Before
- Fragmented contractor information & payroll
- Ambiguity in addressing payments & compliance issues
- Contractor information saved in multiple places
After
- Central source for identity & payment amounts, contracts
- Dedicated support to solve problems for CRU and adjusters
- Robust in-app reporting: reliable payments data; custom fields
Challenge
Founded in 2004 serving the property and casualty insurance industry, CRU GROUP was experiencing rapid growth as a result of its collaborative and client-centric approach, dubbed internally the “CRU Way.”
“The CRU Way is all about us striving to be a best-in-class claims company,” said U.S. COO Bret Peiffer.
"These values are deeply embedded across our entire organization and center around being nimble and easy for our clients and adjusters to do business with.”
At the time, the company was using a number of fragmented and manual tools to onboard and pay its independent adjusters, including everything from spreadsheets to platforms like Paycor and Evolution Global.
As a result, reporting and reconciliation processes for its 1099 workforce were incredibly cumbersome and caused the company’s back-office team dozens of hours each month. The company’s CEO David Repinski was also getting feedback from adjusters in the field who wanted a simpler way to view their payments status and update information for tax season.
With more than 1,000 independent adjusters across the U.S. and Canada, Repinski and Peiffer recognized an opportunity to rethink its adjuster experience as a way to drive better retention and differentiation in the crowded industry.
Solution
Given the dynamic nature of its business and the unpredictability of extreme weather and catastrophic events, Repinski and Peiffer were specifically looking for a technology partner who could support the company’s emphasis on responsiveness while also consolidating their 1099 workflows into a single platform.
“Our W-2 adjusters naturally have longer lead times when it comes to onboarding,” said Peiffer. “When it comes to our 1099 adjusters, when we call them today, it means we needed them yesterday.
"Our ability to be nimble and responsive is what sets us apart and the efficiency of our back office in many cases, determines how well we’re able to do that.”
The company needed a solution that could handle fast bulk payments and enable them to offload support for its thousands of adjusters. Another reason Wingspan appealed to CRU GROUP was its unique ability to offer their adjusters access to competitive health and financial benefits, typically only accessible to full-time W-2 employees. Those benefits included:
- Telemedicine, vision, dental and life insurance
- Financial management assistance including bookkeeping and banking features
- Access to Wingspan’s team for support on tax, accounting, and benefits
This would allow the company to better attract and retain independent adjusters while differentiating themselves from other claims adjustment companies in the industry. “We love the idea of providing adjusters and inspectors valuable health and advisory services,” said David Repinski, CEO of CRU Group. “Access to health services like telemedicine is crucial for adjusters on the road."
“It will be life-changing to connect our workers with specialists to guide them in healthcare, tax and legal matters.”
Results
In a few short months, the company’s been able to fully consolidate its onboarding, payment and compliance processes onto the Wingspan platform, resulting in massive efficiencies in its back office and a better experience for adjusters.
Identity and payment information, contracts and e-signatures are all now in one place, eliminating the need for multiple platforms and swivel seating. “It’s been a game-changer,” says Peiffer.
“We don’t need to manually create payment remittances anymore, everything is all in one system with Wingspan.”
That centralization has also transformed the company’s reporting and analytics processes, giving them richer data and insights which are informing key business decisions.
The self-service portal in particular has been instrumental in helping the company empower its adjusters with the visibility they need to better understand their payment status, tax information and more. “Wingspan helps us significantly reduce the number of calls we receive from our 1099 adjusters,” said Peiffer. “It’s saving our back-office team a ton of time and manual toil.”
- 25% reduction administrative IT/HR tasks due to consolidation of key platforms into a single source of truth that radically streamlines back office functions
- 2x faster onboarding due to a frictionless experience that allows adjusters to input their W-9 / W-8 and additional documentation directly into Wingspan
- Save 50+ hours a month on administrative work by empowering adjusters with a self-service portal they can use to access key payment and tax information
“We really appreciate the benefits of the Wingspan platform for servicing our all-important contractor partners,” said Repinski.
“Wingspan is filling a significant industry need with a world-class platform and we’re excited about the future of this partnership.”