8OCTOBER 2020Help employees learn the "how" for them to embrace the "why"By Robert Maksimuk, Business Intelligence Lead, West Bend Mutual Insurance Not known as an industry quick to change, Insurance companies are stepping up the pace of advancement in building strategic initiatives that add emphasis to data, analytic and innovative aspects of our business.This is a necessary adaptation to the influx of technological solutions/enhancements across both the industry and our customers, and how they are being embraced by both customers and employees. From claims to underwriting, we continue to thoroughly review entire processes and workstreams. The deeply rooted mindset of, "if it's not broken, don't fix it" has beenreplaced withan introspective question, "Why?" The answer to some of these questions indicates a general trend: a movement away from only prioritizing the projects that produce the traditional financial-based ROI butalso prioritizing those that generate soft ROI. Two recent projects further illustrate this trend: West Bend Mutual Insurance Company's decision to implement a new payment platform to substantially reduce the cost of issuing claim payments follows the more traditional path to ROI. And yetour project to offer SMStext as a communication channel for our claimantswas not based on a direct monetary incentive, but rather our desire to improve overall customer experience. The fact that both initiatives ranked high on strategic priorities is a testament to this evolving focus. Continuous change across the industry is the established reality with a multitude of reasons for and against any technological option. Rather than speak to the pros and cons of any one technology, or a particular means of vetting vendor partners, I'd like to take this opportunity to stress the importance of the human side of change.Any industry whose customer and employee bases span across several generations will be challenged to find the right pace at which to implement these innovations. It's caused us to move beyond just "why" to also ask "how?"After the daunting task of determining what solution and tech partner are best situated for optimal ROI, adoption by employees IN MY OPINION
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