Zurich International Life in Dubai,UAE recently upgraded its document capture capabilities with the deployment of 10 Kodak i3400 Scanners from Kodak Alaris.

Ramesh Ramakrishnan, head of IT, Middle East at Zurich International Life estimates that in the insurance industry, the deployment of scanners can typically save 80 per cent of the workload.

“Fifteen years back there was no integration between technology & business. But all that has changed. Technology is not just seen as a business enabler, but as a business driver. CIOs now report into CFOs. The intent is to be more agile & cater to growing demands of business so that the business is able to generate more revenue,” Ramakrishnan said.

“The model which Zurich International Life operates in this region is primarily through banks and independent financial advisors/ brokers. So when we have strategic relationships with key banks like Citibank and HSBC, the demands are pretty high. We have to be on our toes, racing against time. Automation in this industry is a game-changer and can be a huge competitive advantage, especially as customers’ demand faster service. Scanners are an integral part of this automation process.

“In every department there is scope for process improvement and scanning is something done by all departments today. We are in the era of ‘E-Storage’. Everyone is talking about reducing paper. Ultimately it boils down to cost. Even one employee manually doing this job is additional cost for a company,” he added.

Explaining the document handling process in the insurance industry and Zurich International Life’s decision to automate processes, Mr. Ramesh says, “Insurance is a very competitive industry and delivering top quality and fast service to our customers is key.”

“Typically when we sell life insurance policies to customers, most applications contain many supporting documents. These then go through the process of screening to ensure everything is in order. The final decision will then have to be communicated to the customer. Overall, this is quite a complex and time consuming process.”

“Automation helps to reduce the timeframe. So where do you automate? Scanners are the starting point and they should integrate seamlessly with the back-end systems. The moment you receive an application form it should get scanned automatically and then be fed into the imaging and workflow system. Then it gets assessed and once accepted, a policy document will be generated. It all comes down to customer experience and how automated you are. Providing high-end service means reducing that end-to end process journey and making it more competitive.”

Zurich International Life signed a yearly service and support agreement with Kodak Alaris which gave the company access to on-site service, Advanced Unit Replacement, 24x7x8 hour response and preventive maintenance.

"As a global technology provider, our primary purpose is to simplify and improve the way our customers work,” said Rick Costanzo, president & general manager, Kodak Alaris Information Management.

“For clients like Zurich International Life, adopting an end-to-end solution where hardware, software and services remove cost and complexity from the business is extremely valuable and can be the deciding factor when selecting a vendor.”

Kodak Alaris delivers fast, reliable service through best-in-class Field Engineers (FEs) to keep operations running at peak efficiency. Skilled service engineers provide over-the-phone, remote expertise to solve problems fast and if an on-site call is necessary, one of the many strategically located field engineers (FEs) will visit the site to resolve the issue.

The company has the distinction of achieving the ISO 9001:2008 certification among scanner service organizations, so customers can feel confident that Kodak Alaris will deliver on its promise to meet the most stringent requirements on a global scale. – TradeArabia News Service