SCA makes significant and ongoing investments in numerous areas of claim technology. We do this to ensure our ability to maintain and grow partnerships with name-brand carriers as well as provide tools that make working for and doing business with SCA easier. This is part 2 in an ongoing series about how SCA prioritizes technology to remain a leader in the auto, specialty, and property claims handling space.
Staying on the technological forefront of both insurance carrier and vehicle appraiser innovation isn’t simply a core competency at SCA Claim Services. In fact, it’s so foundational to the company and our more than forty years of existence we literally named the latest iteration of our proprietary claim management and finance system “CORE”.
“Make it easy to do business with SCA” is our mission. That’s why SCA spent two years developing the latest iteration of our claim management and finance tool. Dubbed CORE, it is the central system used by SCA office teams, our appraisers, our insurance customers, and even the individual policyholder to manage and track how each claim progresses from assignment to closure.
CORE allows the carrier to monitor all statuses on open files assigned to SCA, view completed estimates and photos, and provides a robust menu of reporting tools for current and historical data. For appraisers, our COREmobile app allows for tri-directional (owner, carrier, and SCA) SMS status messaging, photo upload, Google Maps driving directions, direct-dial owner contact, and reassignment to their supporting appraisers. The policyholder can follow a URL link sent via text directly into a customized CORE portal for visually following their claims as they progress through the SCA portion of the process.
For all the SCA departmental teams (FNOL, File Management, QC, Material Damage, Billing, Delivery, etc.), CORE provides us with the ability to view all files and monitor claims activity for quality assurance and timeliness purposes. The CORE workflow allows us to ensure every file is written according to the corresponding regional and state requirements, and in line with each client’s unique specifications.
“We built CORE from the ground up using Microsoft ASP.NET best practices and industry-standard MVC web Framework to accommodate many quality-of-life improvements requested by our employees, appraisers, and clients,” says Jeff White, head of SCA’s Strategic Initiatives.
Prior to CORE, appraisers would have to take photos in the field and then wait until they were in front of a computer to transfer them from their digital device to SCA. This process always meant the field appraiser needed to spend valuable time reviewing screen loads of jpegs in order to sort and properly label before transfer to SCA could occur.
“CORE is orders of magnitude faster and includes adjuster and owner status options built into the normal appraisal workflow,” says White on how COREmobile has improved upon the appraisal process.
The COREmobile app walks the user through a specific order of photos to take and the best angle from which to take them. It then auto-labels the images and uploads them in real time to the corresponding file in the CORE management system. The technology also introduces a standardization for the various milestone dates which drive file completion such as Appraiser Acceptance, Owner Contact, Vehicle Inspection Date, Photo Upload, and Estimate Completion.
By streamlining the documentation process and providing a consistent reporting template, CORE has vastly improved claims management for both the appraiser and the adjuster.
As mentioned previously, one of the most significant augmentations to the claims process, which is also exclusive to SCA, is our tri-directional communication via text functionality. This amazing feature allows a seamless single communication thread between SCA central, the appraiser, and the policyholder. Not only does this provide heightened convenience for speed and efficiency, but it also retains all discourse within the web portal, which is then also tied to the respective file for adjuster review if necessary.
The work on CORE didn’t stop simply with its launch. It continues to this day. “We’re consistently making minor improvements and adding slight enhancements in response to all stakeholder feedback,” says White.
Technology and innovation in the insurance industry continue to surge ever forward. As it does, SCA will remain committed to being at the forefront of the newest, latest and best to ensure working for and with SCA is streamlined and simple.