Sutherland Partners With Top P&C Commercial Specialty Insurer, Helping Them Achieve Over 40% Reduction in Operating Costs

Industry: Retail & Consumer Packaged Goods | Services: Automation

Client Overview

A leading US-based commercial specialty insurer underwrites complex property and casualty risks across niche markets. The company works with independent agents, wholesale brokers, and retail partners to provide tailored coverage solutions. 

With gross written premiums of $3.2 billion in 2021 and a strong track record of acquisitions, the insurer has built a significant presence in specialty insurance. Known for its willingness to insure challenging, hard-to-price risks that many competitors avoid, the company has earned a reputation as a trusted partner for clients with unique coverage needs.

The Challenge

Digitizing Manual Processes and Lowering Operational Expenses

A series of acquisitions accelerated growth, but it also brought significant underlying operational and technological complexity, and higher expense ratios. The insurer’s operations relied on 35 unintegrated legacy systems, creating silos and inefficiencies across underwriting, servicing, and claims. 

Manual, paper-based processes – including First Notice of Loss (FNOL) – led to duplication, backlogs, errors in reconciliations and collections, and long turnaround times, with new business submissions taking more than 24 hours, mostly undertaken by costly underwriting resources. 

To remain competitive, the client needed to digitize operations and establish a digital business services model to cut costs, accelerate underwriting, and improve broker and stakeholder experience.

Sutherland Solution

End-To-End Digitization of Operations and Process Standardization

1. Digital Business Services Model
   Sutherland re-designed the insurer’s operating model across new business, underwriting, servicing, claims, and F&A. A greenfield setup in Kochi established a Digital Business Services model, supporting 95% of outsourced operations and spanning more than 1,500 positions through Centers of Excellence in Kochi and Chennai.
2. Human-Centric Design
   Using journey mapping and human-centric design, Sutherland re-imagined the end-to-end value chain from the customer’s perspective. This approach simplified processes and improved stakeholder engagement.
3. Automation at Scale
   An Automation Centre of Excellence was created, with Robility™ at its core. Over 100 bots standardized and integrated workflows, enabling significant straight-through processing across underwriting, servicing, claims, and actuarial support.
4. Connected Underwriting and Servicing
   Sutherland’s Service Unification Layer (SUL™) digitized workflows across underwriting, policy servicing, and accounting. This reduced duplication, cut handling times, and delivered scalability and speed-to-market.
5. AI-Led Data Extraction
   Sutherland Extract™ automated ACORD form data capture, cutting handling times from seven minutes to less than two. This accelerated endorsement processing and reduced manual effort.

The Outcome

Delivering Faster, Smarter, and More Scalable Operations

Over the course of a 13-year relationship, Sutherland has helped this insurer achieve measurable gains in cost, speed, and efficiency.

By embedding automation and digitization across the business, the insurer achieved a 40% reduction in operating costs, bringing expense ratios in line with competitive benchmarks and unlocking sustainable cost efficiency.

Underwriting was transformed through automation and digital workflows that cut clearance times from more than 24 hours to a few minutes – an 87.5% improvement. Endorsement processing also became faster and more accurate, with AI-led data extraction reducing turnaround times by 80% and freeing underwriters to focus on higher-value tasks.

Claims operations underwent a similar leap forward, with turnaround improved by 75%, with automation enabling 40% zero-touch and 30% single-touch processing. This reduced workload and improved policyholder servicing, with customers benefiting from faster and more reliable claims resolution.

On the financial side, outstanding account balances were reduced by 72%, thanks to automated reconciliations that improved both accuracy and efficiency. 

This transformation strengthened financial stability and performance. For brokers, it meant faster submissions and clearer decisions. For policyholders, it meant claims resolved with less friction and greater certainty. And for the insurer, it meant lower costs and higher efficiency – proof that operational transformation can translate directly into better service across the value chain.