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New tool for rebuilding after disaster

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The insurance industry is notoriously cumbersome after a natural disaster. The trauma of rebuilding negotiations often compounds that of the original event.

The good news is an award-winning ‘track-and-trace’ approach to claims handling hopes to reduce turnaround time by up to 60%.

In a joint venture announced mid-December, the largest Australian-owned loss adjuster, Cerno, and insurance builder, Claim Central Holdings (CCH), will offer a complete claims service, Claim360, powered by claims management technology Claim Central.

CCH CEO Brian Siemsen said: “Following a natural disaster, policyholders expect a high quality of service and their claim to be processed as quickly as possible – regardless of how many claims their insurer has received.”

“Yet, lately, Australia’s natural disasters are often followed by slow and inconsistent rebuilding of communities.”

“Recent inquiries have identified that complicated, disparate workflow processes – especially following a large surge in claims – severely limit an insurer’s ability to manage the claims process consistently.”

Through Claim360, the loss adjuster and the insurance builder are combined, where previously they were separate slices of the insurance claim pie.

According to Cerno CEO Greg Johnson, the industry was in desperate need of a standardised approach.

“What was needed were systems that efficiently managed the complexity of the insurance claim process from receipt to completion.”

“Feedback from insurers is that they wanted both building and assessing skills in one package to help achieve this.”

“We took the insurance and claim handling skills of loss adjusters and combined them with the estimating, cost control and trade and supplier management knowledge of builders.”

“The result is a new way of doing business.”

According to Johnson, Claim360 has already proved it knows its onions.

“CCH has been using this technology, through Siemens Group, for almost two years. It also supplies it to many in the industry.”

“It has been recognised through its various awards. We are very excited to be able to offer our clients something new to meet the changing needs of the insurance property market.”

“At the end of the day, the time saved by this venture will see policyholders get their lives back to normal, faster.”