A Digital Mailroom Promotes Growth

A large U.S. property and casualty insurance company has a successful business model and is growing rapidly. In fact, its revenues are growing nearly 40 percent per year. As numerous new policyholders increase the size of their book of business, they must ensure that their document management infrastructure can handle the load. This holds true especially in the mailroom, which is the entry point for the organization’s critical business documents.

This U.S. insurance company challenges Datamark to deliver a strategy for future business process outsourcing and handling the critical documentation that arrives through their mailroom. Company executives realize that in order to support their growing size and maintain focus on their core business model, they would be better off outsourcing the organization of their mailroom, paper documents and related business processes. 

DATAMARK experts conduct a business process analysis of the client’s mailroom over the course of two days. The business engineering team documents the workflow using their Business Process Management System (BPMS). Lean Six Sigma and other methodologies are applied to identify and remove redundant steps. DATAMARK’s experts also work with the client to understand the pain points in the process. 

The team identifies four key aspects about the mailroom workflow that reflect characteristics of a smaller organization with lower business volume. First, the current workflow consists of primarily paper-based processes such as sorting, opening, and distributing mail manually. Second, in many cases the steps were repeated as documents are re-sorted, re-distributed and scanned within each department. Third, scanning and imaging of documents happen at the end of the workflow, counter to the foundational element of the digital mailroom. Fourth, all mail workflows are conducted within each department of the organization rather than at a centralized mailroom. The solution becomes clear to DATAMARK experts: this client is the ideal candidate for a transformation into a modern and more efficient digital mailroom.

Within about two weeks, the DATAMARK business engineering team return with a proposed solution. They suggest transforming the client’s outdated paper-based mailroom to a highly efficient, cost-saving, centralized digital mailroom. Another alternative solution is to outsource the mail operations offsite to gain additional benefits such as higher cost savings and reclaimed facility space. 

The client takes into account DATAMARK’s recommendations and high level of expertise in mailroom operations. They decide to implement the new digital mailroom processes. The new process results in the following improvements of their business process workflow including:

• Scanning and imaging of documents at the beginning of the workflow
• Rapid and secure check-in and check-out of documents
• End-to end tracking of documents, revisions and process steps
• Improved document tracking and security
• Faster turnaround time for customers

Moving forward, the relationship between the client and DATAMARK opens the doors for success in the client’s mailroom operations. This client can also rely on DATAMARK for expertise in other business processes including data capture, claims processing and customer contact centers.