i-Sight Case Management Software Helps Allstate Reduce Reporting From One Week To Half a Day

Wednesday December 15th, 2010- Customer Expressions Corp. (CEC) announced that Allstate has implemented i-Sight Case Management Software (www.customerexpressions.com). Allstate was looking for a solution to centralize case information and improve reporting- which they found in i-Sight.

At Allstate, the Enterprise Business Conduct group oversees the company's 33,000 employees and another 30,000 plus contracted sales professionals on issues of privacy, regulatory compliance, ethics and corporate security. The group handles any reports of misconduct, and takes steps to mitigate and educate to prevent future occurrences.

The Challenge

Enterprise Business Conduct must analyze cases for two key purposes:

1. Determine communication and education for employees and contractors
2. To report statistics, including the cost of fraud, to the board and audit committee per regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act

"We need to know how long cases are open, types and numbers of cases, and cases by job description, by pay grade and by geography," said Lyn Scrine, Ethics Director.

However, the group must do all that without viewing the names of those behind the cases. Everything has to stay confidential, but must also be available for detailed reporting. With information decentralized in four separate company databases, Scrine found reporting to be time consuming and prone to error. Each quarter, she had to collect case information from those managing the different databases – typically taking about a week to gather and report on.

"I would have to manually reconcile all the numbers each quarter," Scrine said. "It was hard to be 100% confident in the accuracy because some of the cases could be duplicates. They were well-researched estimates."

The Solution

Scrine recognized the need for a centralized case management system. The company's third-party call line provider had such a system but it lacked important flexibility. Allstate needs specific workflows by groups using the system, such as human resources, claims, and legal. The system also must provide levels of privacy based on users (www.investigationsystem.com).

At Allstate, a web-based solution was a must for security purposes, maintenance and ease of use by employees across the country. Based on those criteria, i-Sight Case Management software (http://i-sight.com) came out on top. The web-based solution enables Allstate to create workflows flexibly and set levels of privacy and access depending on the type of user. Most importantly, it provides detailed reporting with essential "confidential transparency."

Customer Expressions assisted Allstate in migrating information from all four databases, including 10 years of corporate security data. Additionally, they are integrating i-Sight with the company's SAP system for data sharing. Customer Expressions also helped Allstate define workflows to ensure each case routes to the correct individuals and follows specific protocols. Incoming call line cases immediately and automatically funnel to the assigned team/person for that geographic area.

Approximately 150 human resources professionals and 50 other corporate users enter cases and access i-Sight, and see varying levels of information depending on their established privacy settings. They can attach all documentation related to a case – notes, audio and video interviews, emails, faxes, etc. – keeping everything in one place.

Results

i-Sight provides the level of confidentiality the company demanded. i-Sight also provides the Enterprise Business Conduct team with the ability to report on cases as a whole. With i-Sight reporting, Scrine and her team can analyze types of cases and assign estimated costs to them, as well as ensure workloads are fair across case managers. They can also spot trends, allowing them to respond with communication and education for employees and contractors.

"We'll better understand the age of cases, where they occur, the lifecycle of a case, and know things like how much legal or investigative involvement was needed," Scrine said.

Centralizing all cases in one database gives the group a real time, up-to-date record that's accessible at all times – and only by those with the correct authority. In turn, Allstate can also build a historical view to understand how cases are trending.

Instead of taking a full week to pull together data from widely dispersed teams and databases, Scrine will be able to complete quarterly reporting in approximately half a day. Likewise, she has the confidence that reports do not include duplicates.

"It will only take an afternoon to prepare quarterly reports now. We can report and put a cost on cases, and figure out how to mitigate and prevent them in the future," Scrine said.

About Customer Expressions

Based in Ottawa, Canada, Customer Expressions (www.customerexpressions.com) is a leading provider of web based complaint software, case management software and investigation software. Customer Expressions has gained an international reputation for best-in-class software to optimize the management of various business processes. The privately held firm provides i-Sight, integrated case management software for investigations, call tracking, customer service, complaint handling, corrective and preventive action management (CAPA Management), and other business processes that require case management. Visit our blog at i-sight.com.

For further information, please contact:

Joe Gerard, Vice-President, Sales & Marketing

800-465-6089 or media@customerexpressions.com