New aerial and virtual inspection capabilities will speed response times and compress the insurance claim lifecycle as Australia braces for more tropical cyclones than average this season, Crunchwork Co-founder and CEO Daniel Sandaver says.

Crunchwork helps insurance supply chains and field teams with a platform which automates manual processes and streamlines communication, tracking tasks and managing vendors. Crunchwork, part of Brisbane-based software firm Codafication, says it helps insurers automate by up to 80%, and speeds the insurance claim life cycle for customers by up to two weeks.

Crunchwork says the October-February cyclone season could see a “seismic shift” in how insurance companies optimise their processes to manage claims amid lockdown restrictions, border closures and costlier recoveries.

Mr Sandaver says Australian insurance companies can plan and navigate the impacts from the extreme weather conditions expected.

“I’ve worked in the insurance claims space for over 13 years and year-on-year I see improvement in how data is enabling better event planning and recovery,” Mr Sandaver tells insuranceNEWS.com.au.

“We are starting to see a movement in the industry of insurance carriers dynamically pricing risk based on location. Some of the new data sources in relation to flood mapping and wildfire risk are helping predict where communities need to be more resilient.”

Crunchwork delivers smart claim pathing and allocation, report capture tools and data workflow for better claim oversight and management. Its cloud-based project management platform and business automation software is designed to help boost productivity for job managers and Mr Sandaver says the team has had “great success deploying this into insurers wanting to digitally transform their claim process while better managing customer and cost”.

“We intermix modern data with legacy systems to drive business workflow and processes. We have also started to offer Crunchwork to brokers managing large commercial risk who have complex underwriting data they need to capture,” he said.

Mr Sandaver says technology will help growing movements across the insurance industry to build communities that are more resilient to natural disasters and insurers of the future will offer more of these support services to “help be more present to their customer” before a claim scenario happens.

This storm season, COVID is likely to continue prolonging claim lifecycles and recovery times.

“Supply chains who fulfil claims are limited generally by state-based border restrictions which leaves limited vendors who can assist in the recovery efforts. Additionally, we are seeing material shortages and supply costs going up due to COVID which is also impacting the reserves on claims and affecting the predictability of event recovery cost,” he said.