Accenture: Need to Modernize and Increase Flexibility of Claims Systems

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

“Today’s digital-savvy, mobile-enabled consumers expect seamless, real-time interaction with their service providers,”  Michael A. Costonis, a managing director in Accenture Property and Casualty Insurance Services recently said. “For P&C insurers, that means reducing settlement times and enabling policyholders to interact with them about the progress of their claims when and where they want. A modern core claims system is essential to achieving all of these objectives.”

A large majority (85 percent) of claims executives at U.S. property and casualty (P&C) insurance companies see their claims systems as lacking the flexibility and modernity needed to address consumers’ evolving needs, according to an Accenture (NYSE: ACN) survey of U.S. claims executives.

Half (54 percent) of those surveyed say their core claims systems are more than five years old and almost one-third (32 percent) of respondents say they rely on more than five different applications to process claims.

Also according to the survey, a large majority of executives (83 percent) believe their claims systems are not modern and flexible enough to allow them to change the systems’ behavior and business rules without intervention from the IT department.