<p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>joining me here in the studio, we have Pierce Williams, global insurance sales manager at Auto, and we have Jenna Hilton Group head of finance operations at Clear Group. Well, welcome to you both, Piers. I'm gonna start with you. Auto. Give us a sense of what it's about. And and what do you do there? Yeah. Auto is a finance operations automation platform. It's used by organisations across the global financial services and insurance industry.</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>There's a variety of different use cases for the platform from finance operations, automation, reconciliations, credit control, IB, a financial data management, Uh, and the the platform helps firms reduce costs, uh, improve controls and increase capacity. My role at auto is to work with clients to understand their processes, data and systems and then advise them on how auto can be deployed to their business. Uh, in order to drive optimisation and automation</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>and Jenna give us a sense of your role at Clear Group and And how does it fit in with auto?</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 1</strong>: <span>So I joined clear back in 2020 brought in to oversee the client money operations. Um, across the whole group, I first met Piers and auto back in 2020 Piers kindly shared a demo with us, but at the time, we were going the very infancy of, um, changing our broken platform.</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 1</strong>: <span>So we decided at that point to put that on hold, we have now successfully moved our broken platforms and now have started conversations with peers and also in how they can help us automate our back office processes</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>and staying with automation. The big topic of the day. Where do you think in the back and middle offices could use the most or the biggest scope for automation.</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>So I think that does depend. Obviously, on what type of, uh, insurance organisation you are the the size and scale of the organisation. Um, and I think it's fair to to say, over the the last number of years, there's there's been investment more on the the front office revenue generating customer acquisition platforms. Uh, and the back and middle office has has been a little bit overlooked. Uh, it's a cost centre rather than a a generating area. Um, but that's certainly changing. Um, and if we you know, we look at an organisation like clear and insurance broke,</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>uh, firm. Then really, the the greatest scope I see would be within the insurance broker accounting, finance, ops, credit control spaces and specifically within things like the the bank reconciliations, cash posting, allocation and ensure a statement. Reconciliation processes where going from a a manual world to an automated world, you you can easily achieve, uh, efficiency savings of upwards of 75%. Uh, on those processes,</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>even more so, if you're a A broker similar to to clear, it's a very acquisitive business, as many other brokers are in the market, uh, both growing organically and through acquisitions. Part of that is to build economies of scale and, uh, and and build, uh, more of a digitalized operating model. Uh, and a platform like auto can can really enable firms to achieve those objectives.</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>General, do you think that's fair? What? Piers has said that a lot of these back in the losses, they've been overlooked when it comes to automation.</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 1</strong>: <span>Absolutely. We've We've spent a lot of money investing in our front end operations in terms of moving our broken platform and putting our whole group onto one platform in order to get the M I</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 1</strong>: <span>and, um, the operations that we require to grow our business. We're now looking to invest in our back office, um, in order to maximise our outputs so we can redistribute our resources to help, um, improve our revenue in other areas.</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>And efficiency is obviously the key. But what does automation look like when we're looking at this process? From your perspective, what do you think?</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>It's a big change. I think that that's probably the the quickest and easiest way to summarise it. Uh, it's a change in in the way you operate from your employees to management and to the business as a whole. Um, it's always good to look at some examples. You know, Let's look at what the, uh, the car industry looked like in manufacturing,</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>but say, 40 50 years ago, you know, very, very labour intensive. Now, if you if you look at any plant, there's there's a lot more robotics there still skilled people, but but a lot of robotics driving that, um I think a great example I like to use as well is is think of the telephone exchange. Back in the 19 forties and fifties, you had people plugging in and and connecting calls, you know, now we we dial a number on our mobile device, and and we don't even think about, you know, the fact that that's automatically connecting us globally with with, uh, other people.</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>Um, but, you know, maybe let's look at, um, you know, more of a an example close to home with with a, you know, a reconciliation process, for example. Um, I guess at a high level that looks like one process. But there's actually lots of of small sub processes that enable a firm to complete that process. So for a reconciliation that could be the, uh, sourcing of data the transforming of that data matching of data,</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>uh, then investigating of any items that don't match and then finally, uh, generating reporting. So there's a lot of of of actual manual subs steps within that if we then compare that to, uh, an automated world where, uh, a staff member is not coming in in the morning and and doing all of those preparation processes, but rather you've optimised your process to perform overnight or in the early hours of the morning. That staff member is now coming in,</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>and they're skipping ahead four or so steps, and they're focusing just on that investigation just on that. Well, what actually do I need to do to To resolve the the non conforming items</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>automation can actually supplement that could automatically assign work to individuals within your team. So again, you're clearly segmenting workloads, Um, or even suggesting with intelligent automation. You know, what do you need to do to resolve, um, that item? And then there's various other things, like workflow so moving away from sending endless emails, chasing endless emails to connecting processes via via workflow.</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>Um and and really? Yeah, it's it's that wholesale change in in the way that you work, and and and that's a cultural change. I think you know, we we've talked about that. It's, uh, a AAA real shift in in how the business operates today versus how it's going to operate in the future. General, with all that in mind, it sounds so streamlined,</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>but there must be a lot of cost savings as well</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 1</strong>: <span>going into this No, absolutely. And I think with tools like auto, it allows firms to think about restructuring and redistributing heads into other areas in the department where they can actually look to build revenue. Um, we are clear.</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 1</strong>: <span>Don't like to, you know, get rid of people. So we do like to, um, redeploy people into other areas such as claims HR, our other back office, Um, cost centres, as it were. Um, what I really like about the auto tool is that, you know, my team can come in in the morning. They can look at what's been reconciled overnight and then focus on the key, the key elements that need need addressing.</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 1</strong>: <span>And in that, you know, you get points on commission rates where we could look at the commission rate differences that's built into the system, go back to the business and say, Well, part of our business is only 25%. But actually another part of the business is only 30. And then try and marry up what the differences are and then look to improve our revenue from that perspective.</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>And if I could, you can add to that. I think that's a really good point. There is. I think people look at automation with a bit of fear in terms of oh, we're going to remove heads. But actually, I think that's very, very rarely the case. What? What? We actually consider it more as is again using those people in different ways for value add. It's a very competitive marketplace. Skilled staff are at an all time shortage, Um, and especially</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>those within financial services. You know, finding that skill set is hard, so people really want to hold on to their talent and actually moving manual tasks away from these skilled people. It increases employee satisfaction. It helps you better motivate them and actually retain your your skilled staff, which really are, you know, the the the lifeblood of any organisation and the driving force behind its success.</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>So piers, when we look at things like credit control and age debt, how can automation help with those two issues in the industry?</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>I think to start off, it's It's definitely a AAA huge challenge within the market, whether that's from a broking, an MG a or an insurance perspective. Um, I know of many organisations that either are perhaps not collecting all of the the money that they're owed. They they're not able to. They they don't know that they're not, You know, a lack of knowledge is a lack of ability to do something about, uh, an issue,</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>um, or they're sitting on a lot of unallocated cash and again that they don't know where that cash has come from, or or what that cash is for. So you have these these big stacks of, um, you know, uh, money that that you can't do anything with. Um, But how can you You know, how can you perhaps overcome those challenges? Um, so I think it starts by having all of your, uh, information, uh, and data both internal from your policy admin. Uh, ER PS. General Ledger platforms consolidated into a single solution.</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>You have all of your external data whether that's banking, data, statements, Remittances, Um, in the insurance industry, it comes in all shapes and sizes. So but essentially having a centralised platform to consolidate all that information conform all of that information but then also manage that information, so provide some filtering and some account structures. So you're not looking at, say, a million transactions, but you're looking at smaller sets of of 10,000 transactions.</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>Uh, and then if you can have automated processes to remove manual work, you're gonna free up your staff time to be able to investigate the items that that don't conform automatically. Those insights that you're delivering to the business in real time, um, are also going to enable those staff to to more effectively work, um, and ultimately help you reduce your unallocated cash. And also any age debt that you you might be, uh, you might be holding on your books.</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>Jane does a lot of that ring true for you and clear</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 1</strong>: <span>Group as well. Yeah, absolutely. With the growth that we've recently had, we've seen an increase in volume which in town has given us an increase in cash increase in transactions. And with that comes with its own problems, particularly with moving on to a new system. Culturally, teams need to learn new processes change. And with that, we're finding definitely difficulties with, um, allocating money is so again, with the use of auto and tools like auto, we'd be looking to streamline that process</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 1</strong>: <span>as well. Sure.</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>And another thing to add is is you know where you do see those issues that are repeating over and over again. Uh, in your process, having a an automated solution allows you to drive M I and reporting to give you that root cause assessment. So, actually, if it's a persistent data entry issue from from someone outside of the the back of middle office, maybe that's a broker or an underwriter. You can then actually drive educational. Um, you know results of that and look to improve things from from the base up essentially</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>and look, you'd have had to been living under a rock to ignore the A i news earlier on in the year. How do you see a I and machine learning affecting the back and middle offices? So I think there's a a certainly in in the industry at the moment there's a lot of hype around A I How much it's actually being utilised, I think has I think that genuine is use usage of a I in the industry. But how much is is a question I'm a little bit sceptical of, Um also caution, Um,</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>all of the the the insurance firms I work with around a I because they look at it and and come to us and say, How are you using a I, um uh you know, can we not have a I making these decisions. It's important to remember often what we do at auto is financial control solutions</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>and within a financial control process. There is a defined logic in which, you know, data conforms to or it doesn't uh and people think a I is is gonna, you know, actually overcome that A. I will make mistakes just like a human will make mistakes. You'll have human error. You'll have a I error.</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>So rather than a I replacing and making decisions for a process end to end, I actually see it supplementing, uh, what people are already doing within an organisation, providing suggestions, um, providing, you know, options for approval or rejection, for example, rather than actually removing and and making wholesale decisions. It's very much a supplementary capability rather than this capability, which will will solve everything in,</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>uh, in one go. So at auto, we're actually focused on machine learning and intelligent automation. So how can we supplement what users are doing? I like to think of it a bit like a you know, an F one car. How can we, you know, improve those sort of small, fractional elements of a user's day to day job by giving them more power at the click of a button</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>rather than necessarily trying to, you know, come for some big wholesale change. Um, but focus on, you know, using their skills and supplementing their skills with the best technology. Generally think supplementing is the key word there. It's not going to come and replace everything but help.</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 1</strong>: <span>No, absolutely. I think we have to</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 1</strong>: <span>Technology It allows people to make better and informed decisions, which will then help drive the business towards its initiatives and its strategy that it wants to achieve. I think, um, with a I technology there is a lot of hype about it, but it can actually help move businesses forward by giving it the tools giving it the the information that the business needs in a lot quicker, dynamic way</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>with all this in mind, and it's all very impressive technology. But the industry itself is perhaps quite slow to adopt new technology. Why do you think insurance in particular is pretty slow at this?</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>I think that, you know, certainly it's, uh, an industry. Perhaps that hasn't had some of the, uh, the the pressures that other industry have to to move forward with new regulations. Um uh, and ultimately, I think it's been a a very profitable and consistent revenue generating,</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>uh, industry for a number of years Now, um, and that's probably meant that, uh, businesses have sat on their laurels a little bit. Um, whereas now we're going into an economic climate that is a little bit less favourable. Uh, business fundamentals are in more and more scrutiny by investors, shareholders,</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>um, et cetera. Uh so focusing on, um, those kind of key foundational capabilities within a business is really coming up as actually. Now, we we need to move and and and modernise so that we can, uh we can ensure we're satisfying our stakeholders. And I think</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 1</strong>: <span>for smaller brokers, um, size brokers, they haven't got the the appetite to want to invest in that sort of technology.</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 1</strong>: <span>Um, or necessarily the expertise For as you get a medium large size brokers like clear, for instance, we've invested heavily in our front end. We're now looking to invest in our back end to help satisfy our P investors, um, but also support our teams and and move the business forward,</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>and it comes there as well. There is sort of a, you know, a I guess a barrier to entry because, you know, technology comes at a cost. And and for those smaller businesses, you're not</span></p> <p><strong>Speaker 0</strong>: <span>again. We're not talking about removing people from the process. We're talking about supplementing their job and making them them better. And for a smaller organisation where you're perhaps not going to get a bigger percentage increase or improvement to that, you know the appetite. The business case, just the numbers don't always always line up. Whereas as soon as you become that medium upward size business, it's a very different conversation. I think that's a really useful place to leave it. Piers Jenna, Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you.</span></p>