The Brazilian insurance market is booming, with sectors from cybersecurity to infrastructure and renewable energy on a growth spurt. To expand into some of these new areas, and better compete in its established markets such as transportation, oil, and gas, Sompo Seguros needed better process visibility.
One of the top five insurers in Brazil, Sompo Seguros was created from a merger in 2014, integrating Marítima Seguros and Yasuda Seguros. Its personal insurance division was spun off in 2023, leaving the company to focus on newer areas of risk including infrastructure, renewable energy and cybersecurity.
The merger—and subsequent sale of the division—left the combined company’s processes with little centralization or coordination. Sompo Seguros was struggling to understand and control its processes, which were scattered across divisions and teams, even as the number of processes was growing. This caused a lack of visibility, and the company had little control over its processes enterprise-wide, hindering its decision-making and business performance.
“The lack of visibility was creating challenges in monitoring and controlling processes, in sharing information effectively across departments, and in supporting centralized data management systems. These issues ultimately hindered decision-making, operational efficiency, and overall business performance, highlighting the critical importance of establishing a robust visibility solution," said Marcio Mori, Process Manager at Sompo Seguros.
Customer onboarding, claims processing, underwriting procedures, insurance policies, and risk assessment protocols were not standardized, with many only documented in PowerPoint, which was slow and prone to manual error.
A lack of visibility and control over processes was impacting the business in several ways. It hampered overall operational efficiency, which could cause a poor customer experience and ultimately damage revenues. And because response times for customer inquiries or issues were slow, this increased the risk of compliance violations. Fixing this was imperative if Sompo Seguros wanted to maintain financial stability and growth while avoiding regulatory breaches.
When the company restructured its value chain, it began to organize and map its processes based on it. It needed to gain visibility and control over these processes with a solution that could design, document, analyze – and then optimize them. That solution was ARIS BPA.
By standardizing, centralizing, and sharing process information and organizational charts, Sompo Seguros identified bottlenecks and redundant steps. It saved time by streamlining workflows, reducing duplication of efforts, and enhancing communication among teams. Additionally, it led to fewer errors due to consistent processes and improved visibility into operations.
“We streamlined the steps involved, eliminated unnecessary paperwork, and integrated digital tools for smoother onboarding experiences, resulting in faster execution and response times,” said Marcio.
The reduction in execution/response time varied depending on the specific process improvements implemented, but typically ranged between 10% to 30%.
This led to significant financial benefits, such as cost savings from increased operational efficiency, improved customer retention and acquisition, and potential revenue growth due to faster service delivery.
“While it's challenging to quantify the exact monetary value linked to shorter response times, the overall impact on profitability and competitive advantage was substantial,” said Marcio.
By using ARIS BPA, Sompo Seguros has benefited in many ways: Its response times are up by 10-30% and is more competitive, it realizes “significant” financial benefits, and is better at avoiding regulatory fines and penalties. Customers are onboarded faster, served better, and experience fewer issues.
Next, Sompo Seguros plans to expand ARIS usage to its Sompo Consumer spinoff company.
