Intelligent document processing for insurance apps – streamline the customer experience with an omnichannel approach

Insurers process large volumes of documents on a daily basis, including accident reports and sensitive medical records.

Traditionally, clients submitted these documents in paper form. The resulting workflows were inefficient, hampered by issues with mail delays, storage, retrieval, and manual processing in general. Today’s customers expect a different level of service. They want to contact their insurer and submit claims from the comfort of their homes. And that means an omnichannel approach.

Mobile applications have narrowed the gap between insurance companies and their customers. Users can now simply scan documents with their phones, rather than having to submit them in person or via mail. 

However, while mobile applications obviate physical document submission, they still create unnecessary labor if they don’t process documents properly. 

This is where intelligent document processing (IDP) comes into play. 

Learn more about this approach in this article and find out how much value it adds to an insurance client app by streamlining workflows and increasing customer satisfaction.

What is intelligent document processing?

Intelligent document processing (IDP) automates both the extraction and the processing of data from insurance documents. It transforms human-readable content into machine-readable data that can be used for automated processing. 

IDP solutions ensure that data from insurance documents can be directly classified and processed in connected backend systems, minimizing manual labor.

One cornerstone of IDP is optical character recognition (OCR). The OCR process itself involves several steps:

1. Image capture: A digital copy of a physical document is created, for instance, by taking a picture with a smartphone app.
2. Image processing: OCR workflows typically incorporate image-enhancing processing methods, such as applying filters to optimize clarity. They improve contrast and remove noise and blur.
3. Data extraction: The core OCR engine detects and recognizes the characters on the document scan. Modern software utilizes neural networks for pattern recognition, accurately extracting data even in challenging conditions.
4. Output: The extracted data is provided either as searchable PDFs for manual workflows or as key-value pairs for automated backend processing.

Thanks to technological advancements, today’s IDP solutions function even on ordinary smart devices. When it is integrated into an app, mobile phones can run advanced OCR software, enabling insurance companies to streamline workflows with high-quality input.

Advantages of integrating IDP into insurance apps

IDP transforms the plethora of client documents into structured, machine-readable data. This has several advantages for insurance customer management, especially in claims processing:

• Faster data retrieval and document processing: IDP automates the extraction of claims-related data from diverse documents, from medical records and invoices to police reports. The data is readily available to claims processors, no manual entry needed.
• Increased accuracy: OCR captures text more accurately than data entry workers do. It can significantly reduce manual data entry errors and ensure the integrity of the extracted data.
• Cost savings: Automating routine tasks and reducing manual intervention can substantially reduce labor expenses – and minimizes costly disputes due to errors.
• Improved customer satisfaction: Faster processing, quicker claim resolutions, and timely updates enhance the customer experience and foster loyalty.
• Scalability and flexibility: IDP solutions can handle large volumes of claims. They enable insurers to smoothly adapt to spikes in submissions without a proportional increase in human resources.

Scanbot SDK – versatile intelligent document processing solutions for your insurance management app

For successful IDP workflows, an insurance management app has to have it all: an interface that makes scanning child’s play, a high-quality document scanner that delivers crisp scans, and advanced OCR capabilities.

Scanbot SDK delivers exactly that in a developer-friendly package. Our solutions can be integrated into any web or mobile app in minutes, thanks to Ready-to-Use UI Components. They run fully offline and without tracking, ensuring data privacy and security. 

The Scanbot Document Scanner SDK comes with the following features:

• On-screen user guidance, which assists even non-tech-savvy users in achieving the perfect scan. 
• Automatic capture and cropping, which prevent blurry or incomplete scans. 
• The Document Quality Analyzer, which lets you set an image quality threshold. If it is not met, it prompts the user to retake the scan. 

This is ideal for your backend OCR engine, as it only receives high-quality scans. 

Going one step further, the Scanbot OCR SDK automatically extracts data from the scanned documents and delivers them as searchable PDF documents or as key-value pairs for backend processing.

Experience for yourself how the SDKs work in our free document scanner and data capture demo apps. To learn more about the SDKs, contact our solution experts at sdk@scanbot.io.

How SWICA built a high-quality document scanner for its customer app

SWICA, a leading Swiss health and accident insurance provider, integrated flawless document scanning into their mobile app thanks to the Scanbot Document Scanner SDK.

Their previous solution regularly caused issues with crashes, a complicated user interface, and a faulty shutter feature. This increased the administrative overhead and bogged down back-office tasks. Its poor performance was reflected in low customer satisfaction and negative app reviews. 

Switching to the Scanbot SDK resulted in a smooth document uploading process that looks like this:

1. A customer uses the integrated scan function to scan an expense receipt.
2. The receipt is sent to the backend in high quality, enabling automated OCR processing.
3. Feedback or payment to the customer can be initiated rapidly.

Thanks to the intuitive user guidance, even non-tech-savvy users now submit high-quality scans, resulting in fewer manual corrections and higher customer satisfaction.

Learn more about SWICA’s document submission workflow in the Success Story!