Capacity and data
November has been capacity month! Not only have we published a new opinion piece that looks at capacity management and lead times but we have also issued our new and improved Know Your Limits capacity measure for all our networks. This industry-leading method for measuring and understanding capacity whilst motivating the supply chains is an impressive piece of development by our Innovation and Supply Chain teams.
At the end of October we also published an update to our Plugging the leaks opinion piece from 2018. Both articles are on our website, available for anyone to read.
As usual, we won’t be sending out a newletter in December, but it will be back in January 2024!
Managing the ultimate competitive weapon
Our latest opinion piece is called “Managing the utlimate weapon” and looks at capacity and lead times in the property claims sector.
Steven J. Bowen, a leading American entrepreneur and logistics specialist once said “Every company’s supply chain should be its ultimate competitive weapon—not the gun with which you shoot yourself in the foot”. This is a quote that rings true in our industry – too many organisations in the property insurance claims industry fail to understand the value of their supply chains and the need to invest time and resources in them to maximise positive outcomes for customers.
Capacity is the biggest problem facing insurers and the wider property claims industry. Consolidation across the property claims management industry and significant geo-political events have squeezed capacity for insurers. So we have written an article that looks at supply chain management and how capacity and lead times can be managed to meet these challenges.
he article looks at the methods used to manage supply chains to meet the fluctuating and unpredictable demand that property claims managers have to deal with. It also discusses ways that capacity can be measured and managed and how this is impacted in a surge event. The opinion piece also looks at how capacity can be increased through strong relationship management and an understanding of what motivates suppliers.
Lead times for reinstatement works have lengthened as a result of the capacity challenges in the industry and we explain how important it is to manage customer expectations about start dates to minimise complaints. We also provide data to show how insurers behaviours impact lead times and that claims that fall outside of a delegated authority can run on an extra month due to insurers’ and loss adjusters’ approvals processes.
We also provide details on how MA Group measures and manages capacity and uses data to understand and communicate capacity and lead times by supplier, postcode and nationally.
The full article can be read on our website CLICK HERE.
Know Your Limits
At MA Group we do everything we can to ensure that we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot. After 25 years of managing property claims we have developed a sophisticated data driven method for measuring and managing capacity. We are industry leaders in this field and here is why.
MA Group has developed a capacity management system called Know Your Limits (KYL). This system cleverly combines data on volume, value and supplier performance to create a clear picture of the available capacity by supplier, postcode, region and nationally.
The capacity we assign to each of our suppliers is based on the value and volume of work they have closed and invoiced over a prescribed period as well as the work they are planning to start and complete in the coming months. We’ve also designed a way of looking at what’s coming through the pipeline for our suppliers so we can ensure that they have a steady stream of work and therefore cashflow. We also accurately measure their start date lead times to understand how much resource they are putting onto our claims.
All of this is overlaid with performance metrics in terms of time, cost, and quality to make sure that insurers and their customers remain satisfied with the service being provided.
All of these factors impact the amount of work suppliers can take from us and ensures that we fully understand how much work we have, and can take on, in every area of the country. The KYL report is issued to every supplier every month, and more often when in surge, and is also used to provide data to clients to help them manage customer expectations and have the confidence that we can effectively manage the work we have.
Integration with Corelogic
We are delighted to announce the go-live of our first systems integration with CoreLogic. This is a part of MA Group‘s ongoing investment in innovation and integration to benefit our insurer clients and their customers alike by optimising the sharing of data and transparency of claims.
The interface between our Pulse claims management system and Corelogic improves efficiencies for MA Group and our clients. Pulse automatically receives claim notifications from CoreLogic and opens a new claim immediately. It then acknowledges receipt of the instruction as well as passing back the Pulse claim ID to Corelogic. As the claim progresses information is automatically sent from Pulse to Corelogic including milestone dates, photographs and documents.
To benefit from our world-class customer service or to find out more about how our integrated services could improve your claims journey please get in touch.
Plugging the leaks update 2023
At the end of October we reissued our opinion piece from 2018 with new and updated data. Called Plugging the leaks 2023 update the article analyses at more recent data to see if the trends identified in 2018 have continued or changed.
Inflation has played a significant role in the increases in EOW claim values from 2018 to 2022. This is quite different to the situation the industry was experiencing in 2018 when we looked at the data from 2013 to 2017. Much of this has been driven by variable costs (provisional sums) because fixed, scheduled line items are contracted and only change following annual reviews. However, inflation does not explain all of the cost increases and our article highlights other factors that have increased average claim values.
We know from our data and from feedback we receive from insurers in the industry, that average claim values for claims managed by MA Group have not increased anywhere near as much as claims values in general from 2018 to 2023.
To find out why please read the whole article CLICK HERE or get in touch to find out how MA Group can help you manage your claim inflation.
Annual awards lunch – book now!
Our annual awards lunch will be taking place on 25th January 2024, at the same beautiful venue as last year – Chartered Accountant’s Hall in Moorgate, London. We will be celebrating the incredible work that our suppliers do for MA Group Property Claims and New Homes Customer Care. This year our guest speaker is Gyles Brandreth. If you would like to join us please get in touch with Sally-Ann Johnson.
MA Group MAD Awards
We had two MAD award winners this month, both from the Supply Chain team and both called Sam!
Sam Gill, one of our Supplier Performance Managers who has only been with us for five months received two nominations. As Marc Etchells, MA Assist Divisional Director commented, “It’s not always easy joining a new company but Sam has “hit the ground running” and is already receiving positive comments from our suppliers.”
In addition, the Resolver team have praised Sam for her sound judgement, objectivity and proactive support in dealing with complaints.
Sam Butler, Virtus Divisional Director, had another clean sweep for the Virtus Target Operating Model with 100% of the targets achieved. Sam works tirelessly to make sure her surveyors are compliant, key dates are entered and accurate, surveyor performance is up to date and those needing help are supported. Sam also keeps them engaged and ready so that we have the capacity in the supply chain when the time comes.
