Do we need a new system? A Case of Halflah Insurance Company Pvt. Ltd.

Teaching Notes Synopsis

Halflah Insurance Company Pvt. Ltd. is a local organization with its offices in three different cities. It provides medical insurance services to employees of different companies though their organizations. Because of few competitors it has good market share and financial performance is good. The existing processes of receiving and processing medical insurance claims were manual since the start of company. The employees and clients were satisfactorily working in this system. Each client organization on the behalf of its employees filed claims at the end of every month which were processed by the company in 50 to 60 days. When Mr. Khalid Salman joined the company as CEO, he decided to replace the manual processes with a highly automated solution. This was something highly unexpected and sudden for employees as well as clients. In new system clients were required to file claims online and employees were required to process claims online without any involvement of paper work. For people who were used to manual work only and had little proficiency in computers, working on such a highly automated solution was big ask. So a fuss was created on both ends (employees and clients).

Teaching Objectives
This case focuses mainly upon the implementation of change initiative and managerial decision making. This case may be helpful for students to comprehend the following: Importance of unfreezing the situation before implementing change. Importance of employee involvement in change management process.

Role of leadership in successful change management program. Importance of employee training in changing work environments. Reasons of failure in change management initiatives. Understand the dynamics of managerial decision making.

Discussion Questions
1. How do you analyze CEOs decision of computerization when every thing was being done smoothly in manual form? CEOs decision of computerization may be analyzed under the light of efficiency and effectiveness of new system. Specially the benefits towards clients that they will receive their claimed amount within 5 days instead of 25 days. 2. Do you think CEO had implemented too much change at once? The change could be carried out in a different way. Firstly only internal processes could have been changed and then in next phase clients should have been involved. This means that to start with, only claim processing system could have been automated and then in next phase claim filing system could be changed. 3. How CEOs change initiative can be mapped with Levins change management model of unfreezing, changing and refreezing the situation? Lewins change management model consists of three steps; unfreezing, changing and refreezing the situation. Khalid did not make any substantial effort to create awareness for change amongst employees and clients. He did not properly unfreeze the situation. He had no clear change management plan. 4. What are the real reasons of problems faced by employees and clients? Student responses may vary but following could be the reasons: For Employees: No understanding why change was required. Poor commitment towards the change initiative. 2

Lack of formal training to use the system

For Clients Increased work on their part. No proper know how of system

5. What could have been done differently to better implement the change? First employees and clients should be realized that why change is required and what benefits it could give to the organization and clients. Then they should be given formal training to work on the new system. It would be much better if system had been implemented in phases.

Tips for Case Analysis

The instructor should encourage the students for discussion and brainstorming on following aspects of the case: Identify the issue presented in the case. Discus different courses of action that could have been taken to solve the problem. Students can be asked to thoroughly analyze the decision taken by CEO of company from the perspective of organization, employees and clients. Students can also be asked to take up the role of CEO and how they would proceed to solve the issue.