Ventiv Technology

1 6 | 360º Aon eSolutions 1 6 | 360º Aon eSolutions As a result of its game-changing business model, OptaComp has successfully managed and reduced total program costs for clients, and thereby, achieved phenomenal growth in the market. In 2010, OptaComp realized it needed an equally advanced claims system to handle its large and ever-increasing volume of business. Leading the system selection and implementation was Bob Stolp, director of information technology at OptaComp We spoke with Stolp and key project leads about the successful and accelerated implementation of Aon eSolutions' iVOS claims system. "Our business model is innovative and aggressive, aimed at getting injured employees the treatment they need for a prompt recovery and early return to work," said Stolp. "Over time, our existing claims system had become outdated. In iVOS, we found a state-of-the-art platform that could provide advanced functionality and the flexibility to adapt to our unique business model and aggressive plans for expansion." HIGH STAKES & CLEAR OBJECTIVES From the start, the project had lofty objectives. e timeframe was tight. e system needed to go live in 36 weeks— before the company rang in 2011 with aggressive goals for growth and before the clock ran down on an existing software license. To drive this implementation, OptaComp teamed up with Aon eSolutions Professional Services. "At every turn, we forged a true partnership, working together to ultimately achieve the end goal of implementing iVOS by December 13," said Stephen omas, senior practice manager at Aon eSolutions. "To implement by this date, we needed to tightly manage the scope of our project," said Laura Geisel, project manager at OptaComp. "We invested significant internal resources and took the time to extensively map out our business processes; this laid the groundwork for clear system requirements and a precisely defined scope of work. At a minimum, we wanted to have the same functionality as we did in the old system, and also leverage iVOS' advanced 'out of the box' capabilities." "Many other clients experience scope creep as they include additional capabilities in production and they're forced to push out their implementation date," said Julie Walczak, project manager at Aon eSolutions. "In working with OptaComp, we used a very systematic process by which project changes were considered." "Many issues could be deferred until after implementation, at which point we'd have time to optimize iVOS to meet our needs. is minimized the risk of missing our target deadline," added Geisel. SIMULATION TESTING "At OptaComp, we have a very sophisticated IT environment with multiple web servers, numerous application servers, and clustered database servers—all of which helps to ensure, maximum security and a high level of system availability," said Scott Stanfield, technical lead at OptaComp. "Within this complex environment, we knew there could be challenges in introducing a new system." "To address these concerns, our business users agreed to help perform a company- wide simulation test, which we planned for a Saturday morning six weeks out from the 'go live' date," said Stanfield. "e users saved a day's worth of work and ran real-time transactions on iVOS. e first test failed, but by that same token, it was a success. We were able to identify issues— in regards to training, configuration and performance—in a simulated environment, which meant it wasn't damaging or interruptive to our business." "When these issues became apparent, Aon really stepped forward. e company flew out five of its top system architects and IT executives to help isolate and resolve the problem. We scheduled two additional tests, which then proved out the technology in our environment," said Stanfield. AN INNOVATIVE DATA CONVERSION STRATEGY Having implemented iVOS with many clients, Aon's practice manager omas knew companies often brought over millions of records. "It can take up to four days to complete the data conversion; it's the longest, most complex part of the implementation." With a four-day conversion, Stanfield, OptaComp's technical lead, realized the company would have to shut down operations during normal business hours. "We wanted to avoid this scenario, so we developed an innovative data conversion strategy. Aon was willing to try this new approach, which optimally leveraged both of our organizations' strengths. For example, since our analysts knew our data best, we decided to perform the analysis and cleanup ourselves. We utilized a staging table, into which we loaded our data and which resulted in one data format. Aon then performed the technical move into iVOS." OptaComp's project manager Geisel knew that once their old system went down, their license would expire and there was no going back. "We had to make the implementation work, so we performed extensive and detailed implementation task planning. Each member of our data conversion team was given specific responsibilities in handling the data before In the world of workers' compensation, OptaComp is no ordinary insurance provider. Its business model is pro-injured worker, pro-employer and pro-clinician, designed to drive optimal outcomes in both human and financial terms. Its key differentiator is a criteria-based decision-making process, by which it has defined and aligned the goals of employers and clinicians upfront, so all parties are aware of their respective roles and objectives in the process.

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