Electronic Press Kit
Full Capture Solutions Frequently Asked Questions
Company Questions
What is Full Capture Solutions?
Full Capture Solutions (FCSI) is a company founded in 2004 led by insurance industry veterans. FCSI develops analytic software tailored specifically for the insurance industry. The key to the company's value proposition is its ability to apply semantic technologies to unstructured data in a meaningful manner. Unstructured data is abundant in the insurance industry. While rich in content and value, the unstructured nature of the data has previously prevented access to it. The company delivers its technology via a Software-as-a-Service model that lets insurance companies achieve unprecedented levels of total loss cost management, avoiding the traditional impediments associated with buying and implementing enterprise software. Both the technology and the Software-as-a-Service model are industry best practices.
How is your company differentiated from other software companies in the industry?
Most technology providers are (a) traditional enterprise software developers focused on workflow management/transaction flow systems, or (b) solutions providers/consultants who assign teams of people to work with the customer staff to build systems. Full Capture delivers an evolutionary technology quickly while avoiding the traditional impediments associated with buying and implementing enterprise software.
Full Capture Solutions applications are pre-built and can also be customized to client specifications. All applications are designed to provide insurance executives actionable intelligence in three general groupings that are essential to reducing loss costs:
- Discovery: What happened?
- Forensic: Why did it happen?
- Predictive: What is likely to happen?
The answer to these questions yield actionable business intelligence that senior claim executives can use to reduce loss costs, spot trends, identify potential "exploder" claims, stop fraud and maximize subrogation opportunities.
Does Full Capture Solutions only service a certain size insurance company?
No. Full Capture services all U.S. property and casualty insurance companies and is moving into health and disability areas. Due to product demand the company is moving forward in selected foreign markets as well.
Full Capture Technology Questions
What is predictive analytics?
Predictive analytics is an advanced type of enterprise intelligence technology that includes the application of sophisticated analysis techniques to data. It is a sophisticated form of "data mining" as the application detects meaningful patterns and relationships in data.
What is new about Full Capture's predictive analytics application?
Throughout the years there have been only a handful of technologies deployed that have had a a material impact on claims management - and this is one. Full Capture is the only company that has applied predictive analytics to both structured and unstructured data in the insurance industry resulting in quantifiable loss cost impact.
Full Capture's revolutionary technology allows for the analysis of structured and unstructured data. FCSI has found that approximately 97 percent of claims data analyzed was unstructured and therefore unable to be captured electronically, until now. Accessing this data gives claims executives a true competitive advantage by identifying new opportunities to reduce loss costs by spotting trends, identifying potential "exploder" claims, stopping fraud, capturing subrogation opportunities, and a host of other scenarios that, until now, remained buried in claims data.
FCSI's delivery system, Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS, is a proven technology and Full Capture is leading its deployment into the insurance industry. With SaaS there is no need for large up-front IT capital costs, complex and lengthy integrations, legacy systems upgrades or any material IT staff involvement. Full Capture Solutions utilizes a patented (pending) process to transform a company's data into a "virtual data warehouse" on which FCSI applies its applications. There is no obsolescence of product; companies can pay-as-they-go on a subscription pricing model without multi-year contractual obligations.
How does Full Capture's process work?
Full Capture Solutions can get the data it needs simply by obtaining a data back-up tape from the customer; a job that everyone runs regularly as part of their disaster recovery planning. That's it; no special mapping or data formatting is required. The data is maintained by Full Capture in an extraordinarily secure environment. Once FCSI transforms the data, FCSI's analytic applications are applied. Actionable results are provided through a secure customer-specific,portal that can be accessed through any web browser.
Is this going to be a lengthy process?
No. Unless there is some very unique characteristics to the structure of your data (multiple claim systems, etc.), results are available to the customer within 45 days of Full Capture receiving your company's back-up data tape(s).
How long is Full Capture's contract? What is my obligation?
Full Capture's contractual obligation is only twelve months at a time. The standard agreement is comprised of five consecutive one-year contract terms. The customer has the option to terminate the agreement without penalty at the end of any one-year term.
Can Full Capture's system be installed in-house?
There's no need. By housing the application off-site, there's no use of the company's labor or capital resources. Full Capture applications are highly architected with security checks and challenges incorporated at many layers of the application. In addition, the software is continuously improved and updated behind the scenes by Full Capture. The customer faces no risk of obsolescence.
What does one need to get started on the service?
It's as simple as giving Full Capture Solutions a back-up claims data tape. We take it from there, load the data into our application and you can access files via the internet within 45 days.
Are we duplicating our data by using your product?
Every company has data in multiple places. Full Capture's value is we don't just duplicate the data; we enhance/mature the information and the meaning within the data, and provide fast access to it.
Data Quality
What is the difference between structured and unstructured data?
Structured data is standardized, easily handled information that can be easily read by machines. Structured data fields are fixed-length records and can only be populated with pre-defined variables (sometimes from a drop-down menu). Unstructured data is freeform, explanatory information that is of an open-ended length, lacks a standardized format, and that can be populated with just about anything. Up until now, unstructured data was unable to be read electronically. Examples of unstructured data include claim adjuster notes, imaged documents, audio, and emails. Gartner estimates that approximately 80 percent of all data stored is unstructured. Full Capture Solutions' research found that 97 percent of insurers' claim data is unstructured.
Is unstructured data in insurance the same as unstructured data in other industries?
In some respects yes, in that all types of unstructured data has been very difficult to read electronically. Almost every industry has some degree of unstructured data. But in many respects, insurance data is unlike unstructured data in any other industry. Primarily, claim adjuster notes are not grammatically correct. Complete spelling of words and proper sentence structure with punctuation is non-existent. Instead, adjusters use a personalized type of shorthand language to document their investigation of a claim. Acronyms, abbreviations and misspellings are prominent. There is a lack of standards for acronyms and abbreviations even within the same insurance company. As a result, two different adjusters may be saying the same thing in concept, but the unstructured data appears to be two completely different sets of content. This lack of proper linguistics presents a unique and difficult challenge to developing proper concept identification and semantic clustering from insurance unstructured data.
Why can't traditional software programs read unstructured data?
Before structured data can be read, most software programs require pre-existing information to be available that describes the structured data. This information is often called "metadata", or data about data. A generation of legacy software programs exist that read structured data that has been forced into "rows and columns", with the columns representing metadata and the rows containing the structured data.
In contrast, unstructured data has very little, if any pre-existing metadata describing it. Unstructured data can be composed into nearly infinite combinations that may be easily recognized and read by the human mind, but are almost impossible for a traditional software program to understand. This is where a new generation of "semantic technologies" is being used to find individual words and phrases in the unstructured data. And by using sophisticated techniques and models, new types of software applications can read and derive the proper context of the unstructured data and discover important relationships, patterns and knowledge that can lead to actionable business results.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
What is Software-as-a-Service and why would insurance companies be interested in it?
Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS, is comprised of applications housed by vendors and available to companies on a pay-as-you-go or subscription basis. These types of applications are usually developed using a services-oriented architecture (SOA) which provides a flexible, fast and cost-effective means of developing and delivering the applications. Basically, companies rent the software and its capabilities via the internet. The proprietary software is maintained by the vendor. SaaS alleviates traditional software licensing fees that are usually comprised of large up-front capital investments and a long stream of monthly maintenance payments. SaaS also eliminates the need for additional IT infrastructure investments to support new applications. Companies can access ready-to-go applications easily with no large up-front capital expenditure and no long-term commitment.
Gartner has identified the SaaS market as the fastest growing segment of the software industry, estimated to grow approximately 500 percent from 2005 to 2011. Business intelligence and analytic applications are perfect for a SaaS delivery model. Full Capture has taken the lead in bringing this type of delivery model to the insurance industry, allowing insurers to allocate their capital and resources elsewhere in their company or to their shareholders rather than into big software investments.
With the information off-site, is the data safe?
Yes. Full Capture Solutions considers the security and management of both our own data and our customers' data as a core value of our business model. Full Capture applications are highly architected with security checks and challenges incorporated at many layers of the application. Our technology staff is prepared to review our security controls in detail with all customers.
Software-as-a-Service has been used in other industries, why haven't established software companies that service the insurance industry thought of this?
Insurance industry innovations have often surfaced from smaller, more maverick companies interested in moving the industry forward by exploring more efficient ways to meet business objectives. Full Capture Solutions executives are insurance industry veterans who understand what keeps claims management up at night and as a result, devised a product focused on customers' needs.
