Problem

By 2020 Bupa’s claims-recovery teams were looking to streamline processes that used spreadsheets, email threads and several niche applications. The approach made it hard to see the full lifecycle of an insurance case, introduced governance risk around personally identifiable information and became increasingly expensive to maintain as supporting infrastructure neared end-of-life. Bupa wanted a secure, modern solution that could streamline these activities, grow with future demand and be delivered without a disruptive multi-year program.

Solution

Phase 1 – Initial Build

SSW created Sentinel, a web application built on a distributed-services architecture. Rather than developing a complex drag-and-drop workflow engine, SSW and Bupa defined a concise set of process states that covered everyday scenarios while keeping the codebase lean.

The system was sized for roughly ten million records, providing ample headroom beyond the original estimate of one hundred thousand. A full Azure Active Directory integration supplied role-based access, detailed audit trails and a secure mode for internal fraud investigations.

Phase 2 – Modernisation and Consolidation

Bupa asked SSW to industrialise Sentinel for long-term use. The team upgraded the back end to .NET 8, moved the front end to the latest version of Angular and migrated document storage to SharePoint. A dedicated SQL Server instance, query refactoring and index tuning allowed the platform to handle hundreds of millions of records with acceptable response times.

Retiring an obsolete tool (“Can-do”) and onboarding additional teams turned Sentinel into a single point of truth for case management. Throughout the engagement SSW ran full Scrum.

Figure: Welcome Screen

Figure: Create a single case. The Case Type determines the attributes attached in the lower part of the screen.

Figure: Advanced Search on any attribute of a case already created.

Figure: Create Multiple Cases is for Hospital Case Types only, and allows us to create a handful of cases easily to the same provider:

Figure: Import Audit allows us via a CSV import to upload many cases, to adjust allowable inputs for different teams, and to upload audit findings:

Figure: Dashboard is for users to monitor timelines of cases.

Results

• Sentinel now recovers roughly three times more value than the previous process, representing additional savings for Bupa.
• Multiple claims teams share one application, reducing maintenance overhead and improving cross-team visibility.
• Robust security controls and audit history help Bupa meet governance obligations while protecting sensitive data.
• The delivery model demonstrated the benefits of iterative development.

Sentinel began as a tactical solution but has grown into a business-critical platform that safeguards revenue, strengthens compliance and provides a solid foundation for future innovation in claims management.