MelitaUnipol Insurance Agency Ltd was set up in 1997 and now has a portfolio of approximately 20,000 insurance policies. The company consists of two entities: an authorized insurance broker and an insurance agency that offers expert advice on covering business and personal risk in Malta, as well as underwriting insurance cover. MelitaUnipol's mission is to make a difference, add value to their clients and establish themselves as a leading insurance provider.
pages
of paper
to digitize the archive
The decision to go paperless was made as MelitaUnipol kept growing, and the team became conscious of the lack of storage space in the office and the difficulty in retrieving files efficiently. To get rid of all the documents and files that had accumulated since its inception, the company decided to create a searchable e-archive and implement a system for digitizing documents.
In their search for a suitable software solution MelitaUnipol settled upon ABBYY FlexiCapture presented by ABBYY's partner in Malta — SG Solutions. The solution fitted the project perfectly: dueto being scalable and flexible, it could satisfy any possible changes in the project pipeline. It also gave the company an opportunity to continue developing new projects for other departments if they chose to do so.
MelitaUnipol has created a document destruction schedule, which ensures that paperwork is not kept longer than regulations require. It is an important part of the scheme, as it keeps the digitizing and archiving of documents organized.
As soon as the documents are fed to FlexiCapture, the system automatically recognizes the necessary fields, extracts the data, and saves the searchable copy in the Database Server. This enables the staff to locate PDF documents in no time using infinite search parameters.
The first step towards a paperless office was to get the motor department into the system. This department generates more than 60% of all documents held at the office. In just 2 months. MelitaUnipol has processed over 160,000 pages, which is approximately 1.5 tons of paper.
The next challenge set by MelitaUnipol is to liaise with the company’s Insurance Principles or any other entity (e.g. Transport Authority. Surveyors. Parts Suppliers, to name just a few) in order to align all incoming documents in such a way that they could be placed directly into ABBYY’s server for processing.
The decision to go for a paperless system coincided with the refurbishment of MelitaUnipol's offices, so everybody was well prepared for change and eager to settle into their new surroundings and the new system.
In just a few months after the installation. ABBYY software has led to greater efficiency and better productivity on the part of the staff. Both the Head Office and the branches are benefitting from this solution, as the response time to customers has shortened. More time can now be used to help the clients and sell the products instead of being wasted on filing, searching for files and organizing paperwork.
MelitaUnipol’s staff say 5 minutes saved looking for a paper file is 5 minutes more that can be spent talking to your customer. It is also a nice experience to have a clear desk when sitting down with a client.
ABBYY has also proven to be cost effective as it is not necessary any more to waste time in printing out certain documents for onward transmission. They are new automatically saved and kept in the ABBYY server and sent out at the touch of a button.
