My Plan Manager uses automation to support four-digit client growth.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) provides funding for around 560,000 Australians living with disability. Many of these choose to navigate the scheme with the help of a plan manager.

One of the largest and fastest-growing companies in this space is My Plan Manager. Founded in 2014, My Plan Manager has grown organically and through the acquisition of Assist Plan Managers and National Disability Support Partners (NDSP). Together, they help more than 60,000 clients make the most of their funding while ensuring fast payment for service providers.

To help even more clients, My Plan Manager has turned to Salesforce to automate the claims experience. The business’s transformation has significantly reduced manual handling, enabling the team to support over 1,000 new clients per month. More importantly, it has set the business up to use AI + Data + CRM to redefine service excellence for the plan management sector.

Processing claims can be time-consuming and complex with many boxes to tick before payments are made. These include verifying service provider details and ensuring the client has appropriate funding for the services delivered.

In the past, My Plan Manager’s claims process involved a number of systems and a high degree of manual intervention. Data was distributed across the business, and it was difficult to scale without increasing headcount.

For My Plan Manager to grow more efficiently, it needed to increase automation. As a first step, it decided to consolidate systems and move all its data and workflow onto Salesforce. Now the entire business can work on one trusted platform with a single, shared view of client data. This data is also protected with the help of Shield and OwnBackup from the AppExchange.

In the future, AI Cloud and CRM Analytics could be used to uncover deeper and more actionable insights from the business’ data. For example, My Plan Manager could look for patterns to improve fraud detection or identify ways for clients to make the most of their funding.

"At every step our aim has been to deliver the best possible service to our clients, to service providers, and to the broader NDIS. The development of our data strategy has been a critical foundation,” said Jane Kittel, CEO, My Plan Manager. “We have become a truly data-driven organisation by bringing our data together in a structured way and developing our reporting and analytics capability to make the most of this data. We are now excited about the possibility of our data to further support and enhance fraud detection, to support better insights and outcomes for our clients, and to support a range of NDIS challenges.”

With support from consulting partners Cloudwerx and Ingenuity Partners, My Plan Manager has harnessed the power of the Salesforce platform to fully automate the claims experience.

The process starts with the online submission of invoices. These can be submitted by clients via a portal and mobile app built on Heroku or by service providers who have their own portal built on Experience Cloud.

The business rules engine in Service Cloud drives the process forward and enables the automatic approval of invoices meeting the outlined criteria. What’s more, invoices can be paid the very next day.

Now, 70% of invoices are processed without any manual intervention from My Plan Manager employees—saving 100,000 hours of processing time.

In addition, errors and re-work have been reduced as a result of the checks and balances built in. For example, duplicate invoices are spotted automatically meaning that the business no longer risks paying for the same service twice and having to spend time recovering funds.

With the time saved, team members can focus on higher-value tasks and support more clients. It also enables the business to grow efficiently through acquisition.

“As the market matures, there’s a fair amount of consolidation within the Plan Management space. We now have the ability to approach those wanting to exit the sector and provide an option to their clients to onboard onto our platform,” said Hilliard.

Speed of service is an important differentiator in the industry with the resulting referrals and advocacy helping My Plan Manager grow its business.

In addition to automating the claims experience, My Plan Manager uses Service Cloud to provide fast and efficient support to clients and service providers. Every incoming email and call generates a case and is automatically routed to the right employee. Cases are then tracked and managed in line with the business’ service level agreements.

The efficiency of case management combined with faster claims processing has led to a 20% reduction in inbound queries. This gives the team more time to handle complex cases.

My Plan Manager’s future plans include the rollout of Marketing Cloud. This will allow the business to consolidate marketing and communication onto one platform and fully leverage its data to automate and personalise activities like onboarding.

Hilliard shared that generative AI is also on the business’ roadmap with Service GPT providing the opportunity to personalise interactions in real-time and meet the unique needs of each and every client.

“The next step for us is to think about how we can deliver an even better experience for clients whose needs are so diverse. Combining the data and automation we have now with the opportunities presented by AI will help us to deliver that experience and redefine service excellence,” said Hilliard.