NYCM Insurance: Vendor and Contract Lifecycle Management (VCLM) Case Study

Name: NYCM Insurance
Location: New York
Description: NYCM Insurance is a property and casualty insurance carrier that has been providing coverage to residents and businesses in New York since 1899. With a team of over 850 employees and a network of over 1,200 independent agents, NYCM Insurance is dedicated to providing superior service and a quality customer experience to over 535,000 customers.

Summary

Before working with Gatekeeper, NYCM used a Contract Management database built internally by their developers. The database was functional but lacked a lot of the usability and capabilities of a dedicated solution. It also necessitated many manual processes, which contributed to issues such as:

• A lack of visibility into vendors and contracts
• Difficulty finding approvals from Subject Matter Experts due to a lack of audit trail
• Inconsistencies caused by manual vendor onboarding processes
• Manual reminders needed for requests and renewals
• Requesting additional resource hours from NYCM developers
• Time-to-signature taking hours or sometimes days

Since working with Gatekeeper, NYCM has been able to save half an FTE (Full-Time Employee) by using automated reminders rather than relying on manual follow-up. The Vendor Management team has saved hours each month by having reports available at any moment and Gatekeeper’s ease of use has freed up developer resources.

Why Gatekeeper?

NYCM ultimately decided on Gatekeeper because it felt like they were headed in the same direction that we were, growing and on the doorstep of becoming a market leader” - says 

Darin Van Duser, Vendor Management Supervisor, NYCM

Gatekeeper surpassed numerous criteria for NYCM, including:

• Functionality: NYCM knew that they needed to streamline their processes, create efficiencies using automation and provide a user experience that their Contract Owners enjoyed. Gatekeeper offers automated workflows, native e-sign, ease of use, the ability to add Custom Fields and risk management within the same platform.
• A one-stop shop for vendor management: NYCM wanted to communicate with their vendors and send requests for documentation within the same platform. Gatekeeper’s Risk Module makes it easy to track risk acceptances alongside the vendor record. The Vendor Portal has become essential when onboarding a new supplier, making it easier to send vendor due-diligence questionnaires out for completion, request new Certificates of Insurance and centrally store messages with the vendor contacts.
• Affordability: The original database was cost-effective, utilising only internal development hours, so outsourcing was a financial decision that the company was careful to make when it came to finding a better VM/CM solution. As soon as the NYCM team recognised the value the platform would bring to their contract management processes and business operations, the investment became more viable.
• Company culture: NYCM prides itself on being customer-focused and wanted a partner who would always treat them like a priority. They wanted to know that when they reached out with a question, they would get a reply within a few hours. Gatekeeper has exceeded those expectations. Four years later, the same sales representative from the initial process continues to stay in touch and meet with NYCM regularly.

The Full Story

Before Gatekeeper, NYCM relied on manual processes which caused a lack of visibility, delayed time-to-signature, inconsistencies during vendor onboarding and difficulty managing risk. They were unable to make quick changes to metadata or add custom fields easily within their in-house built platform.

Their contract owners did not enjoy the user experience. They faced challenges such as:

• A lack of visibility into vendors and contracts
• A lack of automated workflows or audit trails, making it difficult to find approvals from SMEs
• Multiple tabs under each contract record which made finding documents and comments difficult
• Difficulty searching for specific contracts
• Inconsistent and manual vendor onboarding
• Manual reminders for new vendor requests and contract renewals
• Time-to-signature taking hours or sometimes days

NYCM knew that there had to be a better option that would help them streamline a lot of their processes and create some efficiencies using automation. Five other solutions made the shortlist, but they ultimately decided on Gatekeeper because it felt like they were headed in the same direction as NYCM - growing and on the doorstep of becoming a market leader.

However, their original database was cost-effective, utilising only internal development hours, so outsourcing was a financial decision that the company was careful to make when it came to finding a better VM/CM solution.

Gatekeeper also worked in partnership with NYCM around their cost concerns.

“Gatekeeper was incredible to work with when it came to pricing, they understood our budget and were willing to work with us every step of the way to find a price that would work for both sides.” - 

Darin Van Duser, Vendor Management Supervisor, NYCM

Ease of Use & Workflow Functionality

NYCM’s original CM system didn’t offer automated workflows or audit trails - causing internal uncertainty and potentially increasing the risk of non-compliance. There was a lack of visibility around Subject Matter Expert approvals, including who was approving what and when.

Not only has Gatekeeper’s workflow functionality given NYCM visibility into each phase that requests go through, but it has also increased visibility into what was still pending.

NYCM has been able to take control of the vendor processes by creating a custom workflow to request Certificates of Interest (COIs) from their vendors within a couple of weeks of their renewal dates.

Gatekeeper’s ease of use allows the vendor management team to make changes to workflows, add custom data fields and create custom workflows easily - freeing up the resources once needed from developers and the associated wait time.

Version Control & Complete Visibility

By incorporating Gatekeeper’s eNegotiate templates into a workflow, NYCM can now upload their standard NDA and edit custom data fields. NYCM no longer has to manually edit NDAs every time a business unit communicates with a vendor, saving a significant amount of manual work.

“Our review teams love the parallel approvals and the visibility they get for each request. They can see who has approved and any comments they may have made. They can also see all the relevant form data in one place, making it easier and faster to complete their reviews,” says Darin Van Duser, Vendor Management Supervisor, NYCM. “It also allows for better collaboration between VM and our SME’s. The visibility has made it easy to take concerns back to the business unit or senior leadership and provide them with all the details in an easy-to-read/understand format.”

Negotiations are handled directly through the eNegotiate feature ensuring increased efficiencies and easy version control for reference.

Market-leading Implementation

During the implementation process, NYCM was assigned a dedicated CSM who assisted them with integrating their due-diligence questionnaires - into Gatekeeper as custom data fields. Gatekeeper shared their knowledge with NYCM at every stage, enabling them to make changes themselves without further assistance.

Going above and beyond for their customers, Gatekeeper ensured NYCM required limited development resources on their end. NYCM simply provided Gatekeeper with documentation and their ideal workflows and - within 24 hours- they were built in the platform and ready to test.

“Gatekeeper is a market leader when it comes to responsiveness and listening to what their customers want/need. There were product enhancements that I mentioned in my first few conversations with Gatekeeper, that were implemented into the platform in less than a year. Gatekeeper is one of the few vendors I’ve ever seen put customer feedback ahead of anything else,” says 

Darin Van Duser, Vendor Management Supervisor.

For more information on how Gatekeeper can help you take control of your vendor and contract management processes, contact us today.