Connected Claims Control Panel Overview

What is the Control Panel?

The Control Panel is the workspace where administrators and claims managers configure every part of your organization's claims process, from data fields to forms, using no-code tools. The Control Panel is embedded directly in the Connected Claims application rather than hosted as a separate site, so administrators configure claims without leaving Connected Claims.

Connected Claims consists of two parts: Workspace and the Control Panel. Workspace is where claim workers and business users carry out their claims responsibilities. The Control Panel is where administrators define the claim types, workflows, products, and templates that Workspace users work within.

This page provides a high-level overview of the Control Panel and the configurations it provides.

Why use the Control Panel?

The Control Panel gives claims managers and business analysts direct control over claims configuration without requiring developer assistance. Connected Claims administrators gain the following advantages:

• No-code configuration: Claims managers and business analysts create claim types, workflows, products, and email templates through guided experiences instead of writing expressions or editing design objects.
• Centralized administration: Claims configuration lives in a single workspace, which removes the context switching that a separate administration site requires.
• Permission-controlled access: Access to the Control Panel is governed by Connected Claims groups, so only designated administrators can change claims configuration. See Configure security for the groups that grant Control Panel access.
• Faster time to market: Because claim types, products, and coverage configurations are business-user editable, launching a new claims product does not require a development cycle.

Control Panel navigation

The Control Panel organizes claims configuration into five sections. Each section groups the related configuration for one area of the claims process, and you select a section from the Control Panel navigation pane.

Section	Purpose	Tabs in this section
Claims	Create and manage claim categories, claim types, their data fields, their interfaces, and the rules that assign claims.	Overview, Data, Interfaces, Automation Rules
Tasking	Create and manage the tasks and task blocks used in your claims workflows.	Tasks, Task Blocks
Questionnaire	Create and manage the question bank and the surveys assembled from it.	Questions, Surveys
Email Templates	Create and manage the reusable email templates used by send email tasks across your claims workflows.	None
Policy Setup	Configure your lines of business and the products and cost categories associated with each line of business.	Line of Business, Products, Cost Categories

Claims

The Claims section of the Control Panel provides access to your claim categories, your claim types, and the global data fields common to every claim type. Claims consists of four tabs: Overview, Data, Interfaces, and Automation Rules. The Overview tab shows the All Claim Categories and Claim Types page.

A claim category is a container that organizes similar or related claim types and shares common data fields across them. A claim type is a smaller container that holds the claim-specific data, tasks, and workflow for a set of claims. For example, a workers compensation claim category might contain a lost time claim type. When a claimant involved in a workplace incident submits a lost time request, the request becomes a new claim of that claim type and starts the workers compensation workflow.

From the All Claim Categories and Claim Types page, you can perform the following actions:

• View categories and types: View all claim categories and every claim type within each category.
• Filter by status: Show or hide inactive claim categories and claim types.
• Create a claim category: Create a new claim category to group related claim types.
• Create a claim type: Create a new claim type within a claim category.
• Open a claim category: Open a claim category to view and edit its details and its category-level data fields.
• Open a claim type: Open a claim type to configure its details, data, intake form, workflow, and summary page.

For the steps to create and configure claim categories and claim types, see Create claim categories and types.

Claim category configuration

When you open a claim category, the same four tabs available on the Claims section apply to that category. The Overview tab shows the category description and every claim type that belongs to the category. The Data tab shows the category-level data fields shared across all claim types in that category. The Interfaces and Automation Rules tabs scope their configuration to the category.

Use the Hide Inactive toggle to show or hide inactive claim types in the category.

Claim type configuration

A claim type adds a Details tab and a Workflow tab to the four tabs available on a claim category, for six tabs in total. The following table describes what each tab controls.

Tab	What it controls	Where users see the result
Overview	The claim type description.	The claim type description in the Control Panel.
Data	The data fields specific to this claim type, plus the category-level and global data fields the claim type inherits.	Claim data throughout Workspace.
Interfaces	The intake form, the edit form, and the summary page for this claim type.	The claim creation, claim editing, and claim summary experiences in Workspace.
Automation Rules	The rules that assign and reassign claims of this claim type.	Claim assignment and routing in Workspace.
Details	The claim type prefix, the default service level agreement (SLA) and priority applied to new claims, and the products linked to the claim type.	Claim records of this claim type in Workspace.
Workflow	The tasks, automations, and milestones that make up the claim process for this claim type.	The task list and milestone tracker on a claim in Workspace.

The Details tab groups its settings into three sections. Details holds the claim type prefix, which Connected Claims applies to the claim identifier. Default Values holds the SLA in business days and the priority applied to new claims of this claim type. Products lists each product linked to the claim type, along with the product's status, its line of business, and when it was created. To change any of these settings, click Update Details.

Claim type intake forms are built with the form builder, a set of drag-and-drop tools for assembling a form without code. After you create a form, a low-code developer can open it as an interface in Appian Designer and customize it further. For the steps to build a form, see Create forms.

Claim type workflows are a series of tasks and automations that claims adjusters and the system perform to process a claim. Each task represents one action in the claim process, such as reviewing the claim intake form, verifying coverage, or completing a fraud questionnaire. The Control Panel displays a real-time visualization of the workflow that updates as you add, remove, or reorder tasks. Milestones are optional color-coded categories that visually group related tasks.

To automate progression through a workflow without human intervention, add workflow automations. See Add workflow automations to a claim type.

Automation rules

Getting the right claims to the right teams quickly is one of the most common challenges claims supervisors face, and distributing that work evenly across a team is another. Assigning and routing claims by hand is slow and error-prone, and it can leave work unevenly distributed, which reduces productivity and lengthens the time from claim intake to settlement.

The Automation Rules tab addresses this by letting you define rules that assign and route claims automatically. Each rule combines a trigger, one or more conditions, and an action. Rules are evaluated sequentially based on their order in the list, so the order you arrange them in determines which rule applies when more than one could match.

From the Automation Rules tab, you can perform the following actions:

• Create a rule: Click CREATE RULE to define a new trigger, condition, and action.
• Reorder rules: Move a rule up or down to change where it falls in the evaluation order.
• Turn a rule on or off: Use the rule's toggle to activate or deactivate it without deleting it.
• Edit a rule: Open a rule to change its trigger, conditions, or action.

When you open a rule, the Control Panel presents its configuration in three numbered steps. Trigger is the event that causes the rule to evaluate, such as when a claim is created or updated. Conditions are the criteria that must be met for the action to complete, such as a claim closure reason being equal to a specific value. Action is what takes place when the conditions are met, such as assigning or reassigning a claim to a group, a role, or a named user.

Tasking

The Tasking section of the Control Panel is where you create and manage the reusable building blocks of your claims workflows. Tasking consists of two tabs: Tasks and Task Blocks.

Tab	What you create	Why it matters
Tasks	Reusable tasks with details, group ownership, service level agreements (SLAs), and costs.	Tasks represent the individual actions claim workers take to complete a claim workflow.
Task Blocks	Groups of tasks organized into reusable logical units.	Task blocks create flexible pathways in a workflow and can be reused across claim types and claim categories.

For the steps to create tasks and task blocks, see Create tasks and task blocks.

Questionnaire

The Questionnaire section of the Control Panel is where you build the question bank and assemble questions into surveys. Questionnaire consists of two tabs: Questions and Surveys.

Tab	What you create	Why it matters
Questions	A reusable bank of questions organized by response type.	Questions supply the content for surveys and other structured data collection in the claims process.
Surveys	Custom surveys assembled from the question bank.	Surveys collect structured responses at specific points in a claim workflow, and can be assigned as tasks.

Question types

The Questions tab in the Control Panel supports the following question types:

• Short Text: Questions that request a concise response, such as a word or phrase.
• Long Text: Questions that request a detailed, explanatory response, such as one or more paragraphs.
• Number-Integer: Questions that prompt for a numerical answer within a specified range or value.
• Date and Time: Questions that request a date and time response.
• Multiple Choice: Questions that offer a selection of answer options, from which one or more options can be selected.
• Single Select Dropdown: Questions that present a dropdown of answer choices, from which one option can be selected.

Each question has an active status that determines whether the question is available for use in a survey. For the steps to configure surveys and questions, see Set up the Survey and Question module.

Policy Setup

The Policy Setup section of the Control Panel is where you define your insurance product catalog and the cost structure that applies to it. Policy Setup consists of three tabs: Line of Business, Products, and Cost Categories.

Lines of business

Insurers use a line of business (LOB) to classify and organize similar groups of products and services. The Line of Business tab in the Control Panel lets you define the lines of business for your organization's insurance products and claims, then link each line of business to claim types and products. Linking a line of business to claim types and products reduces the manual configuration a new claim product requires.

Each line of business has an active or inactive status that controls whether the line of business is available for use. The Line of Business tab lists each line of business with its status, and supports keyword search and filtering by status.

Products

A product defines an insurance type available under a line of business (LOB). The Products tab in the Control Panel lets you create products within a designated line of business and link each product to one or more claim types. For example, within an automobile line of business, products might include Liability Only, which covers damage to another person's vehicle or property in an accident where the policyholder is at fault, and Comprehensive Automobile, which adds coverage for theft, vandalism, and damage to the policyholder's own vehicle.

The Products tab lists each product with the line of business and claim types it belongs to, and supports keyword search and filtering by line of business, claim type, or active status.

Cost categories

A cost category classifies an insurance-related expense during the claims process and associates that expense with one or more lines of business (LOBs). The Cost Categories tab in the Control Panel lets you create cost categories and set the scope of each one to either All LOBs or Specific LOBs.

Each cost category has an active or inactive status. If a cost category is no longer needed, then set its status to inactive to remove it from your claims process without deleting it. The Cost Categories tab supports keyword search and filtering by line of business or status.

Email Templates

The Email Templates section of the Control Panel is where you create and manage reusable, no-code email templates. Claims workflows send standardized emails through tasks of the send email task type, and each of those tasks uses an email template.

Emails sent from a Connected Claims workflow require human input or approval before sending, which lets you add claim-specific and recipient-specific information such as a claimant name or a claim ID. Connected Claims sends all workflow emails from a no-reply address.

To create an email template from the Email Templates page:

1. Click CREATE EMAIL TEMPLATE.
2. Configure the following template properties:
   • Name: The name of the email template.
   • Subject: The subject line of the email.
   • Body: The content of the email.
3. (Optional) If the email requires attachments, upload Supporting Documents.
4. Click CREATE.

For more detail on email template configuration, see Create email templates.

Who can access the Control Panel

Access to the Connected Claims Control Panel is controlled by Connected Claims system groups. Only members of the groups designated for claims administration can open the Control Panel and change claims configuration. Workspace users without Control Panel access continue to work in Workspace without seeing claims configuration.

For the full list of Connected Claims groups and the access each group grants, see Configure security.

Control Panel versus Workspace

Connected Claims separates claims administration from daily claims work. The following table describes which part of Connected Claims to use for a given goal.

Goal	Where to go	Typical user
Define a new claim type, workflow, or product	Control Panel	Claims administrator, claims manager, business analyst
Change the fields on an intake form or claim summary	Control Panel	Claims administrator, claims manager, business analyst
Create and manage email templates and surveys	Control Panel	Claims administrator, claims manager, business analyst
Create, process, and resolve an individual claim	Workspace	Claims adjuster, claims supervisor
Complete a task assigned to you or your group	Workspace	Claims adjuster, claims supervisor
Review claim data, comments, and documents	Workspace	Claims adjuster, claims supervisor

For a full description of daily claims work, see Workspace overview.

Feedback