Seamless customer journeys and digital readiness
02
Seamless customer journeys and digital readiness
DECEMBER 2019
03
w w w.w s ib . ca
WSIB
Samantha Liscio, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, discusses the organisation’s digital transformation and its drive to enable seamless customer experiences
I 04
n Ontario, Canada, workers benefit from legislation compelling their employers to provide workplace insurance. This
strategy necessitates a provider for that cover and Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) is that very organisation. While many companies view digital transformation as a means to keep up to date with the times or gain a measure against the competition, such compulsions are not so clear for state-mandated entities; if the organisation is essential, one might wonder why that organisation would prioritise exhaustive modernisation and the heavy investment and strategic challenges of shifting operations to digitised solutions that it entails. Samantha Liscio, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at WSIB, dismisses such notions. The focus, she says, has to be on making the customer experience seamless, straightforward, and easy, irrespective of whether employers have the option to change insurer. “Our
The digiHUB is located at WSIB’s head office. It is a workspace for all things digital, featuring an open layout that encourages employees to come together and collaborate
1914
Year founded
CA$4.4bn Revenue in Canadian dollars
4,000 Number of employees
w w w.w s ib . ca
05
WSIB
“ Our CEO affirms that our goal here is to be the insurer of choice. Even as a monopoly, if our customer had a choice they should pick us, and he’s very vocal about that”
06
— Samantha Liscio Chief Transformation and Innovation Officer, WSIB
CEO affirms that our goal here is to be the insurer of choice,” she says. “Even as a monopoly, if our customer had a choice they should pick us, and he’s very vocal about that.” This obligation is driven by the services and solutions that customers have come to expect from the modern world, where vital information and operations can be accessed and actioned through apps that define and enable sleek, optimised customer journeys. “We still have competition on customer expectations, and
WSIB has a lab at Kitchener’s innovation hub Communitech – employees can collaborate and leverage other communal creative environments
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘WE’RE MAKING IMPROVEMENTS TO DELIVER BETTER SERVICE’ 07 we feel that very keenly these days
status, and they want the WSIB to be
when people can go online and bank
easy and straightforward and availa-
or purchase airline tickets with one
ble. That really is what’s driving digital
click,” explains Liscio. “It makes an
transformation for us.”
imperative for us to be able to provide
With this focus on the customer,
services like that to them, because
WSIB has identified the processes
when our clients come to us they’re
which define the customer journey
injured or they’re ill and they expect
and performed a series of ethno-
that the great work that we do to help
graphic studies into the needs and
them get better and return to work
expectations of its customer base. By
isn’t overshadowed by how difficult it
then taking staff through each facet of
is to deal with us. They don’t want to
that journey, the areas of convolution
be worrying about mailing or faxing
and friction become clear. Addressing
information to us, they don’t want to
these areas of frustration, Liscio says,
have to call to figure out their claim
will enable the digital transformation w w w.w s ib . ca
WSIB
“ With a clear focus on what our customers want, IT can foster discussions around the art of the possible in using digital tools to enable transformation” 10
— Samantha Liscio Chief Transformation and Innovation Officer, WSIB to precipitate the correct changes for
enable transformation. IT can show
the organisation as a whole. “Getting
the business what modern technol-
staff to think from an outside in kind
ogy and modern software can bring
of focus, and getting that customer
in terms of enablement and meeting
experience right, drives other values
those customer needs, effectively
too. We track public value as a key
orchestrating and architecting for the
measure and part of our strategic
future in a scalable, efficient, and
metrics reporting, and if we get the
sustainable way.”
customer piece right, our public value
While Liscio believes that some tra-
and trust measures change for the
ditional access channels will remain
better as well. With a clear focus on
in place to serve the less digitally-
what our customers want, IT can
enabled, removing reliance on paper
foster discussions around the art of
is a fundamental piece of the trans-
the possible in using digital tools to
formation. Claims related documents
Located in WSIB’s head office at Simcoe Place, the digital factory represents its commitment as an organisation to develop solutions for the people it serves, improve its processes, upgrade its systems, and enable employees to provide the services that customers need with the least amount of effort. WSIB’s digital factory is both a physical space and a way of working
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Samantha Liscio As Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at the WSIB, Samantha is responsible for digital transformation, leveraging technology and customer experience to streamline processes, provide value and modernise the business. She ensures IT operational excellence, directs innovation and drives the highest possible value from technology assets and investments. Samantha has over 20 years of experience in IT leadership roles. In previous positions in both the public service and private industry, she led the design and implementation of large-scale digital transformative initiatives.
w w w.w s ib . ca
11
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘PETE’S RETURN-TO-WORK STORY’ 13 can now be uploaded directly from a
because if you’re handling digital
laptop or mobile phone and delivered
information it fundamentally changes
to the organisation digitally, signifi-
the business processes, rationalising
cantly decreasing the lead times for
those business processes in line with
postage and processing of faxes that
customer journeys and then finally
traditionally hinder the expedition of
deploying the enabling technology
claims processes. This customer-
using agile methods that can be sus-
facing element permeates through
tainable in the long term. Doing all
the organisation as part of what Liscio
three of those together is key so this
calls WSIB’s biggest transformation
isn’t just a technology project, even
endeavour in its 105-year history: the
though a big component of that is
core services modernisation pro-
replacing and upgrading our core sys-
gramme. “It’s essentially doing three
tem of record.”
things,” she explains. “It’s getting rid of paper and becoming digital at source,
This is where key partner Guidewire comes in, providing a suite of w w w.w s ib . ca
WSIB
PA RT N E R S
Wipro “Providing continuous improvement enhancement and on-going defect fixes has been a vital component in maintaining performance and stability in our core system. Wipro have helped the WSIB rollout system enhancements that have reduced the number of clicks from our core system users by more than 50%” 14
IBM “We’ve just partnered with IBM to do our managed hosting and cloud services, and they’re helping us understand how we can be better use data and analytics in our data centres so that we can automate the repetitive server administration tasks and drive efficiencies as we plan and orchestrate cloud services” Samantha Liscio Chief Transformation and Innovation officer
WSIB’s leaders come together frequently to talk about its modernization journey and plan for next steps
digitally-enabled insurance tools to facilitate rapid claims registration, administration and return-to-work processes. “A ‘quick win’ for us has been the digital document upload tool that we launched last year, and its connectivity to Guidewire,” enthuses Liscio, adding that the organisation’s time to market has been cut drastically through using the digital factory to drive development. “In the past, it took years to launch WSIB products, but this one was 16 weeks from inception to launch. In 2018, we received more than 2.3mn pieces of paper either by mail or by fax and we’re cutting a lot of that through the digital upload tool; it now has more daily uploads than the total documents we receive in paper. They come in and they go into the Guidewire backend system instantaneously. It also removes some of the call volume that we have from people asking if we have received their postal or fax documents, removing all of the barriers to good and fast customer service.” To remove the barriers to its own transformational success, WSIB has also partnered with IT and business w w w.w s ib . ca
15
Change. It’s what we do. Avenai is a business and IT services consulting company that specializes in helping our clients transform into high performing organizations. With a value driven focus, we work with our clients to create business strategies and solutions that drive positive impact. With offices in Ottawa, Toronto and Victoria, BC we are a growing consultancy that has an excellent reputation for working closely alongside our clients and rolling up our sleeves to make sure that change sticks. Learn More
We’re honored to help WSIB deliver on its mission
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘DOUG’S RETURN-TO-WORK STORY’ 17 services consultancy Avenai to intro-
it,” Liscio explains. “Avenai helped
duce a new, digitally-empowered
us do a current state assessment of
organisational framework. “Previously
how our legacy model was impeding
there were silos of IT operations and
our progress and then suggested an
solutions delivery; it didn’t work well
industry standard IT operating model
together. When a major project was
that was much more client focused,
finished and the development work
with delivery verticals leveraging agile
was done, it kind of got thrown over
and DevOps methods and supported
the fence to operations to manage
by horizontal IT shared services func-
and maintain it. If there were defects
tions. We’ve moved our entire 300+
that needed to be worked through
person IT organisation into that new
with problem management, that work
functional model, and have started to
was difficult to assign and there was
change behaviours at the leadership
finger pointing between operations
level by agreeing on a set of values
and delivery as to who should do
that we aspire to. At its heart, it’s w w w.w s ib . ca
WSIB
An employee uses WSIB’s new best-in-class phone system, Genesys
about being customer focused, collaborative, demonstrating clear value to the business and moving from a project to a product focus. Avenai was very helpful in helping us help shift the organisational culture, applying specific behavioural performance objectives, and helping us bring the necessary leadership, values, and culture piece into the change management approach during the deployment of the new model.” Change management, the Everest of all digital transformations, has thus
“ In the past, it took years to launch WSIB products, but for the digital upload tool it was 16 weeks from inception to launch” — Samantha Liscio Chief Transformation and Innovation Officer, WSIB
19
been enabled by this structural revolu-
simple reimbursement for medical
tion to WSIB’s IT operations and the
costs. Those can be processed auto-
associated change in culture across
matically in the Guidewire solution,
the IT organisation. The success of its
based on WSIB business rules, and
new digital products, and the ability to
we can take advantage of the auto-
automate repetitive tasks and expand
mation potential within the software
the capacity for employees’ additional
itself. This straight-through process-
value-added activities, is facilitated
ing means that claims processing
by this newly-enabled readiness. An
times are dramatically improved and
example that Liscio offers regarding
staff with high skills and expertise
automation is in the straight-through
can spend their valuable time on the
processing of medical expenses
complex claims that require human
claims that it enables. “More than
decisions.” As a result, a claims
70% of the claims that we have involve
process that could have taken a full w w w.w s ib . ca
WSIB
20
“ It’s about being customer focused, collaborative, demonstrating clear value to the business and having the IT leaders model those behaviours by building commitments into their performance objective directly” — Samantha Liscio Chief Transformation and Innovation Officer, WSIB
payment cycle to deliver has become instantaneous, and the benefit for customers speaks for itself. In the age of digital transformation, customer centricity and operational preparedness are characteristics that separate the winners from the chasers, and this is no less certain for companies whose offering is mandated by local authorities. These qualities resonate through the entirety of Liscio’s strategic endeavours. “For digital transformation to succeed, IT can’t be the order taker to the business to execute on individual priorities, it needs to demonstrate clear value that’s aligned to the customer, it needs to do these things while keeping the engines running and the plumbing working, all in a safe and secure and sustainable way,” she asserts. “It’s about looking at things foundationally, assessing the key pieces that we need to have in place to truly transform how we do our business, and leveraging the expertise of key partners that will help us get that right.”
w w w.w s ib . ca
21
Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) 200 Front Street West Toronto, Ontario Canada M5V 3J1 T +1 800 387 0750 www.wsib.ca/en