Corebridge Case Study - Silverbeck Rymer Solicitors

Client Background

Silverbeck Rymer is a specialist legal firm practicing exclusively in the Claimant Insurance sector and works in partnership with a number of the UK leading brokers and insurers.

Situation

Amongst many other legal products, Silverbeck Rymer (Silverbeck) provides legal advice and assistance to a volume business of insurance policy holders. Should one of their clients of these products contact Silverbeck, a history file is created in the case management solution which includes the name and extension number of the advisor assigned to that case.

Silverbeck require flexibility in reassigning the case without the expense and additional administration involved in notifying each client of a change in this assignment. Once the initial assignment had been made and following a subsequent change, the client would call back on the number they were given and the call would be manually transferred to the current advisor after the receiver of the call retrieved the number from the case file. This process introduces delays into the case handling, can result in misrouted calls and involves an internal cost which is difficult to measure and control.

As the relationship between the client and advisor is stored in the database of the case management solution, Silverbeck considered using a technology solution to automatically route incoming calls based upon this relationship which would be automatically updated should the relationship in the case management database change.

Business Requirements

The main business requirement was to automate the routing of incoming calls to the current advisor and thus; reduce call handling time, improve first call resolution rates, reduce the number of misrouted calls and reduce the administration required to maintain client advisor relationships.

Technical Requirements

The solution had to integrate with the Technology for Business “Partner for Windows” case management solution where the case history is maintained. It also had to be none intrusive, requiring no changes to the existing information systems or infrastructures such that a failure in the software solutions would not prevent handling of incoming calls (albeit with reversion to the old, manual process).

An additional, unrelated technical requirement was to reduce the number of CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) ports used on the Cisco Call Manager servers.

Silverbeck are at the forefront in using information technology to derive business benefit and to meet strategic goals. One result of this is that they employ several computer telephony integration solutions, each requiring CTI ports. In particular, as Corebridge is deployed to a large number of employees, its need for CTI ports was high. Silverbeck therefore asked Corebridge if they could reduce this requirement for ports.

Solution Requirements

The solution had to operate, as far as possible, “in the background” and not get between the end users (the advisors) and their work. It should not require a large training effort, must not be a point of failure, thereby becoming business critical but not operationally critical and should be easy to administer.

Why Corebridge?

Silverbeck were in the process of piloting Corebridge to determine it’s effectiveness as a desktop CTI productivity solution when this requirement was identified. With a broad range of capabilities and it’s ability to integrate seamlessly and non-intrusively, Silverbeck asked Corebridge to propose a solution for this requirement. Recognising Corebridge’s world class experience with CTI implementations, and it’s ability to rapidly and accurately respond to bespoke requirements and solution enhancement requests, Silverbeck agreed a solution requirement with Corebridge in late 2007.

The Solution

As a result of this requirement, CAIRO (Company Automated Intelligent Routing) was conceived and implemented.

Amongst other capabilities, CAIRO enables the automatic creation and maintenance of incoming call routing rules driven by a database, thus meeting the main requirement, enables administrators to apply personal call routing to any number of Corebridge users in one easy operation and can divert incoming calls to mobile devices (or any phone number) to support business continuity scenarios.

As well as automating the routing rules, the Corebridge server maintains presence information for each user based on a combination of their personal “do not disturb” setting, telephony use and PC state (e.g. logged on, screen saver etc). The solution uses this presence information intelligently to provide an overflow capability should the person to whom the call should be routed be unavailable. This further reduces latencies, improves first call resolutions and reduces manual intervention in the call routing.

By integrating with Silverbeck applications such as Partner for Windows and First Call, case handlers save significant amounts of time. Double entries are avoided and with the automatic launch of client case histories on incoming calls, the necessity of having case numbers on hand or repeating information already contained within the client case history is avoided, ensuring happier clients and generally shorter call times.

In addition, specific enhancements were designed by Corebridge in order to reduce the number of CTI connections on the Cisco Call Manager servers. The Corebridge solution no longer requires a CTI connection from the desktop to the Call Manager servers. As a result, Silverbeck are able to use more CTI applications and server management is more easily controlled centrally.

Results

Since the implementation of Corebridge, staff productivity and workflow has improved significantly – freeing up to 26 minutes each day for each team member. In addition to benefiting from the automatic launch of relevant applications based on incoming or outgoing telephone calls, staff no longer need to deal with answering, and subsequently transferring calls, as the CAIRO feature automatically forwards calls based on case ownership, team member presence and status.

The Click-to-Dial feature which enables users to simply click on any phone number on-screen to make a call, saves time that might otherwise be spent searching computer or paper files for telephone contact details. With the added time, Silverbeck staff have been able to increase the number of cases they process while also meeting stringent Service Level Agreement standards.

“Corebridge has been an integral part of our new service proposition to the broker and insurer market, through our new product First Call,” comments Jan Frickel, IT Director at Silverbeck Rymer Solicitors.

An internal back-office application, First Call, is used by Silverbeck to offer comprehensive services to their motor policy customers following a road traffic accident. By integrating Corebridge with First Call, Silverbeck can match records with the client database against incoming calls, reducing double keying and significantly speed up case processing. Corebridge automatically displays existing records from the First Call system, creating greater efficiencies by reducing the amount of time a client spends on the phone and the requirement for call backs.

In addition to the First Call proposition, Corebridge has also been integrated into the Silverbeck case management system, Partner for Windows. This enables the practice to identify cases which have previously been created in First Call which then appear automatically with their case handler. “This saves both the client and our case handler’s time as there is no need for reference numbers, repetitive data entry or call transferring,” according to Mr. Frickel.

“Reducing the amount of data the client has to provide every time they call to speak to their case handler is essential and Corebridge allows our operation to do this,” continues Silverbeck Rymer’s IT Director. “This results in a better service for the client but also saves valuable resources within our internal operation.” Corebridge also allows Silverbeck to route calls intelligently by cross referencing data from both First Call and Partner for Windows with the incoming telephone number the client is calling from. This allows clients to speak directly to the most appropriate case handler.

Quote / Recommendation

“We have invested heavily in technology and the re-engineering of our case management system to ensure that we are able to meet and indeed exceed the demands of our clients. The legal market is changing and we are well positioned to lead this change with the support of Corebridge technology. It complements our corporate structure by helping us to act quickly and realise the considerable opportunities that the evolving legal landscape provides.” – Jan Frickel, IT Director, Silverbeck Rymer Solicitors