercial insurers, their claims management philosophy, their claims management resources, and their claims management services.
For example, to help fine-tune a go-to-market commercial claims strategy for corporations, a technology vendor approaching BT would discover the following.

• BT turned away from commercial claims management providers because it believed the recovery rates were inadequate and it was not satisfied with the claims service it received.
• BT’s claim management philosophy is to be “firm and fair.”
• The BT motor claims management area works closely with BT’s fleet management area to use the services of repair shops, rental motor companies, and, if required, rehabilitation medical providers for injured drivers. Moreover, BT’s commercial drivers know they are required to report a claim quickly, and do so. Although BT does not provide an application for mobile devices, it has responded to a motor loss event in as short a timeframe as 18 minutes.
• BT decided it had the skills to manage large-volume claims and, specifically, commercial motor claims, internally. This has proven to be a good choice, as the BT claims management area has continually received praise from the corporation’s auditors.

What commercial claims management solutions will corporations expect?

Corporations will expect claims management solutions to protect their firms’ brands, enable efficient and effective claims adjudication, and integrate with their enterprise risk management (ERM) systems. Beyond this, the claims management solutions offered to corporations should, at a minimum, support:

• collaborative capabilities during the claims notification, adjudication, and remediation processes (such as repair of damaged vehicles or other property, and medical treatment and rehabilitation of injured people) for corporate client risk managers, fleet managers, and any other authorized corporate staff, and for use with third-party claims adjustors;
• transparency of the claims adjudication process so that risk managers or other authorized corporate staff can determine what has been completed and what has not;
• fraud analytics that are easy to use, integrate with applicable corporate claims and financial information, and provide interactive visualization capabilities to delve into requisite granular detail to minimize loss payouts, determine if a corporation’s employees have been dishonest, and protect a corporation’s reputation;
• best-of-class customer satisfaction for the claimants, whether employed by the corporation or not, and all involved corporate departments.

Will corporate-controlled claims management captives squeeze commercial insurers out of the market?

BT told Ovum that the future might encompass a federation of corporations that collectively provide claims management services to each other across a spectrum of commercial risks. BT sees this federation as one in which each corporation specializes in claims management for specific commercial risks, such as motor, personal injury, property, or employment claims. Ovum thinks this vision represents a logical future state of the commercial corporate insurance space. A corporate claims federation would be similar to the commercial insurance captives that have existed for decades. But instead of the captives being a federation of corporations self-insuring one or more risks, they would be claims management services captives offering each other more satisfactory, efficient, and effective claims services than those they receive from commercial insurance companies. Ovum believes corporations that self-insure one or more risks are likely candidates to join the federation. Moreover, Ovum believes it is not that much of a stretch to consider that corporate insurance federations that self-insure and also self-manage claims could eventually replace parts of the large commercial corporate insurance marketplace that commercial insurers currently take for granted.

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