The Instant Digital World of 2020 and Its Cross-Industry Equalizer

Successful digital transformation has always been a personalized journey. When you consider the path to enterprise digital agility, including retooling processes across an organization, transformation can seem overwhelming.
But you can begin to create a digital-first organization by optimizing one key area and expanding rapidly from there. With the right tools in place, transformation gets easier with each successive solution area.

That’s a good thing. Because — as this past year has taught us — you can’t always predict when a technology initiative, like enabling remote work, will become a technology imperative. A year ago, many organizations were still in very early stages of digital transformation, but many were able to achieve the real-time transformation required to survive in the instant digital world of 2020.

Let’s explore how companies across a variety of industries achieved “overnight” digital transformation victories, and how you can too.

Leveraging the right tools for transformation

When it comes to changing the way your organization does business, the right technology can make all the difference. One example is low-code platforms, which have become a great catalyst for transformation. If you are using a low-code content services platform in any area of your organization, you are already ahead of the curve, because:

Non-technical developers, like business unit owners, can create and modify personalized solutions without writing code.

Your organization can cultivate “do-it-yourself expansion,” enabling those who are closest to business processes to identify and replace manual processes with digital solutions — using templates, forms, automated and integrated workflows and case-based applications.

You can take full advantage of proven migration paths to the cloud.

This means you can meet evolving needs with secure, intuitive, well-performing and cloud-forward solutions with minimal — if any — IT involvement or custom coding.

Serving people in the manner they prefer has never been easier – or more important

Core missions of organizations have not changed in light of the pandemic. Serving customers and providing great customer experiences are vital.

Many are applying for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) assistance for the very first time and relying on this program to put food on the table. Government agencies need to respond regardless of the increased demand prompted by events of the pandemic.

A family, already strained by life events, needs a timely response to their insurance claims. If not, they’ll find another insurer for their future needs. While the missions of organizations have not changed, how they deliver on those missions has – a heightened imperative to be digitally resilient.

With a low-code content services solution in place, however small, you already have the powerful tools and solution framework required to succeed. You can future-proof processes, knowing that your solution will be compatible with rapidly emerging technologies such as intelligent automation.

Let’s explore some examples of this, using specific snapshots from different industries.

Snapshot 1: Enable connected, personal student experiences

Students are tech-savvy consumers with significant expectations for today’s digital encounters. They expect fast resolution in processes including enrollment, transfer, dropping or adding classes, changing majors or petitioning to graduate, among others.

This means that for quick resolution, staff managing everything from enrollment to financial aid to student credentials need a 360-degree view of the student record.

Digitally enabling these processes with a low-code platform provides that view. And for most processes this is easy. But even the most complex undertakings such as transcript credit and evaluation (TCE) can be simplified with the right tools and methodologies.

Intelligent capture inserted at the head of an admissions or transfer process can greatly streamline the workflow.

Leveraging machine learning eliminates the need to manually sort and key data from even the most complex, diverse document types. Instead, template-free extraction solutions automatically and accurately capture, manage and load this critical student data that exists in large volumes and in various formats across multiple integrated SIS systems, like Workday Student, as well as other systems and workflows across the institution.

Today’s institutions can even make graduation digitally resilient. They can deliver a diploma or digital credentials, even when in-person commencement ceremonies aren’t possible. Blockchain-driven digital credentials provide tamper-proof, vendor-independent verification. Students and graduates can share their academic records with third parties, including employers or other schools, right from their mobile devices just as easily as adding a friend on social media.

Snapshot 2: Deliver the best patient care

In 2019, out of approximately 600 million patient encounters in the U.S. alone, 12 million were conducted via telehealth. In 2020 that number rose to 360 million.

To meet the demand for telehealth, healthcare systems must empower their workers with remote capabilities. From clinicians providing direct patient care to administrative workers providing essential support, the workforce requires remote capabilities to provide exceptional patient care.

For example, radiologists can now access diagnostic images from home, 24/7, and even consult with other specialists on imaging studies using a simple, secure email link. Both parties can simultaneously access, discuss and annotate the same imaging set via their own devices.

Low-code content services workflows available through EMR patient portals support telehealth encounters in numerous additional ways. These workflows provide the ability for patients to easily upload referral documents and images to the EMR, to view and share their medical images — including X-rays, CT Scans and MRIs — and even electronically complete and sign required forms prior to a telehealth session.

Organizations that leverage automated, structured content services workflows have ideal environments to further optimize tasks with technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA). RPA is well suited to automate repetitive processes like patient appointment processing, patient data entry, scheduling, insurance verification, patient pre-approval, application processing and billing.

Why is this significant?

Collecting and repeatedly consolidating data and keying it into systems is a critical activity that needs to happen quickly, is traditionally manual and very tiresome. Even the most high-performing staff can easily make mistakes, especially with increased volumes of patients. These activities are not just tiresome but can lower employee morale and lead to burn out. Leveraging bots to accomplish these repetitive activities not only improves efficiency and accuracy, but it reduces employee stress, and allows your employees to focus on higher value activities such as patient care.

Snapshot 3: File more claims in less time

In the insurance industry, digital channels have been the customer-preferred method for interaction and collaboration for some time. Even in times of unexpected crisis.

This is unsurprising, considering the proliferation of modern tools and apps available in smartphones. These tools can turn the most distressing customer situations, like a car accident or a flood, into a situation where the insured feels confident that they are in good hands and resolution is near.

For example, claims collaboration capabilities — like virtual field inspection and evidence collection apps — enable customers to literally “walk through” processes in real-time with claims staff, ensuring they capture the right information when it’s needed. Here’s an example:

1. After a loss, the customer initiates a claim and receives a text message with a secure, web-based link to their claim.

2. They can then collaborate using their phone app with adjusters who guide them with what to capture and where to zoom when taking photos.

3. The recorded video, audio and photos are stored securely in the platform, and are available immediately for review.

4. Resolution only takes a day or two, rather than weeks.

Low-code integration accelerators to P&C solution suites like Guidewire and Duck Creek also enable insurers to provide intuitive insurance experiences, including everything from providing a quote to resolving a claim.

How? It starts with intelligent processing, where accelerators automatically present very specific pieces of data at particular points in the underwriting process instead of requiring staff to manually wade through thousands of documents to find the relevant information. This saves time and frustration, allowing staff to focus on building relationships.

Snapshot 4: Serving constituents from the cloud

COVID-19 has undeniably strained government agencies but it has also created some learning opportunities. It has brought to light that many administrative processes do not need to take place in person. With the cloud, virtual interactions create better customer experiences.

By leveraging the cloud in a modern SaaS platform, agencies can provide shared services and rapidly deliver low-code solutions. This provides the ability to meet unique requirements while lowering the overhead of IT administration and ultimately focusing on the constituent instead of the technology.

Case management processes that require a complete view of an individual, property or project can be conducted from anywhere, with rule-based automation assigning work, routing approvals, and eliminating time-consuming tasks.

Online portals provide the ability for constituents to submit applications and supporting documentation from anywhere at any time, even enabling real-time eligibility determination.

Whether it is for Medicaid, food stamps, cash assistance, early childhood assistance, housing or other programs, agencies leveraging cloud digital solutions enable staff to provide the help people need when they need it most.

Build more meaningful, enduring connections with the people you serve

Service is a key differentiator between growth and loss in the dynamic world of the pandemic. Enhancing the customer experience at every phase of the relationship starting with the first impression is critical to customer engagement.

Low-code solutions are a great equalizer, enabling all organizations – large and small across all industries – to not only survive disruption of any kind but to thrive in spite of it.