Openclaims provides Mendix-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions for processing motor insurance claims and repairs. The Insurtech scale-up’s customer portal garners positive reviews for seamless claims handling.Openclaims’ platform-based solutions also help motor insurance providers manage their partnerships with body shops. With Openclaims, insurance enterprises create customer-approved claims experiences and a healthy ecosystem of repair vendors.

The Openclaims platform overcomes many of the common hurdles to Insurtech innovation with Mendix low-code, including the 3 L’s below:

• Legacy tech stack integration
• Lengthy implementation timelines
• Limited IT capacity

Read on to learn how Openclaims uses Mendix low-code technology to deliver a clear business case to its customers, with the flexibility to integrate with any system.

An innovative approach to an insurance pain point

When it comes to innovation, big ships—like the insurance industry— sometimes turn slowly.

That’s one of the reasons Openclaims needed to solve the dilemma of legacy system integration. With a low-code SaaS solution, Openclaims can also sidestep long-winded implementations and upgrades upended by limited IT capacity.

“Within the somewhat boring insurance industry, we are looking for people who are open to trying new things. That’s fun to work with,” said Lex Orie, founder of Openclaims. “We like change. That’s our business. But we are always looking for those people—those front-runners who dare to make a change or try something new with an open mind.”

Openclaims sees itself as the third-party solution with a big, long-term impact. It’s helping insurers take a step-by-step approach to new low-code productivity and user-approved front-end possibilities. By the end of the process, Openclaims has implemented new technology that saves time, boosts productivity, and improves customer relationships.

“We advise our clients to start with a solid foundation and build upon it,” said Orie. “The platform is flexible enough to adapt to changing conditions or needs, allowing us to evolve and improve as we go.”

A look under the hood of the Openclaims platform

Openclaims connects disparate systems and channels and provides dashboard views for visual data presentations. Insurers can compare, update, plan, and add to their workflows, and their customers can complete essential tasks with minimal effort. With the Openclaims suite of tools, insurers can create uniform end-to-end processes that are easy to understand and complete.

There are three core modules to the Openclaims platform:

• Repair Manager: Use data to distribute repairs, manage your contracted repair network, and ultimately increase the productivity of your repair network.
• Claims Manager: Provide customers with an easy-to-complete claims journey while building a claims case that requires less manual handling and operations.
• Leads Manager: Create better funnels that turn potential leads into satisfied body shop customers.

“One of the challenges is the existence of legacy systems and the need to integrate into those systems. To solve that challenge we create standalone workflows that integrate with legacy systems to exchange information at vital points in the process,” said Orie. “We tailored our products to be like that because we don’t want to have lengthy implementation projects. Also, the internal roadmaps mean our clients only have so many projects they can take up every year.”

Repair Manager allows insurers to manage their contracted repair network and distribute repairs most efficiently. Claims Manager provides customers with a dynamic journey connected to customizable workflows to ensure touchless and swift claims handling. With Leads Manager, Openclaims customers can connect all possible First Notice of Loss (FNOL) channels to the Openclaims platform and, from there, transition these leads to their body shops of choice.

Openclaims runs on Mendix

The Openclaims mission is to create an agile, flexible, and customer-centric insurance industry. The Mendix low-code development platform piqued Orie’s interest before launching his idea. Before Orie came across Mendix, he thought low-code development was better suited for staging simple, new features.

“I was doing an interim assignment at a big insurance company and they were using Mendix. I saw the flexibility and the adaptation strength of low-code to existing processes,” Orie said. “I saw how they could tailor platforms around core and legacy systems.”

He found that Mendix was not only stable, flexible, and robust, but it was also a perfect fit for the Insurtech enterprise’s vision.

“Low-code has proven that it’s not just for testing our small things. In fact, it’s what we’ve built our whole company on.”

Openclaims Mendix ISV Partnership advantage

Since building, governing, and updating their SaaS solution on Mendix technology, Openclaims has also become a Mendix ISV Program partner. Mendix ISV partners enjoy complimentary access to the Mendix low-code platform and dedicated support to fuel their success.

Mendix’s step-by-step assistance for commercial software vendors includes:

• Training
• Technical support and enablement
• Solution reviews to ensure an ISV’s product is secure, scalable, and utilizing the platform’s extensive capabilities.

Here are some of Orie’s most important reasons why Openclaims chooses the Mendix low-code platform as its technological foundation:

Mendix is flexible

Mendix is modular and componentized, so that makes it easier to partition dev work and prioritize by business needs. The result is added value for customers where they really need it most, deployed faster and with more accuracy.

“We can really use Mendix to be flexible and speed up. Sometimes we do the work. If we want to focus on our core product, sometimes we hire external Mendix experts,” said Orie. “We can do the little customizations or shift focus and, in this way, we can add value for the customers.”

Trained Mendix developers are available

Openclaims takes an agile, continuous improvement approach to its product development. As a result, it’s important to be an IT-forward company with access to talented developers. The Siemens-backed Mendix platform has access to a large and mature talent pool that helps Openclaims continue to innovate.

“There is a good market for Mendix developers, so that helps. Those are very important elements for us, being able to get the right people and being able to constantly update the solution.”

Mendix is easy to integrate and continues to innovate

Openclaims’ open structure was designed to integrate with third-party vendors and partners easily. Ensuring access to agnostic technology sources is essential to product functionality. In addition, Mendix’s rapid release and upgrades signal to Openclaims that Mendix and Siemens continue to lead the way in new technology.

“We are an adaptive SaaS company. We try to standardize a lot, and that’s good. That helps us be fast and cost-efficient for our clients. But you always see that some customization is needed to integrate,” said Orie. “With Mendix, we can deliver that last 10% that really makes a solution fit our customer needs.”

What’s next for Openclaims

Openclaims continues to grow its client base with innovative products that use low-code technology to solve insurer and insurance customer needs.

As the Insurtech enterprise grows, Orie and Openclaims plan on exploring new front-end UX customization opportunities. The insurance industry still has a lot to digitize. Better customer portals and acquisition experiences, as well as business operational advances, are in the future for Openclaims.

“People now see that there’s a lot to gain in the everyday boring processes, and to optimize those processes,” said Orie. “I must say that the choice for Mendix has really been a good one for us and still is. We’re really satisfied with what it can do. Mendix grew along with our own needs and development as a company and we really like that.”