Go with the flow: use business process excellence to speed up reporting
The reporting cycle is demanding and stressful, regardless of model size, organisation or regime. For many years, companies have responded by using automation and end-user computing to shore up their processes. These technology solutions – often Excel and macro tools – can be a double-edged sword, achieving quick wins such as replicating human tasks rather than streamlining the process. Actuaries may become too attached to their tooling, and processes may evolve to fit the tools’ capabilities. And if the developer leaves, these tools become a cryptic black box that everyone is too scared to touch.
While we now have bigger and better tools such as Power BI and PowerAutomate, do they complement the process and add value, or simply entrench existing working practices?
Business process excellence (BPE) is about moving beyond automating tasks to streamline entire business processes so that they are more efficient and effective, delivering consistent, positive outcomes with minimal variation. An emphasis on BPE can help insurers to optimise workflows, and the goal should be to enhance the wider process, not just the tools being used.
Automation
Where should insurers invest time and resources if they want to refocus on BPE? Automating human activities is a major element, although it is not the only facet of BPE. Having a robot do the work means nothing waits until the morning, and a variety of tasks can be interleaved with no overheads, nothing missed and no mistakes made. The robot takes the data it needs, passes it to the right calculation, then passes the results on to the next step. This could reduce human effort and delivery time by an estimated 70%.
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