How A Smart Phone Can Drive Efficiency In The Claims Process

Using a smart phone to take pictures of property damage as soon as it happens could speed up the claims process and reduce fraud risk, the head of a Canadian claims technology vendor suggests.

“The best way to drive efficiency in the claims industry is by capturing the facts as soon as humanly possible after a loss,” said Paul Donald, CEO of Kitchener, Ont.-based claims technology vendor Encircle Inc.

Say your client’s home is damaged and they use a conventional digital camera instead of a smart phone to take pictures. There could be a dispute over when and where the picture was taken, Donald said in an interview.

But with photos from a smart phone, you have data on the time it was taken and what tower the cell phone was connecting to at the time.

“You would be hard-pressed to do any better than photos taken from a smart phone owned by a policyholders or adjuster to track all of that,” said Donald.