What is Case Management software?
Case management is a key component of building business applications. A case manager takes an item from start to finish to drive outcomes with a level of accuracy, consistency and traceability that would not be possible with manual processes.
Particularly for complex processes where multiple stakeholders are required to input, manual processes can often become extremely difficult to manage – taking up administrative time and lacking traceability.
Reporting on Cases is often crucial and could involve key functions such as updating a customer on the progress of a complaint, or an internal colleague on a service request. Having access to real time information and automated notifications and reporting from a single version of the truth is crucial in driving high levels of service, whilst removing manual effort.
Examples of applications of Case Management include:
- Legal Case Management.
- Bid Submissions.
- Support Cases.
- Complaints.
- Expenses Management.
- Incidents.
- Accidents.
- Charity selection.
- Editorial compliance.
- Tax filing workflow.
- Contract management.
- Statutory Account Tracking.
What are the benefits of Case Management software?
The key attribute of a good Case Management system is its ability to accurately capture case details and process them through to completion, with the minimum of effort.
By reducing manual processing, reporting, or querying significant cost, savings can be achieved, even before the benefits of accuracy and traceability are considered.
A typical scenario would involve a case where a complaint submitted by email might require multiple replies before sufficient details have been collected, to enable the next stage of the process to take place. Each email is a chance for confusion to enter the process, or for significant details to be lost.
When the case is finally assembled and moves to the review stage, if no reply is received this may require multiple follow-up emails, wasting staff time and adding to already over burdened inboxes.
Case management systems can also automate the enforcement of key policies, for example in an expenses management system where claims above a certain level are subject to additional approval. An accomplished case management system should enforce rules, rather than being reliant on the knowledge of the participants in the approval chain, removing the chance of both errors and malpractice.
What are the risks of not having a case management software?
Inefficient case management practices can present a variety of challenges, including impacting on valuable staff time and leading to avoidable expense.
Collaboration is central to effective case management, therefore relying on a manual case management process could result in a lack of visibility, vulnerability to errors and scattered information.
Equally seriously, an ineffective approach to managing cases could cause the organization to be exposed to health and safety, regulatory or reputational risks which threaten the smooth running of its business operations.
The purpose of case management software is to increase productivity and ensure continuity with a complete view of information. Rather than having to switch between systems or manage a myriad of spreadsheets, staff remain within the same intuitive interface, logging activities, adding notes and updates and delegating tasks.
Why CoreStream?
The CoreStream platform provides a highly configurable environment which easily captures case details and processes them through complex workflows.
Key features include:
- Full email notifications, including daily / weekly summaries of activities.
- Configurable workflow to match your specific case handling objectives.
- Process mapping.
- Adaptive workflow for automated routing decisions.
- Permanent and temporary delegation features.
- Automated update reminders.
- Fully permissions controlled, and accessible by both internal and external users (e.g. suppliers).
- Permissions controlled personalized interactive dashboards providing insights on case load, status breakdown, ‘stuck cases’, linked actions and more.
Multiple case types can be handled from the same platform, each with differentiated forms and workflow configuration.
As with all CoreStream solutions, our case management module is highly configurable to ensure it can support your processes as they evolve. As part of our wider GRC platform, integration with other CoreStream modules, such as risk management or action tracking is assured.
