The Importance of Collaboration in Insurance Forms Management [Part 2]

Collaboration between departments is essential in implementing and managing projects throughout any organization. In the insurance industry, the forms and document lifecycle involves multiple teams, including product management, IT, legal, compliance, and marketing. Considering the vital role that cross-department collaboration plays in forms management, it is not surprising that one of the biggest concerns for insurers is alignment between these teams. For many insurers, each department works independently on their aspects of each project, leading to process silos, avoidable inefficiencies, miscommunications, and delays in form development and deployment.

Without a collaborative approach, insurance companies struggle with critical issues like data field inefficiencies, inadequate version control, and inconsistent branding. To remain competitive and adaptable, this report by leading industry analyst Celent found that insurers must prioritize cross-department collaboration to streamline workflows, improve accuracy, and enhance speed to market. Read on for a breakdown of these insights on the importance of collaboration in the insurance document lifecycle.

The Disconnect Between Product Management and IT

One of the biggest challenges in insurance forms management is the disconnect between product managers and IT teams. These departments have different priorities and often lack visibility into each other’s processes. In many cases, product managers generally have no idea what approach the IT organization uses once the form is passed to IT for deployment. At the same time, many IT organizations are unaware of what work the business went through to create and finalize the form. These gaps in knowledge can lead to several problems within the forms and document lifecycle.

To ensure seamless forms management, insurers must encourage and enable collaboration between business and IT teams, creating a unified approach to document workflows. Exploring specific challenges created by this issue further illustrates the need for an improved approach to managing workflow.

3 Key Challenges in Forms Collaboration

1. Data Field Inefficiencies

With the complexity of forms creation, all departments need to have a clear understanding of the available data elements within forms. For example, many policy forms contain fillable fields requiring specific data elements. With numerous forms being changed daily, whether due to customized wording or updated regulatory requirements, it’s crucial for business and IT departments to easily recognize these fillable fields on each form.

For best results, use a system with a smart, searchable content library that allows departments to store and reuse content, allowing data fields to be easily discovered by anyone in your organization.

2. Inadequate Version Control

Many product managers have several places to store forms within their organization, the most popular options being their email history or a simple spreadsheet. Most companies “don’t have a standard process” for recording and preserving the version history of each form or document (Celent). While some insurers get by with this informal approach to version control, it can lead to serious problems. Without detailed, traceable documentation that is accessible to multiple parties, it is all too easy to end up with multiple versions of the same form. Or worse, if the one person who managed version histories leaves the company, you risk losing the one source of memory for all of your documents.

Having several versions of the same form could lead to confusion and errors when it comes time to submit a form for deployment. With the mass number of insurance professionals reaching retirement age in the coming years (and no set processes in place), you may likely discover an issue of knowledge transfer due to inadequate version control. A centralized forms storage library allows automated versioning and document storage to create a collaboration history, providing a complete audit trail and eliminating the risk of duplicate and inaccurate forms.

3. Lack of Brand Management

Project managers usually maintain their company’s brand across all tasks. This includes ensuring every form contains static information, including their logo, company name, and any other information needed on every form. Organizations usually have a general idea of how their forms should look. However, many companies don’t utilize document creation systems, according to Celent’s research. Instead, they rely on their marketing department to repeatedly apply their brand template for each document before deployment, leaving room for human error with each application.

Lack of consistency among forms can negatively affect the impression you leave in the minds of your customers, so insurers are wise to utilize a system that builds and shares templates to simplify change control while increasing consistency and maintaining compliance on all kinds of content.

The Benefits of a Unified Collaboration Strategy

In contrast to the obstacles created by the common lack of cross-collaboration between IT and product managers, by implementing a structured collaboration strategy, insurers can:

• Enhance Responsiveness: Ensure quick updates and deployment of forms to align with regulatory changes and market demands.

• Increase Agility: Enable teams to work together seamlessly, reducing bottlenecks and accelerating form delivery.

• Improve Data Accuracy: Standardized data fields eliminate duplication errors, improving efficiency in claims and policy management.

• Strengthen Brand Consistency: Centralized document management ensures that all customer communications align with brand guidelines.

A well-defined collaboration strategy fosters synergy across departments, ensuring that forms management becomes streamlined and efficient. For a more detailed explanation of why and how to improve collaboration between your teams, access the full Celent report for free.

How GhostDraft 360 Supports Cross-Department Collaboration

To overcome these collaboration challenges, insurance companies need a solution that integrates all aspects of forms and document management in one centralized system. The GhostDraft 360 suite provides the answer by offering:

• All-in-One Platform: Insurers can manage every step of their forms and document processes from inception to delivery.

• Real-Time Collaboration: A centralized platform where product managers, IT teams, and compliance officers can work together on forms development and updates.

• Automated Version Control: Ensures that the latest form versions are always accessible, reducing compliance risks and confusion.

• Data Standardization Tools: Helps teams maintain consistency across all form fields, eliminating inefficiencies and errors.

• Brand Management Capabilities: Ensures that every customer-facing document adheres to corporate branding guidelines, strengthening brand identity and trust.

Collaboration is the missing piece in many insurance companies’ forms and document management strategies. Without seamless communication and integration between product management, IT, and other departments, inefficiencies and compliance risks persist. GhostDraft 360 empowers insurers to break down departmental silos, enabling faster, more efficient forms management and improving overall business performance. Insurers can optimize their forms lifecycle by addressing key challenges such as data field inefficiencies, version control issues, and branding inconsistencies.