We Built a Global Broker's Covid Response Tech in 10 Days

We got the call late on a Thursday afternoon. One of the largest brokerage firms in the world needed a new claims lodgement system. And they needed it fast. 

The New South Wales Court of Appeal had just made a landmark decision: the Quarantine Act exclusion written into many business interruption insurance policies did not exclude the coronavirus pandemic. Countless Australian businesses were now covered against COVID-19, and the entire insurance sector would have to adapt overnight.  

So, one of the world's largest brokerage firms contacted our team. For the sake of client confidentiality, let's call them "The Broker". 

Codafication, a humble scale-up in the heart of Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, built the global monolith a compliant, secure claims tool in less than 10 days. For an insurance claim category the world had never seen before.  

Here’s how we did it.  

About The Broker  

This global insurance broker provides a range of solutions. They employ thousands of staff in over a hundred countries, and work with over one hundred insurance carriers in Australia and New Zealand alone.  

Committed to innovation and digital-first processes for their customers, The Broker already had Codafication’s development platform, Unity Cloud, and our virtual assessment tool, Virtual Assist, embedded into the business. Their proactive approach to modernization was vital to a quick response.   

The Challenge 

When the Court made their decision on COVID-19 Business Interruption claims, the entire insurance industry had to pivot. The Broker needed a solution: a new claims lodgement portal for thousands of potentially impacted businesses.  

There was a range of requirements:   

• The claims portal needed to ask the customer a series of qualifying questions, and then validate the customer’s identity and policy based on The Broker’s legacy database.  
• Based on validation, and utilising Codafication’s powerful workflow engine, it would automatically send a First Notice of Loss to the insurer responsible for that policy.  
• It had to be omnichannel to ensure accessibility, and work on any desktop or handheld device.  
• It should live in the cloud, but also integrate with existing infrastructure and core legacy data.  
• And, it had to connect with 120 different insurers across Australia and New Zealand.  
• Oh, and of course it had to satisfy the highest levels of security and compliance. 

The Solution 

In 10 days, the team at Codafication shifted gears and delivered a multifaceted solution that enabled The Broker to manage their pandemic response. An omnichannel, modern tool to streamline claims lodgement. Including:  

1. Client-facing claim lodgement portal. 
   This custom portal is custom branded, mobile-first, and works on any device. It has one-time password validation, so it remembers who you are and where you were up to if you come back to the form later. 
2. Internal telephone lodgement portal. 
   We also created a secure, custom extension for The Broker's employees to access in the telecentre. It has a range of additional fields and provides accessibility for The Broker's customers who can’t claim online.
3. Custom automation workflows.
   The Broker prioritises customer experience and speed. So, we built a range of automations to replace manual handling and speed up the backend process of claims lodgement. Including an automated daily data export, that securely delivers information for powerful analytics and insights. 

• Private cloud storage of data  
• Ensuring security and regulatory compliance for financial services  

• Integration to existing legacy data and infrastructure 
• Complex automation of manual processes  
• Complete customisation  

How We Did It 

We’re about to divulge our deepest secrets. The truth is, there are three reasons why Codafication was uniquely positioned to build this so quickly:  

1. Our Unity Cloud Platform. 
   Unity Cloud is our secret sauce. It’s a Platform as a Service that we built to make large scale software development fast and secure. What usually takes months, we can do in days. It’s how we build tech like Virtual Assist and Crunchwork. Since The Broker had already deployed Unity Cloud within their business, we could innovate at scale quickly. 
2. Our forms tool. 
   We’ve already built a sophisticated forms tool. It exists as one of the many modules within our end-to-end project platform, Crunchwork. It allows you to build secure, external-facing forms you can put anywhere. 
3. Our agile way of working. 
   We know, “agile” is a bit of a buzzword. But as a scale-up we really can build things fast. We were able to reallocate and scale resources quickly, working collaboratively with The Broker to meet changing industry expectations.

Looking Forward  

The key to being able to meet changing consumer and industry demands, in any sector, is fast innovation. To make that possible requires a proactive strategy and scalable resources. With Unity Cloud already deployed and integrated with their security architecture, The Broker will always have the competitive advantage to pivot quickly.  

The Broker’s new claims lodgement tool is equipped to handle interactions with over 50,000 businesses, and we hope it will make a difference in the lives of policyholders during their time of need.