TPA · AUSTRALIA
Doing More Work in Less Time: How an IA Discovered Greater Efficiency with VCA
The Client: Unity Claims
Privately-held claims management firm, Unity Claims has been at the forefront of claims management within the accident repair industry for the past 6 years. Unity specializes in managing claims for the Fleet and Hired Car industries and is known for using technical innovation and analysis to create exceptional outcomes for their clients.
Unity Claims partnered with VCA Software in 2017 to manage claims for an enterprise level fleet client. At first, they were using the VCA platform out-of-the-box, which was good – but the team knew that the potential for even more efficiency was great. In 2021, when Shane Hunter joined the company as IT director, he reached out to VCA’s Client Services leader, Ilda Cairns to explore customization opportunities.
The Opportunity: Slashing a 45-Minute Process to 10 Minutes
After an ROI assessment, Ilda and Shane determined that if Unity upgraded to VCA’s Enterprise platform with some customizations to tailor the system for this fleet, they could reduce the time required to process a claim from 45 minutes to 10 minutes!
When Unity considered the amount they paid their team for the extra 35 minutes per claim, the numbers were more-than-compelling, They were spending roughly 18,000 hours on inefficient time each year! The ROI potential of the upgrade was obvious, so they proceeded with the upgrade immediately.
“Once we saw the assessment, we knew we had to upgrade. It was shocking to see the cost of all the time we were wasting,” Shane says. “We took the business case to the senior leadership team and when we walked them through it, they agreed that it was a no brainer. They told us invest and get the job done,” he adds.
Once we saw the assessment, we knew we had to upgrade. It was shocking to see the cost of all the time we were wasting.
Within a few months, the new VCA system was up and running and Unity couldn’t have been happier with the new efficiencies they were experiencing as well as the increased profit they were earning by leveraging technology to improve services for this fleet client.
Automating the client data verification process resulted in significant time savings compared to the old process of manually validating customer information by querying databases. The API also integrated with other existing systems eliminating some previous workarounds.
“Working with Ilda was fantastic,” Shane says. “ I came from outside of the insurance industry and she was invaluable in helping me understand the process, unpack the complexities and refine our plan. Together, we found ways to make the process leaner so we could really leverage the ROI,” he explains.
The Second Opportunity: A Driver App
Then, they had another epiphany. The Unity team realized that they could become even more efficient if they had an app that enabled fleet drivers to submit their claims from the road at the time of the incident. This allowed Unity to instantly capture data and start the claim, further accelerating time to close.
Within a short period of time, Unity built the driver app and integrated it with VCA Software using the VCA API with a custom endpoint.
This second phase of development also went very smoothly. “VCA has a very capable and talented team – from managers to developers. They helped us scope and develop our requirements. They broke down work releases in an agile way, delivering chunks of work so we could be testing while they worked on the next chunk. Development progressed steadily with constant communication. It was a complex integration – as we got further into it and things became clearer, we wanted to make changes to the plan, which VCA handled easily, with no crazy pricing adjustments. Even with the additional changes, we hit our cost target,” Shane says.
VCA has a very capable and talented team – from managers to developers. They helped us scope and develop our requirements. They broke down work releases in an agile way, delivering chunks of work so we could be testing while they worked on the next chunk
Because of this integration, many new claim fields could be auto filled such as the make/model and VIN# of the vehicle, and driver information, enabling their claims team to become even more efficient.
The Lesson? Always Crunch the Numbers
Less expensive isn’t always more profitable. By investing in the enterprise system with customization, and by continuing to pursue cost-efficiency with the driver app, Unity created a path for long-term profitability and they experienced ROI on that investment within one year of implementation.
Even better, their team was freed up from mundane tasks which gave them more time to focus on revenue-generating and relationship-building activities – the activities that result in long-term business growth.
To find out how VCA can help you enjoy similar success, request a demo.
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