WorkSafe Victoria

An IBM process automation solution led by business rules has enabled Worksafe Victoria to input and process invoices up to three times faster.

Video Transcript

Shaun Ryan, General Manager
Strategy and Planning
IT Program Director
TAC and WorkSafe
Our greatest challenges for the agencies is that we receive a large volume of invoices from our service providers. And we receive close to 95 percent of our invoices on paper. And those invoices can total up to $3 billion a year in liabilities for our organizations. And this is an area that we haven't seen any business process automation for close to 30 years.

Kay Scanlon Scanlon
Stakeholder Manager
WorkSafe and Agents
The main business challenge that we actually wanted to overcome was to improve the payment to our treatment providers and also improve the efficiencies and productivity in our agents.

Shaun Ryan
We are now going through a process of where we're trying to automate the processing of those invoices and apply complex business rules to ensure that we get the right outcome for the organizations and for our providers.

Worksafe started with over 2,000 complex rules.
Shaun Ryan
We took the approach to ensure that this program was led by the business, and we've involved the business every step of the way.

Kay Scanlon
One of the key lessons that has been learnt by the business is the benefits of being able to collaborate closely with IT. They actually explained to us what were the tools that they were going to use, and the benefit of those tools.

Shaun Ryan
One of the key pillars of our IT transformation strategy is to provide the systems to enable the business...give the power back to the business...without the need for IT all the time.

Process Automation led by business rules has enabled Worksafe Victoria to input and process invoices up to three times faster.

Shaun Ryan
So, we determined very early in the program that the IBM ILOG software was the best product out there for us to be able to implement all of the complex rules that we needed to to be able to process those invoices. So it was a natural fit for our organizations to include IBM ILOG in the WebSphere suite.

Kay Scanlon
We've had an immediate impact. We have seen a increase in the timeliness of payments to our treatment providers...in efficiencies within our agents. And at the moment, we are actually achieving 84 to 85 percent straight through processing.

From beginning to implementation, the program was delivered in a year. The system went live in December with no defects.
Shaun Ryan
Our users love this system. They've been given the ability to do the higher valued work that they've wanted to do in the past. We're now releasing the program into TAC at the June this year after having seen the great benefits its provided to WorkSafe. Now, we can actually get them to actively manage claims, actively manage our clients to ensure that they get the best outcome as well as us.

ANDREW BOAG
Executive Manager
Claims Service and Performance
Transport Accident Commission
TAC providers such as physiotherapists, hospitals, doctors, a whole range of allied health professionals, will benefit greatly from the TAC and WorkSafe utilizing the same rules. It will mean that there will be synergies, and that they won't have to deal with what they may call the bureaucracy. So, it's a great opportunity for the TAC to move itself from an outdated, cumbersome system to a more Web-based solution.

Shaun Ryan
If our systems aren't there, if our business is not there, people don't get paid. They don't get paid their earnings that we're replenishing for them because they can no longer work. So, what we do has great responsibility.

In the past, a business rule at WorkSafe Victoria may have taken 20 days to change. Now business owns the rules, and they own the process.