Insurers have faced plenty of challenges in recent years, but opportunities are emerging for those who are ready to take them. “Against a backdrop of soft markets, competitive issues and low interest rates, today’s general insurers are focusing on claims to reduce their loss ratios,” says Tony Jacob, managing director of worldwide insurance at Microsoft. “They’re finding new ways to improve the claims experience for policyholders, and exploring how to improve their claims analytics capabilities to optimise processing, mitigate losses and identify fraudulent activity.”

In today’s highly competitive environment the insurer who helps a claimant quickly get back to normal stands to deliver customer satisfaction and build loyalty. “Whether it’s flexibility to initiate and track a claim through a customer’s preferred communication channel or improving operational efficiencies, insurers need to be able to engage, process and resolve claims quickly and accurately,” says Patti Griffin, global product lead at Accenture Duck Creek. “Key to achieving this is to automate what can be automated, and streamline what cannot be automated to make it more efficient.”

Rising to these challenges can make a big difference to the bottom line, even without increasing the number of customers. “A combination of risk and fraud prevention in the underwriting process with real-time fraud detection and analytics in claims can improve the combined ratio up to 5%,” says Christian van Leeuwen, CTO at Microsoft Gold partner FRISS.

“On average, claims expenses are 60-80% of any carrier’s overall expenses,” says Ben Moreland, VP data and analytics at Innovation Group. “Even a 1% decrease in claims expenses can be greater than a 5% improvement in another area.”

Microsoft and its partners are enabling insurers to deliver differentiating service to customers while generating the insights essential for proactive business. Examples include Insuresoft’s Diamond Claims, which is available as a stand-alone solution or as part of its policy processing suite and complemented by its Diamond Mobile application. The system is fully integrated with SQL Server Reporting Services and can be deployed through the Microsoft Azure cloud, enabling it to scale and adapt to the changing needs of clients. “We provide a powerful rules engine that enables our customers to create work plans for their claims staff and measure key performance indicators in real time,” says Linde Wolff, product manager at Insuresoft. “This is a game-changer for our customers because it enables them not only to identify areas where they need to improve, but also to update their rules to instantly drive that change.”

As more insurers connect siloed data to achieve operational efficiency, powerful analytics capabilities, combined with the scalability of the cloud, are enabling them to turn that data into insights. “By replicating the claims data from the claims system to SQL Server, customers can gain greater access to that data, and analyse and visualise it more effectively using self-serve BI technologies such as PowerView and Power BI,” explains Jacob.

Duck Creek Claims provides automation and streamlining for claims processing as well as reporting capabilities built using Microsoft’s SQL Server Reporting Services, Integration Services, Analysis Services and SharePoint, which can be used in conjunction with Microsoft Power Pivot and Power BI. The solution enables an optimised work management experience for claims staff. Instant messaging, a discussion-thread view of file notes and the ability to email from within the claim file enable collaboration for claims adjusters, while insurers can use codeless configuration to introduce their own processes and quickly adapt to changing market demands. In addition to on-premise deployment, the suite is also supported through the Microsoft Azure cloud, enabling stunningly fast implementations: Pacific Specialty Insurance Company completed the first phase of its deployment in less than seven months, and Berkshire Hathaway deployed in two months. “Our customers are able to condense the implementation timeline so they can quickly start using the software in the market,” says Griffin.

“For a carrier, it is vital to be able not only to settle claims quickly, but also to quickly identify claims leakages or fraud and react in the best manner,” says Moreland. “This requires an analytics solution that puts trusted, current analyses at the fingertips of business users who are empowered to explore their data for greater insights, and share with colleagues who can also fully trust the data and recommendations. Through collaboration between Innovation Group and Microsoft, Insurer Analytics is able to scale to meet the ever-growing data volume demands and performance expectations of carriers, as well as help carriers position themselves for the increasingly competitive insurance landscape.”

FRISS is 100% focused on the insurance industry, with more implementations of anti-fraud solutions than any other vendor in Europe. The company is dedicated to improving indicators and models, predictive modelling, text mining, image screening, social network analysis and social media, enabling insurers to stay protected from new fraud schemes. Jeroen Morrenhof, CEO of FRISS, notes a clear rise in the use of analytics by insurers wanting to prevent fraud. “This is necessitated by combined ratios and losses under serious pressure, and the need for continuous improvement in claims processes,” he says. “In order to find not only the fraudsters of today, but also those of tomorrow, insurers need to continuously improve their detection engine, indicators and predictive models to make sure they identify new patterns as they emerge.”

Worldwide studies have found that 5-10% of claims are likely fraudulent, leading forward-looking insurers to take a proactive approach to addressing the issue. For example, Folksam, one of the largest insurers in Sweden, expects to deliver 15-20% more suspicious claim cases for investigation after implementing the FRISS solution for Fraud Detection at Claims including FRISS Analytics. “The solution enables Folksam to improve its loss ratio by increasing the chances of detecting fraud, and to minimise false positives” says Morrenhof. “These results have been proven through our track record with all FRISS customers in 12 countries.”

Looking ahead, increasingly advanced analytics capabilities will be required as the volume and types of data available for analysis continue to grow. Towers Watson is working with leading insurers to help them improve their claims performance and gain competitive advantage. “Our claims specialists are helping to identify areas in which insurers can optimise their performance on claims costs,” says Tom Helm, head of claims consulting, risk consulting and software at Towers Watson. “We are deploying our analytics, software and claims capabilities together to help our clients fully understand their current state with regard to claims analytics and supporting them in determining the key questions their future analytics capability needs to answer. We are working with them to set out the data, tools, skills and outputs required to achieve these goals as well as helping them with the delivery.”

Microsoft and its partners are poised to deliver the capabilities insurers need to ensure fast, cost effective claims handling and analytics. “We’re now entering a new area of advanced analytics with our insurance customers as we integrate the Revolution R analytics solution with SQL Server 2016 and Azure Machine Learning,” concludes Jacob. “As well as enabling insurance companies to better mine and analyse their claims data, this delivers the capability to consume huge amounts of data to simulate and model catastrophes such as cyclones, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and terrorist activities. Giving insurance carriers a single capability that could improve both loss ratios today and catastrophe modelling for tomorrow is very powerful.

The post Getting a handle on claims appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - Canada.

As customers become more demanding, retailers are having to adapt – and fast. Understanding this, Italy’s largest supermarket chain, Coop Group, has teamed with Accenture, Avanade, Microsoft and Intel to create a remarkable new concept store which leverages some of the most innovative technologies available today. – Tracy Issel, GM WW Retail & Consumer Goods and Hospitality

The future of shopping has been made a reality thanks to an innovative partnership between Accenture, Avanade, Microsoft, Intel and Italy’s largest supermarket chain, Coop Group

Imagine walking into a grocery store that combines the friendly, open atmosphere of a traditional market with digital technologies that enable the products to tell you their story. As you walk around the product displays you can interact with other shoppers, without racks of shelving getting in the way. Yet sophisticated screens are ready to give you all the information you want about the products that interest you, as well as suggestions based on your food preferences and dietary needs.

This is the Supermarket of the Future. It’s a reality that thousands of visitors have already experienced during its six-month tenure within the Future Food District at Expo Milano 2015 – and which is set to inspire many more at the National Retail Federation show in January 2016. The concept was designed by Carlo Ratti Associati in partnership with Coop Italia, is being brought to life through a collaboration between Accenture, Avanade, Intel and Microsoft.

While the Supermarket of the Future is clearly a forward-looking concept, it was inspired by the traditional, social shopping experiences that have existed for generations. It has adapted these traditional experiences using the Internet of Things (IoT) and cutting-edge technologies to create an open arena for interaction between consumers, shelves and products.

“The Coop Supermarket of the Future is a pioneering example of the shopping experience we’ll probably experience in three-to-five years’ time when entering the grocery store,” says Alberto Pozzi, managing director at Accenture. “Taking the innovative concept of the supermarket theorised by Carlo Ratti, Accenture has designed a user experience and leveraged the most appropriate digital solutions to satisfy – in a simple, natural and immediate way – the customer demand for information, socialisation and functionality.

“The Supermarket of the Future is a real-world example of how Accenture and our partners help our clients change the way we work and live through IoT and digital technologies. Accenture offers complete, integrated digital business, industry and technology services to deliver tangible results for both the digital consumer and digital enterprise.”

In order to achieve a natural experience, it was crucial to make sure shelving and digital screens didn’t get in the way of interaction between people. “The Supermarket of the Future merges the experience of a small local market where people used to have friendly, social exchanges, with that of the modern store, making for a much more personal experience,” says Fabio Chiodini, senior director of consumer products and retail at Avanade.

The project integrated Coop’s legacy infrastructure with a Microsoft Azure cloud content management system and a range of customer touchpoints using Windows 8 and Microsoft Kinect. Interactive tables enabled a rethinking of the traditional supermarket shelf, with new product displays to enable touch-free interaction – customers could simply hover their hand over a product to get real-time information about it.

“Every product has a story to tell, such as where and how it was produced, its carbon footprint, the chemical treatment it has received, information about allergens, and the journey that brought it to the shelf,” says Chiodini. “Shoppers can bring all that information to life simply by moving their hands and pointing at products. It enables a new, totally natural kind of buying experience in which data helps customers to be aware of what they are buying as soon as they consider the product.”

Some of the supermarket’s products were displayed on vertical shelves with touch technology, so customers could interact to receive more detailed information about the products displayed on a specific monitor. Second-screen technology enabled shoppers to interact with touch-based tablets on the meat and fish tables to access product information displayed on monitors. In addition, a mobile app created a personalized experience for customers, with content presented based on their lifestyle choices and real-time interaction with dedicated ranges of products, information and in-store locations.

Striking the balance between a high-tech vision and a more natural experience was one of the team’s greatest challenges – and the source of some of the project’s greatest innovations. “The main challenge was to create the most natural buying experience we could,” says Chiodini. “This was where Avanade was able to express its innovative soul, envisioning the use of a gaming device like Microsoft Kinect as a sensor for interactive shelves. Where additional capabilities were required, the Avanade team worked on designing and implementing a specific algorithm that captures where people are looking and projects their hand-movement towards the product indicated.”

Real-time data visualization was also used to display information like customer interactions and purchases, and environmental key performance indicator analytics on a wall monitor about the store. The result was a supermarket that connected retailers, shoppers and products to ensure an exceptionally responsive environment.

“Using these technologies, the supermarket becomes connected,” says Chiodini. “The way that consumers interact with products provides data that can be transformed into tangible insights that help the grocer to optimize their offering and pricing, based on the items people interact with, what they put back on the shelf and what they buy. At the same time, it enables the business to capture product stock levels and ensure extremely timely replenishment. This helps the store to use smaller shelves, giving shoppers a sense of fresher, smaller batches of products and optimizing supply management.”

Expo Milano 2015 has now ended, but the Coop Supermarket of the Future remains a very real example of what can be achieved. “New technologies are rapidly changing retail store operations, customer experiences, and defining new business models,” says Rachel Mushahwar, Global IOT Director – Retail Enabling, Intel Internet of Things. “This proliferation of devices and technology increases how customers engage with both brands and retailers, making shopping more informative and more enjoyable.

“Intel technology available today is already helping to transform stores into the digital retail environments of the future. Retailers can unlock the power of insights from in-store sensors that monitor temperature, light and inventory quantities; smart signs that anonymously track shopper activity; remote management tools that allow seamless control over displays in thousands of stores; and gateways that aggregate in-store data for long-term analysis and push real-time alerts back to the store to improve decision-making. Customers benefit from visual displays that inform shopping decisions and engage using touch and voice as well as tailored real-time coupons and promotions. With consumer expectations rapidly increasing, retailers have to leverage digital technology to create new shopping experiences for customers. But no matter what the connected store brings, one thing will never change – consumers and retailers need technology that is fast, simple, and just works.”

A modular, cloud-enabled architecture enables the concept to be applied across different sized stores to fit a range of retail formats from DIY to fashion. “Thanks to Accenture and Microsoft Azure, Avanade was able to implement the whole store infrastructure in the cloud in an incredibly short time, ensuring that it was easily manageable with a low total cost of ownership,” says Chiodini.

“Every product has a story to tell, and shoppers can bring that information to life simply by moving their hands and pointing at products”

“Over 1.7 million visitors to the Coop Supermarket of the Future exhibit experienced how digital and IoT are game changers in enhancing the store shopping experience,” says Tracy Issel, general manager, worldwide retail industry at Microsoft. “The solution is the latest example of what Microsoft technology – in combination with the industry and IoT expertise, digital and cloud services, and specialized hardware of our partners Accenture, Avanade and Intel – can accomplish for our retail clients and their customers.”

The post Supermarket of the Future appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - Canada.

Insurers have faced plenty of challenges in recent years, but opportunities are emerging for those who are ready to take them. “Against a backdrop of soft markets, competitive issues and low interest rates, today’s general insurers are focusing on claims to reduce their loss ratios,” says Tony Jacob, managing director of worldwide insurance at Microsoft. “They’re finding new ways to improve the claims experience for policyholders, and exploring how to improve their claims analytics capabilities to optimise processing, mitigate losses and identify fraudulent activity.”

In today’s highly competitive environment the insurer who helps a claimant quickly get back to normal stands to deliver customer satisfaction and build loyalty. “Whether it’s flexibility to initiate and track a claim through a customer’s preferred communication channel or improving operational efficiencies, insurers need to be able to engage, process and resolve claims quickly and accurately,” says Patti Griffin, global product lead at Accenture Duck Creek. “Key to achieving this is to automate what can be automated, and streamline what cannot be automated to make it more efficient.”

Rising to these challenges can make a big difference to the bottom line, even without increasing the number of customers. “A combination of risk and fraud prevention in the underwriting process with real-time fraud detection and analytics in claims can improve the combined ratio up to 5%,” says Christian van Leeuwen, CTO at Microsoft Gold partner FRISS.

“On average, claims expenses are 60-80% of any carrier’s overall expenses,” says Ben Moreland, VP data and analytics at Innovation Group. “Even a 1% decrease in claims expenses can be greater than a 5% improvement in another area.”

Microsoft and its partners are enabling insurers to deliver differentiating service to customers while generating the insights essential for proactive business. Examples include Insuresoft’s Diamond Claims, which is available as a stand-alone solution or as part of its policy processing suite and complemented by its Diamond Mobile application. The system is fully integrated with SQL Server Reporting Services and can be deployed through the Microsoft Azure cloud, enabling it to scale and adapt to the changing needs of clients. “We provide a powerful rules engine that enables our customers to create work plans for their claims staff and measure key performance indicators in real time,” says Linde Wolff, product manager at Insuresoft. “This is a game-changer for our customers because it enables them not only to identify areas where they need to improve, but also to update their rules to instantly drive that change.”

As more insurers connect siloed data to achieve operational efficiency, powerful analytics capabilities, combined with the scalability of the cloud, are enabling them to turn that data into insights. “By replicating the claims data from the claims system to SQL Server, customers can gain greater access to that data, and analyse and visualise it more effectively using self-serve BI technologies such as PowerView and Power BI,” explains Jacob.

Duck Creek Claims provides automation and streamlining for claims processing as well as reporting capabilities built using Microsoft’s SQL Server Reporting Services, Integration Services, Analysis Services and SharePoint, which can be used in conjunction with Microsoft Power Pivot and Power BI. The solution enables an optimised work management experience for claims staff. Instant messaging, a discussion-thread view of file notes and the ability to email from within the claim file enable collaboration for claims adjusters, while insurers can use codeless configuration to introduce their own processes and quickly adapt to changing market demands. In addition to on-premise deployment, the suite is also supported through the Microsoft Azure cloud, enabling stunningly fast implementations: Pacific Specialty Insurance Company completed the first phase of its deployment in less than seven months, and Berkshire Hathaway deployed in two months. “Our customers are able to condense the implementation timeline so they can quickly start using the software in the market,” says Griffin.

“For a carrier, it is vital to be able not only to settle claims quickly, but also to quickly identify claims leakages or fraud and react in the best manner,” says Moreland. “This requires an analytics solution that puts trusted, current analyses at the fingertips of business users who are empowered to explore their data for greater insights, and share with colleagues who can also fully trust the data and recommendations. Through collaboration between Innovation Group and Microsoft, Insurer Analytics is able to scale to meet the ever-growing data volume demands and performance expectations of carriers, as well as help carriers position themselves for the increasingly competitive insurance landscape.”

FRISS is 100% focused on the insurance industry, with more implementations of anti-fraud solutions than any other vendor in Europe. The company is dedicated to improving indicators and models, predictive modelling, text mining, image screening, social network analysis and social media, enabling insurers to stay protected from new fraud schemes. Jeroen Morrenhof, CEO of FRISS, notes a clear rise in the use of analytics by insurers wanting to prevent fraud. “This is necessitated by combined ratios and losses under serious pressure, and the need for continuous improvement in claims processes,” he says. “In order to find not only the fraudsters of today, but also those of tomorrow, insurers need to continuously improve their detection engine, indicators and predictive models to make sure they identify new patterns as they emerge.”

Worldwide studies have found that 5-10% of claims are likely fraudulent, leading forward-looking insurers to take a proactive approach to addressing the issue. For example, Folksam, one of the largest insurers in Sweden, expects to deliver 15-20% more suspicious claim cases for investigation after implementing the FRISS solution for Fraud Detection at Claims including FRISS Analytics. “The solution enables Folksam to improve its loss ratio by increasing the chances of detecting fraud, and to minimise false positives” says Morrenhof. “These results have been proven through our track record with all FRISS customers in 12 countries.”

Looking ahead, increasingly advanced analytics capabilities will be required as the volume and types of data available for analysis continue to grow. Towers Watson is working with leading insurers to help them improve their claims performance and gain competitive advantage. “Our claims specialists are helping to identify areas in which insurers can optimise their performance on claims costs,” says Tom Helm, head of claims consulting, risk consulting and software at Towers Watson. “We are deploying our analytics, software and claims capabilities together to help our clients fully understand their current state with regard to claims analytics and supporting them in determining the key questions their future analytics capability needs to answer. We are working with them to set out the data, tools, skills and outputs required to achieve these goals as well as helping them with the delivery.”

Microsoft and its partners are poised to deliver the capabilities insurers need to ensure fast, cost effective claims handling and analytics. “We’re now entering a new area of advanced analytics with our insurance customers as we integrate the Revolution R analytics solution with SQL Server 2016 and Azure Machine Learning,” concludes Jacob. “As well as enabling insurance companies to better mine and analyse their claims data, this delivers the capability to consume huge amounts of data to simulate and model catastrophes such as cyclones, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and terrorist activities. Giving insurance carriers a single capability that could improve both loss ratios today and catastrophe modelling for tomorrow is very powerful.

The post Getting a handle on claims appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - Canada.