Chubb Insurance To Transform Its Customer Communication

Rick Gray, European Zone IT Director at Chubb Insurance, commented:
"We are very positive about this new system. Whilst the need for the investment has been heightened by the UK's regulatory framework, we believe it gives us further opportunity to strengthen our branding and improve efficiency in the way we communicate - and on a pan-European basis. In time, we plan to evaluate the success of the system in the UK with a view to creating more centralised control of the content and design of our correspondence Europe-wide."

Docucorp's solution will replace Chubb's reliance on Microsoft Word, allowing the insurer to establish a series of 'rules' governing its policies and general correspondence. The rules within the new system relate to a number of reusable templates, which can prescribe anything from standardised content, through to branding, logo positioning, font and colour, thus ensuring both greater consistency and more centralised control across the organisation.

Using these rules, Chubb will not only be able to create a standardised design function but also to achieve greater control over policies, thus supporting contract certainty. By minimising manual intervention, the system will also improve the speed with which correspondence can be issued and thereby reduce the period of uncertainty during which cover is in place but policy terms have not been specified.

The regulator has highlighted as an issue of concern across the commercial insurance sector the need for greater certainty regarding the terms of cover. Firms have until December 2006 to achieve "contract certainty" for 85 per cent of their policies, with the aim of improving confidence in commercial insurance, and particularly the London market. If this target is not achieved, the FSA proposes to regulate.

Tracey Robinson, Managing Director of Docucorp EMEA, commented:
"The regulatory backdrop is prompting firms across the commercial insurance sector to place more emphasis on control and to reduce the level of freedom left in the hands of brokers, underwriters and the organisation's own staff. With Gartner claiming that IT for compliance is growing at twice the rate of general IT expenditure, it will be interesting to see what happens to an industry such as general insurance that is still in the embryonic stages of regulation."

Chubb plans to implement the new system in the UK towards the end of the year, with a view to making it available to all its regional operations across Europe. In the meantime, the insurer plans to use the same Docucorp software to automate documentation relating to claims handling in Europe.

Rick Gray continued:
"This is a reflection of the award-winning work we have already achieved around claims handling and our commitment to maintaining high standards in this area."