Centene Adopts Intelligent Process Management to Achieve Strategic Goals 

The following is a transcript of a recent news story about iGrafx customer, Fortune 500 healthcare company Centene.  

Health insurance companies operate in an increasingly complex environment, which often includes regulatory changes, technological advancements, and meeting the ever-evolving needs of both members and providers.

According to Anika Gardenhire, Chief Customer Experience Officer, Centene, “Some of the main challenges that we face, from a health insurer perspective, is a complex regulatory environment, we face challenges around a desire to drive forward our digital transformation, to bring forward differentiation in the experiences that we provide our customer segments, and really bringing together people, process and technology in order to drive a digital transformation.”

Jennifer Bryk, Vice President of Enterprise Transformation, Centene adds, “As we’re thinking about making our operational decisions, we always keep in mind that our members are unique and so are the healthcare providers that serve our members, so we tailor our processes to lean into those individual unique needs and provide high-quality service that makes a meaningful impact in their everyday lives.”

The extent to which a company successfully manages its business processes directly impacts how effectively it achieves its mission.

Why Process Management is a Differentiator

Gardenhire adds, “Intelligent process management really is a differentiator in most sectors, but in healthcare specifically, I can’t think of an industry where intelligent process management and ultimately intelligent decision-making based on an understanding of process and data is more serious. It’s life or death. That is the work that we have the great privilege of doing every day. When we think about that, the ability to map and understand, the ability to make informed decisions, the ability to understand the action that we should take next based on the outcome of the previous action, those are the things that make or break our ability to best support our members, our patients, our customer base. And so ultimately, that’s why we have to do this work and we have to do it really well.”

Bryk says, “We continue to evaluate processes because we want to improve them and make them more efficient. Even being able to compare what’s supposed to be executed on the process against what’s actually being executed. This allows us to compare planned versus actual and make note of any differences. These differences might indicate a training opportunity, or it might mean that one of our team members has found a much more efficient path, which we can then update the process and train the team on.”

Improving Decision Making and Outcomes

As developments in automation and technology evolve, improvements in data analytics are helping organizations leverage information and contextual insights to improve decision making and accelerate outcomes. 

IGrafx Chief Product Officer, Shoeb Javed says, “Of course you make big strategic decisions like determining what markets you want to be in, what regions, what geographies, what products you want to build. Those are important. But you also have to understand that you make tens of thousands of micro decisions every single day. Every employee in your company is making those decisions all the time. So to make better decisions, you need process intelligence that tells you what to do at the time that you’re doing it, and that’s really important because if you don’t have that information at the right time, then you wouldn’t be able to make that micro decision – and thousands of those decisions add up.” 

However, increasing capabilities in data and technology often comes with its own set of problems, leaving businesses in search of the right tools and insights to help them sift through the complexities associated with large data sets.

Challenges in Today’s Market

Javed continues, “Most businesses today face two pressing challenges: a continuously evolving, fast-changing business environment, and the complexity of the applications and operations and processes that support that business. Business decisions can be classified into two types that are the big macro decisions that take time. You’re betting your company, your strategy on those decisions. For that you have to do a lot of planning, use a lot of data, do simulations and then make sure that you have a thoughtful decision. But there are also tens of thousands of micro decisions that you make every day. For that, you need to have less information, but just the right amount of information at the right time so that you can make a slightly better decision every single day.” 

Data analytics and intelligent automation platforms continue to evolve, delivering more sustained value to help maximize operational effectiveness and create new value. 

Javed says, “The best way I can describe these new technologies is by using the analogy of a GPS. A GPS knows exactly where you are at all times. It can then plot a route to get you to your destination. And if you happen to veer off course for some reason, the GPS will dynamically adjust your route and still get you to your destination. And then last but not least, a GPS can anticipate traffic problems or other obstacles in your way. If you use an intelligent process management solution, you have your own business GPS.” 

New Technologies and Innovations

Adopting new technologies and innovations can provide an earlier advantage, helping progressive organizations to improve benefits for themselves, their customers and the communities they serve. 

Javed concludes, “It’s not about having as much data as you can consume. You’re not going to be able to use it. Technology is going is to make that interpretation, to help you understand all this information that you have so that at the time you want to do something, you do the right thing. And this is an emerging field called decision intelligence. And I think it’s more than that – it’s predictive decision intelligence. What that means is that you’re not making decisions based on analyzing the past. You’re making decisions based on predicting the future. It’s not sifting through the ashes of a fire to figure out what happened. But almost like having a crystal ball that tells you what’s going to happen in the future, and then making your decisions based on that. That’s what’s going to give you the edge over people that don’t do that.” 

You can watch the video here.  

For more information about intelligent process management, contact us for a demonstration.