Improved usability and reporting for the AA Insurance healthcare team with Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
AA Insurance implemented Microsoft Dynamics CRM to improve usability and reporting for the healthcare team, ensuring their customers can be properly supported. The solution has improved the quality of information for customers and sped-up claim payment times. The easier reporting functionality has also allowed the team to work more quickly and effectively.
AA Insurance is an insurance provider that was started in 1994 and is a joint venture between the NZ Automobile Association and Suncorp-Metway Ltd, providing New Zealand motorists with specialised car insurance. AA Insurance also covers house, contents, boats, caravans, motorbikes and has a healthcare product that is now closed to new business. The companyhas over 300 staff to look after their more than 150,000 customers and manage over 300,000 policies.
Outdated and clunky legacy system
AA Insurance had a legacy system that had been added to and adapted over the course of its existence to fit with the company’s needs, and had reached a point where upgrading further was not possible. In addition to this, both internal team changes meant there was no one in-house with extensive knowledge of the system, and the hardware had become so outdated it was no longer supported.
“There were reconciliation issues within our existing system for our health insurance team that meant we were unsure about the integrity of the data,” says Martin Chisholm, Finance and Administration Manager for AA Insurance.
“We had been tracking the issue for a while, and decided we needed to address the problem and change to a more user-friendly, solid reporting solution to ensure our customers were properly supported.”
AA Insurance turned to the vendor they had worked with in the past, Integral, as they knew the business and understood the existing data issues.
An off-the-shelf solution
AA Insurance took on board the recommendations of the Integral team, and looked to implement a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution – Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Integral are specialists in delivering membership management solutions, providing high quality service to their customers efficiently.
“We have a great relationship with Integral, and trusted their understanding of our business needs. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution was exactly what we needed – an off-the-shelf solution with the flexibility required.”
Other solutions were investigated, but were not available out-of-the-box.
Many years worth of transaction history needed to be transferred from the old system, so Integral ensured all the fields that were relevant on the existing system were mapped to the new CRM solution.
“As the healthcare product is closed to new business, we did not wish to spend large amounts of money to build a major new system. Integral helped us build a basic insurance system with the capability to rate premiums, issue invoices and pay claims,” states Martin.
Familiarity with advanced, yet simple, reporting
The new Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution was implemented in February 2010, and ran in parallel with the legacy system until it was decommissioned in April 2010. This allowed all staff to get up to speed with the new system before the old one was taken offline. The solution is delivered as software as a service.
The feedback from the AA Insurance healthcare team is that the new CRM system is much quicker to use and easier to train staff on. Familiarity is also a key benefit for employees, with Microsoft Dynamics CRM having the same look and feel as Outlook.
“We can now use advanced find and report wizard to generate all the reports we require. In the past this has been handled by IT experts and was very time consuming. The reports also have a better layout, and we have the ability to drill down to individual transactions, which was not previously possible.”
“Integral has enjoyed helping AA insurance to transition to their new solution and the immediate benefits that have been realised,” says Lincoln Watson, General Manager Professional Services for Integral.
“The deployment and data migration to Microsoft Dynamics CRM was extremely smooth, due to the close interaction of the teams and the software as a service model.”
The main benefits of Microsoft Dynamics CRM for the
AA Insurance healthcare team are:
- Familiarity, making it easier to train staff
- Automated letter production
- Streamlined processes
- Better quality and more detailed reporting
- Improved productivity
- Quicker response times to customer queries
- Faster payment of claims
- Improved quality of customer service information
“In addition, having the ongoing support for Dynamics CRM from Microsoft has given us confidence in the longevity of the solution. Overall this system has delivered all we needed and is a great leap forward from the previous system.”
AA Insurance is now able to have better control over their healthcare invoicing and premiums with intelligent reporting and streamlined processes. / Solution Overview
AA Insurance implemented Microsoft Dynamics CRM to improve usability and reporting for the team, ensuring their customers can be properly supported. The solution has improved the quality of information for customers, and sped-up claim payment times. The easier reporting functionality has also allowed the team to work more quickly and effectively.
Web Site
Industry
Professional Service
Partner
Integral
Customer Size
340employees
Customer Profile
AA Insurance is an insurance provider that started off specialising in car insurance. Started in 1994 as a joint venture between the NZ Automobile Association and Suncorp-Metway Ltd, AA Insurance now also provides New Zealanders with home, contents, health and other insurance, and manages more than 300,000 policies.
Business Situation
AA Insurance had a legacy system that had been added to and adapted over the course of its existence to fit with the company’s needs, and had reached a point where upgrading further was not possible. In addition to this, both the hardware and the software had become so outdated that they were no longer supported.
Microsoft Technology
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM®
For more information about Microsoft products and services, please call the Microsoft Sales Information Centre on (09) 3575576. To access information over the World Wide Web, go to:
©2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This customer solution is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, Windows, SQL Server and .Net are registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
1