Mobile Application for iOS and Android Enhances Claims Process for Hospitality Services Provider
Project at a Glance
RDA developed a custom mobile application for iOS (iPhone/iPad) and Android mobile platforms that enables service managers to submit vehicle damage claims data from a smartphone to a centralized system. The new app sped up the process for filing claims by eliminating unnecessary involvement by a third party.
About Our Client
Our client provides hospitality staffing services and parking solutions to hotels, casinos, and hospitals across the United States. It employs approximately 7,000 people.
Background
When a vehicle is damaged while in the care of our client’s valet system, the account manager at the site must file a claim so that the customer can be reimbursed for the damage. The initial step of this process involves collecting some basic information about the incident, the vehicle, and the claimant. This initial claim submission happens at the scene of the incident at the time that the incident is first reported by the claimant. The submission of the claim results in an entry into our client’s back-end claim system which kicks off a series of workflows to process the claim until it is finally closed.
Prior to this project, when an initial claim was filed, the account manager called Telesys and dictated the information to the Telesys operator who then typed the information into an email to be sent to corporate and entered into the central claims system.
Our client wanted to develop a custom mobile application to accomplish this more efficiently. In the proposed to-be solution, instead of a phone call to Telesys, the service manager uses a mobile app on his/her phone to capture the necessary information. The app transmits the information directly to our client’s central claims system.
Solution Detail
RDA developed a custom mobile application for our client that enables service managers to submit vehicle damage claims data from a smartphone to a centralized system.
The app is available on the iOS (iPhone/iPad) and Android mobile platforms.
For the initial version of the solution, the only user story to be implemented is the creation of a new claim. In the future, other user stories can be supported, such as looking up the status of an existing claim, or the online submission of additional documentation about the claim (e.g. guest statement, valet GSA statement, VDS, etc.).
Benefits
As a result of this project, our client is experiencing the following benefits:
- Cost savings due to the elimination of the need for the Telesys operator
- More timely processing and reporting
- Reduced risk of transcription errors
- Better customer service
Technically Speaking
RDA developed the mobile app architecture using PhoneGap (phonegap.com). PhoneGap is a tool that enables an application to be built using the latest web standards (HTML, CSS, Javascript) and then packaged into an app for all of the popular phone devices (iPhone/iPad, Android, Windows Phone). Since it is built using web standards, it also leaves open the possibility that the application can be accessed from a website if that becomes a requirement in the future.
The new app needed to communicate with our client’s new claim system in order to submit a claim. To accomplish this, RDA built a small, externally accessible web service that accepts the claim and saves it to the system.
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