The Rise of the Phoenix

Formed in 1983, Countrywide Emergency Relocation Solutions is the UK's longest-established and most experienced relocation provider. Part of the country's largest estate agency and property services group, it provides an invaluable service to loss adjusters and insurers, reducing the costs and difficulties of finding emergency relocation for over 6,000 vulnerable claimants per year who have endured fire, flood and other traumatic events.

The challenges

The company's emergency relocation business faced a number of process and IT challenges around case handling and management, which were impacting efficiency, cost control and quality of service. They included:

• Manual communications — communication with critical external partners, such as loss adjusters, relied on case handlers repeatedly writing and managing emails.
• Paper and storage overheads — case files were managed in hardcopy, incurring significant paper costs and expensive document storage for client audit.
• Workflow and prioritisation — there was no business-wide method of identifying which cases needed immediate prioritisation, especially at peak times.
• Interest costs — management of the float used to cover the cost of claims was manual, causing delays that resulted in interest charges.
• Complaint response delays — manual updates slowed complaint responses, impacting response times to clients.
• Legacy system requirements — the Microsoft Access system in use dated from 2003, so specialist legacy software knowledge and long-term support would be needed.

In 2007, Countrywide Emergency Relocation Solutions chose Technonerds as its long-term IT partner, to supply bespoke software development that would boost business efficiency, alongside support that would deliver system stability. The internal name for this innovation was Phoenix.

Phoenix was a significant undertaking. It enabled case handlers to manage multiple time-critical processes — providing policy holders with alternative properties, and transacting deposits, pay-outs, reclaims and rehousing costs.

We also enabled Phoenix to instantly scale up or down to accommodate varying user numbers and caseloads. This is crucial: the system is normally used by around 40 case handlers, but "in surge" these numbers can increase by up to 1,000%. Like many Technonerds projects, Phoenix's success is built on our experience developing and supporting software that integrates fully with legacy systems — including bespoke developments carried out by previous IT suppliers, sometimes many years previously.

The benefits Phoenix has delivered are decisive, scalable and measurable:

• Paper and storage overheads slashed by 50%.
• Automatic work queuing means cases are seen 25% more rapidly than before.
• Automated emails to external partners and customers cut the time spent writing and managing case communication by 20%.

Financially, the business performs better too: we built an interface into the accounting and billing system, enabling payments that were previously keyed manually every night to be performed automatically — greatly reducing interest charges. We also reduced exposure to industry fines by building information audits that help case managers rapidly assemble complaint responses within regulatory time frames.

"Because Phoenix has streamlined our workflows, improved our communication, and made it easier for us to move money to where it's needed, it has enabled us to progress claims as quickly and as painlessly as possible, improving the customer experience." — Pierre Craddock, Relocation Director, Countrywide

"We have a very strong relationship with Technonerds because they provide valuable input that enables Phoenix to be and remain best of breed. They don't deliver to a 'tick-box' spec — they listen to what the business wants to achieve, and if that means taking a different route, they'll tell you and help you make it happen. There is a single point of contact who is highly communicative and highly available."