Legal: the "poor cousin" in insurance companies

Legal: the "poor cousin" in insurance companies

The insurance sector is one of the largest industries in the world, but despite also being one of the oldest, a contemporary of the Industrial Revolution, it seems to have lost the pioneering character of other times. 

The era of digital transformation has brought pressure, but it wasn’t until last January that the Gartner report came as a surprise: in the investment priorities of insurance companies all over the world, the modernisation of applications, cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence and achieving operational efficiency with an eye on the Customer experience feature prominently. 

Insured people expect the digitalisation of processes such as the management of policies, claims and compensation requests. The latter, along with many others, absorb resources from various areas (administrative, legal, financial) and involve not only internal employees but also external players who are essential in this area: expert opinions, analysing documentation, negotiating and, eventually, discussing litigation become necessary. Simple, repetitive tasks within an insurance company’s legal department can be automated, freeing up specialists for complex tasks that depend on their knowledge and for monitoring outsourced work. 

The legal area is still seen as a complex and not very permeable area, and is mostly far removed from the digital innovation environment. Basically, the Insured wants the same thing as the Banking Customer: they want to be digital! Is it already possible for customers to find out in real time in an app at their fingertips what the status is of a complaint or claim they have made? Or, on the other hand, is it precisely in the area where the most sensitive issues for policyholders are dealt with that there is a lack of integration with the insurer’s Core system, digitisation and centralisation of data, connectivity between departments? 

The digital transformation can’t be ignored in an insurance company’s legal department, because a legal-tech solution for the legal department also adds value to clients and brings faster response, understanding and action. The LMS – Legal Management System is Blue Screen’s solution for managing legal cases, covering pre-litigation and litigation, guaranteeing connectivity between the various departments of an insurance company and between them and external stakeholders and integration with the core system. 

Frederico Faria de Oliveira is the founder and partner of Blue Screen IT Solutions. Blue Screen has over 23 years’ experience in delivering IT projects and has been working continuously in the Legal sector since 2013.

(2023, May 26th) Quem é Quem no Sector Segurador em Portugal – Jurídico-Legal: o “parente pobre nas seguradoras”, Jornal Económico, pg. 32.