Insurers are being urged to ‘ratchet every possible lever” to manage claims costs and speed-up resolution times in the current “price-hiked environment”.

Sydney-based Crawford & Company Head of Key Account Management Angela Fitzpatrick says claims inflation is a primary challenge that claims management firms should be tackling collaboratively with insurers, brokers and corporations.

“It is critical that insurance companies and others are ratcheting every lever … while also supporting policyholders in efforts to address repair or rebuild requirements,” she told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

Crawford is the only claims management provider in Australia that “has the whole claim lifecycle covered,” she says.

"We are loss adjusting and so much more today,” Ms Fitzpatrick said. "We have the ability to handle a claim from ‘first notification of loss’ through to legals and everything in between. It’s this streamlined process that leads to efficiencies.”

Enhanced digitisation and robotic process automation used by Crawford is improving claims handling, with outcomes boosted by an expansive network of trades and suppliers from Crawford Contractor Connection, its managed repair business unit.

“We’ve seen this demonstrated by Crawford around the world,” says Ms Fitzpatrick, adding Contractor Connection has firsthand experience with material and labour challenges faced by the building market.

"Because of that broad group of builders and tradespeople that make up our network, we have the potential to provide insurers with a level of competitive advantage in obtaining quotes and repairs in a more timely fashion,” she said.

Head of Contractor Connection Tim Butler, also based in Sydney, says Contractor Connection is seeing differentiation between building suppliers and is steering workloads to the best performing suppliers for the fastest results.