By Aclaimant

Sep 30, 2024

The City of Ann Arbor and Aclaimant have enjoyed a close partnership for nearly eight years. With 80% of Aclaimant's first employees being University of Michigan graduates, it was natural for the city to become an early adopter and valued customer. 

Initially introduced through their third-party administrator, the city saw the potential to improve their risk management practices. We met their initial goal of digitizing and streamlining workflows, even with our then-limited technology, and have since become an essential part of their operations.

Early Collaboration and Building the Foundation

The City of Ann Arbor's Safety Manager, Doug Forsyth, was an early champion. He and Aclaimant met weekly beginning in the winter of 2016 to define the project scope. At the time, most of their processes relied heavily on pen, paper, and spreadsheets. The type of incident, involved parties, and relevant business unit determined the appropriate workflow. 

The city worked closely with our implementation team to identify every field needed during intake and for claim submission to their third-party administrator. These workflow mapping sessions took place before we had established best practices or standard templates. We're truly grateful for their dedication, attention to detail, and patience as we built their system together.

From Basic to Better: Evolving with Ann Arbor's Needs

In 2017, we provided a training guide and how-to for the city to share with those involved in incident submission and safety reporting. It included a basic hotline number that transcribed incident details, triggering the creation of an incident report. 

While we had some basic tasking, automation was limited. We offered a library of forms, including a First Report of Injury, OSHA 301, and claim submission details. Relevant questions were triggered based on the injury type, but the main goal was to move everything online, which we successfully achieved. After a few months of training and use, we started capturing basic metrics like incident frequency and lag time, establishing a baseline for future measurement.

A Thriving Partnership Today and Beyond

Today, Ann Arbor records incidents and claims across 33 business units and multiple lines of coverage. Analytics have expanded beyond incidents and claims to include business productivity, measuring task completion times to drive accountability. Due to the nature of municipal operations, we regularly train new employees, contractors, and third parties on the system. 

As a valued partner, we encourage and receive ongoing feedback on how to better engage these users. We're constantly brainstorming ways the Aclaimant RMIS can support the city's daily operations, not just during reactive incident management. We're excited for the next eight years and incredibly grateful for this partnership!

To learn more about Aclaimant, visit our solutions page or schedule a demo with our team.