Norwich Union goes Exstream to descramble customer documents

Financial services heavyweight Norwich Union has implemented a document automation project to make its communications with customers more understandable.

The acquisition of Dialogue enterprise document automation software from Exstream is part of an ongoing project costing more than £5m, including a root and branch overview of all communications with customers.

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Norwich Union head of delivery, Scott McFie, said the stock documents and letters sent out to customers were hard-wired into the company's legacy systems and would cost tens of thousands of pounds even to change a couple of words in one letter.

The new software sits on top of these legacy systems, allowing sales and marketing staff to change documents much more easily.

He said: "We've spent a lot of effort on our website to engage customers. We can then still be sending out letters in some 1970s Russian typewriter font."

McFie said he expects customer satisfaction scores to double as a result of the company's correspondence becoming easier to comprehend.

He said: "If customers can understand what they are being told, they can act sensibly to important messages about their accounts."

McFie added the system also contributes to the company's green commitments, because it allows communications to be sent out in a variety of electronic formats, such as email or PDF, as well as paper.