Ventiv Technology

1 8 | 360º Aon eSolutions rough a combination of organic expansion and complementary acquisitions, annual sales for Austrian- based ANDRITZ GROUP, a global manufacturing, technology and services company, have grown by approximately 15 percent per year, on average, since 2000. Along with this growth (including more than 30 acquisitions and joint ventures), ANDRITZ experienced a challenge common to high-growth companies: the efficient aggregation and analysis of loss and exposure data. e ANDRITZ insurance department is co-directed by Monica Rifenburg in Roswell, Ga., and Werner Lindenthaler in Vienna, Austria. In 2007, ANDRITZ purchased the property and claims modules of RiskConsole from Aon eSolutions. Werner Lindenthaler and Stefan Brenner are responsible for the claims module. Rifenburg and Stefanie Paech are responsible for the property module. 360° spoke with Monica Rifenburg and Stefanie Paech about ANDRITZ's experience with the property module. According to Rifenburg, ANDRITZ's insurance team had previously relied on Excel- and Word-based manual processes to collect local property data and prepare statements of value: "We were doing it all by hand, which took a tremendous amount of time on the front end. Identifying and correcting the errors that inevitably arose from copying, pasting and inputting data was also time-consuming. We decided we needed a risk management information system (RMIS) that would streamline our processes and put us in a position to be confident in our figures and data." ANDRITZ had a clear vision not only of what it needed a RMIS to do on a functional level, but also what it wanted to achieve on a strategic level. As Paech explains: "We needed a RMIS to track all of our information in a single place, which would eliminate manual processes. At the results level, we wanted to ensure the accuracy, timeliness and comprehensiveness of the global risk management and insurance data that we present to management and to our underwriters. We felt certain we could optimize our brokerage and administrative costs by basing our risk and insurance decisions on the soundest possible data. With the property module we have reduced errors and established one central depository that can be accessed from all over the world, which allows us to track changes in values and easily filter data." ANDRITZ also needed a technology partner willing and able to develop and deploy a RMIS customized to the company's specific needs and organizational structures. "From the beginning, Aon eSolutions appreciated our unique situation," Rifenburg asserts. "We encountered challenges during implementation, which we expected due to the complexities of our system and organizational requirements, but the outcome has been good. Our customized version of the RiskConsole property module is based strictly on ANDRITZ's priorities and structures. What's more, Aon eSolutions continues to assist us in meeting needs as they emerge." ANDRITZ selected RiskConsole for its advanced functionalities as well as its flexibility. By selecting the RiskConsole property module, ANDRITZ has gained the data aggregation, consolidation and reporting capabilities to support a steadily growing global company. As the ANDRITZ team member working in the RiskConsole property module on a daily basis, Paech appreciates the flexibility of the system, especially when it comes to automating the conversion of property values from local currencies into euros. Rifenburg and Paech have utilized RiskConsole's property collections and valuation module as a key means of producing comprehensive underwriter information and keeping track of key personnel at ANDRITZ locations worldwide. Before deploying the property module, Paech manually updated the previous year's master spreadsheet prior to submissions and renewals. Working from approximately 140 spreadsheets (each with a total of five to six worksheets) provided we felt certain we could our Brokerage and administrative costs By Basing our risk and insurance decisions on the soundest possiBle data.

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