One of the UK’s leading building insurance claims management companies LAS Claims Ltd has achieved a 32% saving in fuel costs just one month after implementing two systems provided by field service software provider FLS.

LAS Claims who manage thousands of claims for household buildings claims every year work on behalf of a number of the UK’s leading insurers. The claims management process requires LAS Claims to deal with validation, investigation, and then achieving the best settlement outcomes and then fulfilment.

They have chosen to implement both FLS VISITOUR which incorporates real-time scheduling and optimisation technology alongside a cost-led booking system as well as FLS MOBILE, which delivers improvements in the efficiency of the field force. Together the two technologies have allowed for quicker response times for both LAS Claims’ insurer clients and of course the insurers customers also.

With offices in Birmingham and Bristol the claim management company have a number of strict SLA timescales to adhere to when reacting to a claim. An appointment for a home visit must be scheduled and attended by one of the LAS field force which is comprised of 65 claim surveyors. These claims surveyors also need to be flexible to relocate to meet the demands of surges in claims such as the recent flooding and devastation in much of Somerset and other areas in Southern England as a result of the recent extreme weather.

The FLS solution is delivered via a Software as a Service platform so was able to be fully deployed and being used by all of the team at LAS including office based staff and the field operatives within just 3 weeks of the projects start.

Having adopted a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy for subcontractor surveyors FLS MOBILE, which is device agnostic allowed easy deployment, whilst FLS VISITOUR is being used alongside the LAS Claims proprietary claims management system in the central offices.

Ian Hogarth, LAS Business Development Director, commented:

“We have long believed that technology can deliver significant improvements to claims management in the UK household market. FLS VISITOUR is the latest addition to our technology portfolio, and we are delighted with the results to date.”

“FLS allows our claims handlers to select an appropriate appointment date/time, it tells us where the surveyor is, how long it will take to get to their appointment, how long the surveyor has been on site, and where they’re going next,” he said.

“It enables us to give our customers real time information for example exactly when to expect our surveyor to arrive, but also ensures we only send a surveyor with the appropriate skill set and equipment for each claim, not just any surveyor.”

He added “We can cluster the appointments to optimise the number of visits per day, and this has been especially effective during the recent surge, where LAS claims volumes increased by over 600% above the daily average.”

“We have been using FLS for a month across our business and it has already delivered exceptional benefits. For example, we have reduced surveyor mileage between appointments from an average of 34 miles per job to 23 miles. This means less travelling time and more time spent in customer’s homes helping them after a claim.”

Aside from improvements to scheduling, Mr Hogarth points to other benefits from using FLS:

“There are the obvious environmental benefits from travelling fewer miles, but it also helps improve the safety of surveyors, who are almost all lone workers, as we know where they are at any given time.”

Jeremy Squire, FLS UK Managing Director stated:

“LAS Claims are using FLS VISITOUR to great advantage in a competitive industry. We are proud to welcome LAS as a new customer and of their early achievements using FLS technology. Further gains are attainable and we will work closely as a team to quickly achieve these.