Always looking ahead to the next technological advances which can benefit the client, we asked Jackie Parker, Group Development Team Leader, to tell us how her career led her to IT, what her role entails and what the future holds for Winn Group clients from the IT team.

The changing demands on IT from 20 staff to 250

I have worked at Winns for 17 years this March, starting in the post team of two when there were only around 20 staff in the whole company.

My role changed about every six months for the first few years as I developed knowledge and progressed through different disciplines and departments, supported by the management team.

When working in the First Response Team (FRT), Chris Birkett, now Winn Group Chief Operating Officer, joined the firm and encouraged me to move into a Claims Handler role.  As part of a workflow consultancy visit it was decided that the initial FRT process would be automated.

After hearing the possible ways an internal system could be automated I felt that the information that had been provided to the consultant could be improved, so I discussed this with the consultant.  After just a few weeks assisting the integration of this new system it was suggested that I concentrate on development full-time, and so began my career in IT!  I was, and still am, incredibly grateful to have been offered that opportunity.

From that point on I’ve worked on Proclaim development in various roles within IT. Since Clint Milnes, Chief Information Officer, joined the department I have been given opportunities to develop my learning in other aspects of IT that we have started to use within the firm such as Paninitelligence and Sharepoint. He encourages the whole team to learn from each other and develop our skills whilst finding the best fit for us within the IT structure to make the team as efficient as possible.

Jackie’s new role: What it involves day to day

The purpose of my new role is primarily to support the IT team in all aspects of day-to-day development and the service desk support staff across the companies. I will train newer members of the team in all aspects of development and service desk requests as well as training nominated staff from other departments to develop Proclaim specifically for their team. This will allow quicker implementation of smaller changes and improve understanding of the work involved in changes that are implemented.

I will also ensure all staff developing the Winn Group systems adhere to the relevant ISO 27001 policies and document all changes in the relevant manner.

Finally, I will meet with managers and team leaders to discuss and prioritise the Proclaim requirements for their teams.

Winn Group’s future: Developing technology to maximise client experience

There are lots of interesting and positive changes for clients to look forward to in the future, based on the work that Winn Group IT will be doing.  These changes will significantly reduce case duration for clients through:

• Automating processes to improve the transfer of data from Proclaim to accounts
• Simplifying the process for post-whiplash reforms
• Tailoring processes to the new areas of law to make them relevant to requirements
• Making further data available in respect of dashboards to assist case handlers in managing their workload. 

All this work will be carried out using newer functions and products available to us, along with tying together the vast experience both within the IT department and other Winn Group departments.

Working together with the knowledge and tools we have available to us, we will be able to vastly improve the efficiencies of the firm with the client at the forefront of our minds.

We have already worked through this process with the Customer Service Team, who assist clients through the use of Touchpoint, Secure docs and IDCo as well as use of text messages and e-mail to obtain information from clients to progress cases.  The feedback they then receive from clients is efficiently relayed back to IT with suggested improvements.

By working with each department in this way, the benefits to the client will be enormous.