Business Process Outsourcing – A Boon for Insurance Industry

Tom Peters aptly quoted “Do what you do best, outsource the rest”. Outsourcing is meant as delegation of non-core operations or jobs from internal production within the business to an external entity that specializes in that operation. Outsourcing is a process which is undertaken by a company in order to focus on the core business competencies. The common processes which are generally outsourced includes: Call Centers, Data Processing, Accounting and Payroll Outsourcing.  

Insurance companies have traditionally been among the slowest adopters of outsourcing/offshoring. However, in the recent years, higher claims disbursement, shrinking margins and increasing competition have forced insurance companies to look at outsourcing as a measure to improve efficiency and to channelize resources towards the core functions of product development and innovation. Recently, insurance companies have come to recognize that their core competencies which are underwriting, financial analysis, cash management, risk management and portfolio analysis needs more focus than the areas like general accounting, payroll processing, customer support, human resources etc. Some of the key factors which have attracted insurance companies to outsource their areas are:-                                              

Enhanced Job Acceleration: - Insurance back -office companies are filled with experienced manpower which helps to increased productivity. Further, due to immense competition in the market, they offer the best possible results resulting in the increased work performance.

Developing new competencies and skillset:- Insurance outsourcing companies makes it easier for the insurance firms to enhance business, exploit leads, empowering skillset & help firms to enter into a new competency market.

Time Zone Advantage & Cost Effective Labor:- The cost-effective labor coupled with time zone advantage of India gives companies in western countries as added advantage as before the US case managers comes to the office, the reports are already to be worked on before their working hours.

Speedy Productivity: - Since, the insurance outsourced company handles the back- office operations work, we don’t have any disturbances of taking the calls and following up with the clients. The outsourced company sole work is to provide tailor-made services and handle it efficiently.

Beat Competition: - Companies outsource to stay ahead of the competition rather than to downsize because it helps them to gain market share and to grow. Outsourcing data entry services helps the company to make the most of productive time as the agency costs are minimized and the resources are used diligently.

Employee Pooling: A Customer Centric Organization

Employee Pooling delivers innovative business outsourcing solutions designed to simplify workflow, boost productivity and drive revenues. We are one of the leading Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Company which offers variety of services like - Mortgage, Insurance, Revenue Cycle Management and Legal Process Outsourcing Services. 

At Employee Pooling, we ensure to keep our customers at the core of everything as we move around in the customer lifecycle. All our activities are aligned to what the customer is trying to attain.

Our foremost focus is on the customers along with the services that we are providing to them. We have designed our organization from customer’s perspective and henceforth, we are very flexible and focused on customer’s changing needs and market conditions. Further, as customer – centric association, we foresee customer’s needs and provide them with answers to all their difficulties. Additionally, we support customers in their endeavors and give them great experience and work towards accomplishing their goals.

The eight attributes that we follow to make our organization customer centric are as follows:

Customer Focused Leadership: - Customer Focused Leadership is defined as commitment to customer satisfaction. Customer focus is considered to be one of the major aspects for the overall success of the organization and this involves ensuring that all aspects of the company put its customer satisfaction at the topmost position. We at Employee Pooling ensure customer focused leadership approach towards our valuable customers.

Understanding Your Customers: - To know your customer’s need, is one of the key aspects which help all the organizations to grow as well as to be customer centric. At Employee Pooling, we understand our customer’s needs thoroughly by supporting them day in and day out.

Design the Experience: -We design the experience as per the expectations of the customer and this is one of the essential elements of any business organization. We provide tailor made services i.e. we mould our processes as per our customer’s requirements and follow them.

Empower Front Line: - Front line agents are the bread and butter of all the organizations. We at Employee Pooling ensures to train the front end employees and make them proficient so that they can understand the process aptly. Further, we also ensure that our front end employees understand and comprehend the process and follow it with 100% accuracy.

Metrics that Matter: - The metrics that usually matter for a business to grow are customer loyalty and retention, cost of customer acquisition, operating productivity, size of gross margin and sales revenue. The major metrics we, here at our company provide to all our customers are phenomenal cost saving, simplified onboarding, employee satisfaction and increased revenues. 

Feedback Drives Continuous Improvement: - Bill Gates quoted “We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.  At Employee Pooling, we are completely open to feedbacks from our customers. We take the feedbacks positively and try to improve ourselves constantly.

Advantages of Healthcare Business Process Outsourcing Services

Healthcare service has turned out to be one of the largest industries for outsourcing- both in terms of income and work. Healthcare services involve doctor's facilities, medical devices, clinical trials, outsourcing telehealth, medical equipment and most importantly medical coverage. The global insurance interest in outsourcing has developed greatly in the current years because of the industry's drive to lessen costs while as yet having the capacity to give quality healthcare services. Earlier, the industry constrained their outsourcing to medical data entry and medical transcription. Yet, with the developing mindfulness that outsourcing has more prominent advantages for healthcare associations and doctor's facilities, many are investigating into insurance data administration frameworks, clinical research, big data, medical billing, and IT to keep patient information secured among numerous others.

As indicated by Jonathan Clarke, Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Administration at Penn State University, "Outsourcing is something we ought to consider, particularly when it energizes proficiency and grows access to human services, however we should be canny about it so as not to put tolerant well-being at hazard." He likewise expressed that around 90% of the doctor's facilities in the United States are outsourcing a few services especially radiology benefit. Five reasons the healthcare industry ought to contemplate outsourcing their non-restorative operations are:

 

Critical mistakes are avoided: - As per Tom Lowery in his article entitled 8 Ways Outsourcing Can Help Hospitals and Patients, US healing centres leave about $125 billion on the table every year as a result of poor medical billing practices. Also, 80% of hospital expenses contain blunders. One element that adds to this is a few hospitals are not updated with currently changing billing rules and regulations. With outsourcing, healthcare organisations can have a devoted group of prepared experts that spotlights on billing purposes.

Diminished training costs: - Healthcare organisations that outsource their procedures don't likewise need to stress over spending additional cash for instruction, programming or staff preparing since the outsourcing accomplice sees to it that their representatives are fully informed regarding the most recent changes in benchmarks and controls.

More opportunity to concentrate on giving quality patient care:- With an outsourcing accomplice dealing with searching for a healthcare association's staff and preparing them, healthcare providers have the capacity to concentrate on the more imperative things in the business - in this case, giving the best quality care for patients. Business outsourcing services & solution will help providers to diminish their dull authoritative and overseeing workload, and permit them to give a positive patient care involvement and enhance it as well.

Save on cost without trading off quality of business: -The greatest favourable advantage of business outsourcing is the lessened expenses in healthcare operations. Outsourcing brings in huge savings with its ease labour and framework. Healthcare outsourcing services  can help spare organisations 30-60% of expenses. Besides dealing with staff obtaining and maintenance, having an outsourcing accomplice likewise decreases excess managerial costs since the immediate advantage of outsourcing is monetary surge.

Business Process Outsourcing Gives an Extra Edge to Firms

Proficient division of work has always played a major role in order to ensure the smooth transition of business. Further, regardless of how hard any business attempts, they can't be simultaneously great at everything. Notwithstanding how capable any business is, there is always a point of confinement to the amount they can do. Outsourcing, when utilized appropriately, can do marvels to your business.
Below mentioned are four measures that any firm should take before outsourcing their business:- 

Outsourcing helps in better management 

Regardless of how talented new employees that the business hires are, they usually need at least 6 months to settle down and get integrated in the organization. Most experienced organizations discern that new employees need several months before they start adding any real value. In an organization, time plays an utmost value as it is considered to be equivalent to money. Before someone else can imitate your idea and compete with you directly in your segment, outsourcing serves as a best option. Can you afford to rely on some recruitment agency and wait till they shortlist, interview, hire and complete the onboarding of the new staff? How much opportunity cost would take entail? Instead, why not hire the service of a partner firm that can start immediately and know exactly how and where to begin?

Provides efficient Personnel

As per study by Quartz, 18% of developing companies identified lack of experience and knowledge as a major reason behind their failures. The underlining idea that we could gain from this review is that we ought to appreciate the importance of training and knowledge of experts. If you do not have the required skill set to carry out a particular task, there is no harm in hiring the services of an agency. Identify partners with a proven track record and establish a working relationship with them.

Improves Business Efficiency

In 2016, after interviewing a number of jobholders, it was found that the employees left the jobs due to excessive work pressure. Though, top-managers are highly motivated and trying to achieve every possible goal in order to succeed their organization yet there are just twenty four hours to fulfil their run for success.Trying to do too many things at once would sooner or later take a toll on productivity and reduce business efficiency. There is nothing like a dedicated agency pursuing your agenda with single-minded devotion. No multi-tasking genius can match this sort of drive. Henceforth, business process outsourcing services & solution comes to the rescue and helps the business gain an extra edge over the others.

Proper utilization of resources

Funds play a major role in order to ensure smooth transition of business. According to a Quartz study,46 per cent of business fails because they run out of funding. Whether you are a bootstrapped firm or have an investor backing you, maintaining a steady cash flow should be one of your top priorities. Few developing companies can afford to hire an in-house team for their allied processes. Why not find an agency that has experience in outsourcing? They often offer attractive packages, stress-free one window solution to your processes at an affordable price that would be way lower than what you might have to spend on hiring an in-house team.

Trying to do everything yourself or creating everything in-house does not provide an extra edge to the business as all the top personnel gets engaged in managing the existing business. Your core team’s time is profitable. Their time should be utilized in doing the core operations rather than the non-core ones which can easily be outsourced.

Importance of Customer Satisfaction in Business

Client Heartbeat

It’s been a long-held belief among business owners that client satisfaction plays a major role in smooth functioning of the business. Business exists to earn profit by providing a product or service that clients would find to their liking. The technique to maintain sustained business is by meeting or surpassing client expectations by providing commendable service. 

However, there’s a brand new school of thought among market researchers that contend otherwise, saying that it’s not client satisfaction you must be careful for—rather it should be customer loyalty. This technique asserts that a happy client by customer satisfaction doesn’t essentially translate to additional sales within the same approach customer loyalty does. 

Here are 10 reasons why client satisfaction is one of the key business development factor :- 

1. Client satisfaction could be an entryway to earning loyalty:

Measuring client satisfaction and loyalty are like comparing apples to oranges as a result of the previous could be a operate of attitude whereas the latter goes abundant deeper. Loyalty could be a belief that was shaped from having a client encounter sensible experiences from your whole. Guaranteeing that a shopper is happy with each point of interaction is a method that results in loyalty down the road.

2. You want to keep customers happy to take care of their loyalty:

On average, it takes up to 3 years for a client to become loyal to your business. Once loyalty has been attained, it’s vital to not let up as a result of these is purchasers that may give you insights for improvement. More significantly, they're the simplest candidates for changing into your ambassadors, and people who’ll keep returning to buy from you throughout their lifetime—as long as you keep them satisfied.

3. It serves as a key metric for project management success:

In project management, the key factors that are usually given priority are time, scope, and budget. Consumer satisfaction is vital however it’s typically given mere hypocrisy, and not tied into the day -to-day decision-making method. But for a project to be known as a true success, it’s vital to ascertain in with those for whom it had been created to start with. Some inquiries to raise are the following: is that the project continuing as expected? Will your consumer like better to do one thing else? Do they need all the data they need?

4. Activity satisfaction helps you to understand if a customer can buy from you once more:

There’s a robust correlation between satisfaction and repeat business. Keeping new clients happy can increase the probability of them shopping for from you once more whereas poor customer service on your half then lowers the probabilities of them returning.

5. Clients leave owing to poor quality service over worth concerns:

The main reason for attrition isn't changes in your worth points, however dangerous client service expertise. The good news here is that as long as you listen to your customer’s desires and still “wow” them by exceptional their expectations, it’s easier to justify worth will increase once the time comes.

6. It keeps you sooner than your competitors:

As a market somebody, nothing beats systematically delivering glorious service, and continuously going on top of and on the far side of your customer’s desires. Take the case of brands like Starbucks, the Ritz-Carlton, or Disney. You would like solely mention the names of those winning brands and services to grasp that it’s their commitment to client satisfaction that has unbroken them miles ahead from their peers.

7. It promotes client retention:

Retention is closely tied to loyalty, satisfaction keeps clients returning for a lot of and doing business with you within the future. They’re a lot of seemingly to stay along with your complete longer and eventually become the sort of advocates that may facilitate unfold the word for you, thereby earning you a lot of customers down the road.

8. Effort new Client is dearer than keeping those you have already got:
It’s an oft-repeated data point among client service practitioners that it prices up to seven times a lot of to amass new purchasers than it will to retain those you have already got. This is why you must place a lot of your resources toward keeping your existing customers happy, rather than making an attempt to achieve out cold to new ones.

The main reason for attrition isn't changes in your worth points, however bad client service expertise. The good news here is that as long as you listen to your customer’s desires and still “wow” them by satisfying their expectations.

The longer a customer remains happy along with your product or service, the longer they’ll stick with you, that successively will increase the probabilities of you obtaining a come back for the quantity of your time and cash it took to amass your client.

 In a shell, it’s vital to look at client satisfaction as an integral business metric and to require a holistic instead of a piecemeal stance.

 There’s an honest reason it’s been wide accepted as a key indicator over the years, most that it has become institutionalized and standardized in business circles. Simply put, keeping customers happy is vital to attain long-run success.

Business Outsourcing is not just Cost-Cutting; its far more Beneficial

Companies which efficaciously produce and withstand profits year after year are rare.“Most of the firms try to; however, companies surveyed over last 11 years, it was found that only 5% achieved sustained profitable growth”.The mere thing which set these winners apart: They often use outsourcing in more innovative ways than their competitors.  

Primarily, Offshoring and Outsourcing were merely seen as cost-cutting measures, however over the course of action, it was found that the companies with real sustained value used outsourcing in a more competent way in order to gain competencies that they do have, or to strengthen competencies they don’t have in-house. According to Gartner’s research, organizations not merely outsource in order to reduce cost- saving, they outsource for “efficiency, modernization, access to skills, focus on core business and even business transformation.” In other words, outsourcing has moved far ahead from merely cost- cutting.

Based on the research, these are the various ways in which companies use outsourcing other than mere cost-cutting in order to bring out the best :- 

•   To explore the global talent: - One of the biggest challenges faced by the world is to build and sustain a strong talent pipeline. Through outsourcing to different nations, the companies tend to compensate the lack of talent which hinder their ability to grow. Outsourced workers are a loch of nurtured and well trained talent and working with them will surely help the business to boost up.
• To seize new market opportunities: - The essence of business lies in bringing out the new services or products ahead of their competitors. With the help of remote workers, outsourcing company’s products and services gets to be seen first on the web ahead of all their competitors. This strategy definitely helps them in driving their revenues northwards.!

• Focus on the core productive activities of the business :- Outsourcing the non- core activities of the business which generally pertains to back-office operations work, help the business outsourcing companies to focus on those crucial revenue –generating activities and rest being assured that their administrative tasks will be well taken care of.  This way companies gets an extra edge over the others.
•  Enhanced Business Efficiency:-When the business takes its pace and starts growing, customer volume begins to beat the in-house capabilities. In order to ensure the smooth transit of business and avoid labor shortage an action is definitely required and henceforth, outsourcing comes into the limelight. Outsourcing smaller or lesser important tasks to third party helps to keep the company’s efficiency at its peak.

 In the current situation, outsourcing is not merely an option, but it has turned out to be an      imperative source if the company is hoping on advancing on the competition and driving revenue  upwards in the longer run. Henceforth, outsourcing is not merely treated as means of cost cutting but  it has also turned out to be a useful way in order to keep the business achieves its set goals.

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