Case Studies

Our Clients Achieve Tangible and Measurable Results

Great work is only possible when you partner with great clients. See what our clients have been able to
achieve with Henka’s support below.

NB TAT

THE CHALENGE

Long turn around time from customer application to NB issuance.
High pending rate
Large number of complaints from agents

THE OUTCOME

A streamlined process using transformation sprints
Lean six sigma methods applied to reduce waste and improve flow

THE IMPACT

TAT reduced from average of 16 days to average of 4 days
Clean cases TAT reduced from 9 days to 2 days
TAT for existing customers reduced from 11 days to 1.6 days
Pending rate reduced from 64% to 18%

NB Productivity

THE CHALENGE

High number of overtime hours every month, quarter and year end
OT paid a significant cost line item
Poor work-life balance comments in the annual HR surveys

THE OUTCOME

Work allocation system based on single piece flow
Better and transparent management systems
Performance management enhanced to include team goals
Daily volume and work management systems (based on Kanban)

THE IMPACT

80% reduction in OT paid
Increase in underwriter productivity by over 45% while reducing operational errors

Agent On-boarding

THE CHALENGE

It took over 48 days to onboard an agent after they signed the forms
Agent on-boarding time was a significant drag on NB sales
Number of interested agents dropped off due to long lead time was 34%

THE OUTCOME

A streamlined process for agent on-boarding with simplified forms
Web based tracking, management and communication system with checklists

THE IMPACT

Agent on-boarding time reduced to 12 days without any technology investment
Number of signatures required reduced from 64 to 4
Further reduction from 12 days to 7 days with the web based system

Agent Productivity

THE CHALENGE

High variation in sales generated between agents and across agenciesAgent on-boarding time was a significant drag on NB sales
Lost sales opportunity due to large number of inactive agents

THE OUTCOME

6Sigma led analysis of drivers of sales productivity led to a sales management, governance and learning system that optimised agencies and agent performanceWeb based tracking, management and communication system with checklists
New sales commission system (designed by agents) that supported mentoring and lead sharing

THE IMPACT

NB sales volume doubled over a period of 6 months
Incomplete applications reduced by 70%
Health plan and rider sales had a record year of sales (idea conceptualised, led and executed by agents)

NB Form

THE CHALENGE

Consistent bad feedback from agents on NB form
Redundant information and non-user-friendly flow of information

THE OUTCOME

A longer form that was easier to fill but took lesser time
Rearrangement of information capture and design of form that improved agent and customer satisfaction

THE IMPACT

Average satisfaction of NB form improved from 2.1 (baseline) to 4.6 (improved form) on a scale of 5
Time taken to fill the form reduced by 19%

NPD Rollout

THE CHALENGE

Time taken to launch a new product varied from 9 months to 18 months
Less than 25% of new products/ riders launched met their financial targets
Agent training and rollout processed (last mile) took almost 75 days and had very low satisfaction

THE OUTCOME

A simplified NPD process that reduced hand offs, reduced approvals, integrated agile and design thinking
A design thinking led approach to develop product with agents and customers
A collaborative approach to designing the training, collaterals and messaging by the agents

THE IMPACT

50%+ reduction in new product launch time
Agent training and rollout completed in less than 30 days
First 3 products launched met their 12-month financial goals in less time than forecasted
7 products launched with the new process hit record sales volumes

Claims Form Redesign

THE CHALENGE

Claims process being digitized that was basically a digital version of the paper process
Complicated claims forms, templates and processes were all becoming digital

THE OUTCOME

An enhanced, simplified and efficient claims process
Reduction in claims information required by almost 46%
Creation of a mobile friendly submission process for getting medical bills

THE IMPACT

NPS of claims went from -21 to 77
Minor claims TAT reduced from 11 days to 3.5 days (before digitization)

Major Claims Productivity

THE CHALENGE

Major claims TAT ~22 days
Longest TAT in market (all competitors had lower TAT)
Headcount freeze

THE OUTCOME

A visual management based system for driving major claims processes
Daily management system for allotting work and driving productivity

THE IMPACT

TAT reduced from 22 days to 2 days without headcount increase and without technology investment

Policy Servicing NPS

THE CHALENGE

Very poor NPS score of 7 on policy servicing
Negative feedback on the accessibility of agents

THE OUTCOME

Detailed analysis led creation of new servicing org. structure, team structure and shifts pattern

THE IMPACT

Improvement of NPS from 7 to 69
Changing of shifts improved accessibility of customer service agents from 78% to 98%

Policy Servicing TAT

THE CHALENGE

Regulatory requirement to reduce the policy servicing TAT to less than 5 days on average (from a baseline of more than 12 days)
To be implemented within 2 months

THE OUTCOME

Servicing request classification into runners-repeaters-strangers with different:

-Team structure

-Empowerment

-Simplified processes

THE IMPACT

Regulatory requirement was met within the challenging time frame
Overall productivity went up by 22%

Branch Operations

THE CHALENGE

All transactions routed to business operations through a network of 75 branches spread across the countryTo be implemented within 2 months
With high cost structure and increasingly negative feedback, redesign of branches was imperative to improve service

THE OUTCOME

Redesigned branch layout, roles, structure and services
Implementation of “defect laws processes” in branches to simplify the downstream work
Upfront settlement of simple claims

THE IMPACT

Rapid improvement in frontline processes leading to 40% reduction in agent waiting time
Improved branch processes and working hours led to 75% reduction in NB pending cases
Winner of the “Most innovative experience” award by the customer service forum

Agency Management

THE CHALENGE

How to help partner agencies manage their operations better and more efficiently
How to develop healthy competition and learning between agencies to help grow the business faster

THE OUTCOME

A gamified solution to help agencies manage their sales force
A new method of managing sales across agencies to drive higher growth

THE IMPACT

Top 25% of agencies doubled their per agent revenue
Overall sales up by 40% within 12 months

Banka Process Transformation

THE CHALENGE

How to increase the throughput of Banka deals and enhance the experience of premium corporate customers

THE OUTCOME

A much simplified form, sign up process and medical check up process for premium customers
Enhanced features for Banka customers including redesigned policy book, hospital treatment cards and dedicated support

THE IMPACT

Doubling of Banka sales volume in 14 months

Procurement Transformation

THE CHALENGE

Months long procurement process caused delay in launching projects and was considered the biggest obstacle to launching agile
Every department/ team had workarounds to bypass the complicated process that led to potential operational risk

THE OUTCOME

Lean Six Sigma led procurement simplification
Simplified approval matrix
Empowerment for teams
Smarter budgeting, allocation and governance processes

THE IMPACT

For most of procurements, TAT reduction of over 85%
Overall TAT reduction of 65%
73% reduction in signatures required for procurement
Leadership team meetings for procurement discussions reduced by 75%

Finance Process Transformation

THE CHALENGE

Extreme level of complexity in finance processes for monthly, quarterly and annual closing
Manual + macro led reconciliation processes leading to several errors and lots of overtime every month
Payment processes took several days leading to complaints from partners and vendors

THE OUTCOME

High level EVSA analysis of the finance function to understand major flows and the interconnections
Series of lean six sigma projects to stream line all processes and create new macros for better controls

THE IMPACT

Closings without overtime
Simplified the process to support automation of the finance processes
All payments within 48 hours

HR: Onboarding Process

THE CHALENGE

Gallup Q12 results showed most disengaged group was staff with less than 12 months experience
Constant feedback on challenges of onboarding and new employees feeling “lost”

THE OUTCOME

Lean Six Sigma project done to initiate a “cell based” flow from interviews to offer and joining to ready-to-work
Instituted a mentoring program that was co-designed with a team of 50 new hires that included support, training, learning help and positive engagement from leadership

THE IMPACT

Q12 score for new employees jumped up 77%
Leadership team and middle management felt closer to new employees
A sense of the company values being propagated

Health Questions Simplification

THE CHALENGE

Previous project to simplify health questions did not lead to any significant improvement
Feedback from agents and comparisons to competitors were not positive
A large number of potential customers were being selected for medical check-ups

THE OUTCOME

5 years data set analyzed to uncover insights on the impact of questions on reducing risk and the pricing required to cover the risk
A human centered design project to refine the health questions by using the purpose-need-outcome-result model

THE IMPACT

Multiple health question sets created depending on type of cover, nature and profile of customer
Overall reduction in health questions by 54% (best-in-class after the project was completed)

Medical Checkup Process

THE CHALENGE

Negative feedback on the medical check up process
Long TAT and cumbersome process led to customers dropping off the NB process

THE OUTCOME

Multiple flows of medical check-up process and a new appointment system created to reduce waiting < 10 mins
SMED concepts and cells implemented in nursing homes
High premium customers and banks customers had a concierge process
On customer-site check up process created

THE IMPACT

Reduction in waiting time from average of 30 minutes to 4 minutes
Winner of the “Most innovative experience” award by the customer service forum

Case Study: LSS at French Manufacturing and Services Conglomerate

Situation

Client wanted to create a culture of continuous improvement and wanted to train their teams on concepts of Lean and Six Sigma

Approach

We ran (1 day to 3 day) training sessions for over 300 middle to senior managers
Did TTT to ready 15 internal trainers
Created in-branded training material in dual language
Created simulations to supplement the training so concepts are better understood and easily applied

Result

Over 300 Lean Green Belts and 20 Lean SS Black Belts certified
More than 250 successful projects had been completed by the end of the engagement of 24 months
Generated savings and growth that was 7x the investment

Case Study: LSS Management at a Large Multispecialty Hospital

Situation

High cost and low customer satisfaction
Low utilization of OTs
Too many surprises
CEO wanted a better management system

Approach

Visual management
Lean Six Sigma based simple measures that matter
Gemba based continuous improvement approach
Leader led transformations

Result

Reduction in variation by over 72%
Doubled OT utilization
Visual tracking and management system that was visible to customers

Case Study: Agent sales growth for a Multinational Insurance Company

Situation

54% of agents with low or no sales
Active agents, those with more than 2 sales in a year, < 18% of total agents
Most of sales came through 13% of agents
Sales management cost and product launch costs very high

Approach

Six Sigma analysis on 3 years data
Lean Six Sigma based simple measures that matter
Problem solving approach to selling
Storytelling for insurance
Fused design thinking with LSS to create better processes on:

-Management

-Governance

-Coaching

-Collaterals

-Communication

-Lead generation

Result

# of active agents increased to more than 73%
Sales productivity 3.8x the baseline

Case Study: Digitization at Multinational Bank

Situation

Rolling out a digitization initiative for B2B clients, across multiple product lines, affecting more than 10,000 staff and over 10 million customers

Approach

Problem framing with all sponsors and key stakeholders
Co-creation of EVSMs
Simplify policies and eliminate waste
Automation driven delivery

Result

Complete alignment between stakeholders and early defined rules of engagement
Phased rollout based on customer value and bottom line impact
Project running ahead of schedule by 6 months
Met digitization financial goal before completion of project

Case Study: Digitization at Multinational Bank

Situation

Rolling out a digitization initiative for B2B clients, across multiple product lines, affecting more than 10,000 staff and over 10 million customers

Approach

Problem framing with all sponsors and key stakeholders
Co-creation of EVSMs
Simplify policies and eliminate waste
Automation driven delivery

Result

Complete alignment between stakeholders and early defined rules of engagement
Phased rollout based on customer value and bottom line impact
Project running ahead of schedule by 6 months
Met digitization financial goal before completion of project

Case Study: Culture Change at Multinational Insurance company

Situation

Client wanted to change their organizational culture to be more innovative, collaborative and customer focused.
Rolling out new set of values across 10 countries to over 6000 core company staff

Approach

Rolled out “Henka Change Toolkit”
Created and shared reasons for change (Start with Why)
Used storytelling to create awareness of the new values
Identified and worked with change mavens to disseminate the new way of working

Result

“This is the smoothest rollout of a corporate initiative that I have ever seen”
– Head of HR

“In every visit to any country, I see visible evidence of the new values. The impact on our culture is tangible”

– Regional CEO

Case Study: Culture Change at Multinational Insurance company

Situation

Extremely low level of customer trust led to very poor NPS.
CEO made an organizational priority to improve customer experience

Approach

Lean approach to transformation. Worked with leadership for:

-Gemba

-Ethnographic research

-VA/NVA analysis

Co-creation of future state customer and process journeys

Result

High level of leadership commitment and drive to change
Improved customer experience while reducing cost of care by 22%
NPS improved by 28 points

Case Study: Decentralized Ideation at Asian International Bank

Situation

A typical MNC has between 10000 to 30000 staff. Yet all decision making is centered with less than 100 people.
How might we engage the knowledge, wisdom and awareness of all our staff who are interacting with and/ or impacting the lives of our customers everyday?

Approach

Using Human Centered Design methodologies, we created a web based tool for the client to run contests and crowdsource ideas for specific customer problems

Elements of gamification and nudging were used to drive up participation

Result

‘Improving account opening form’ contest led to over 300 modifications, 30 prototypes and customer validated 7 new formsImproved customer experience while reducing cost of care by 22%
‘Reducing cost of LC issuance’ contest led to 25% reduction in cost within 3 months

Case Study: Digitization at Multinational Insurance Company

Situation

Cost pressure and impact of insuretech was forcing the client to come up with digital solutions to claims and servicing processes. Previous automation initiatives, costing millions, had not led to significant improvement

Approach

Capitalized on Human Centered Design and Lean Six sigma methodologies

Understood the E2E value stream, identified all inefficiencies and opportunities

Result

6 months to deliver a hybrid digital/ paper process across 4 countries
Reduced customer time by 73%
Reduced customer effort by 41%
Reduced cost of processing by over 55%

Case Study: New Product Launch at Multinational Insurance Company

Situation

New Product development process was long, inefficient, always delayed, always led to poor customer experience and rarely met its financial objectives or targets

Approach

Used the Henka Innovation Methodology to co-create products with customers and agents

Influenced organization culture by using Obeya to reduce bureaucracy, improve collaboration and increase speed of decision making

Result

New product launched in under 5 months
First 12 month top line contribution of over US$18 Million
Taught project team and leadership team the value of experimentation, making mistakes, iterations
Created the finance processes to support innovation

Application Stories