Ventiv Technology

360º | Aon eSolutions 9 How did you start your career in the insurance industry? I joined a company that specialized in construction insurance called Federated Employers Insurance Association Ltd. That was in September 1968 as a property underwriter, checking policy wordings. Wording had to be rigorously checked, and that meant reading it aloud to somebody else, or them reading it to you. Even now I can still recite the standard exclusions. I then headed up a department that was responsible for underwriting property risk and a claims unit, before being enticed to join Fairclough Construction Group Ltd. in 1977. And how did you come to join AMeC? By 1984 I'd progressed to become Deputy Head of Insurance, at which time Fairclough merged with the William Press Group, another construction company. One of the consequences of the merger was a rebranding exercise, which resulted in AMEC being formed. How was risk and insurance data managed in those days? When I joined it was all manual paper records, as we didn't have computers. Just before the merger we had started to look at computerizing data management, with some old clunky main frame computers. By the mid 80s, we'd got the first of two risk management systems, which were written in house at AMEC. what led you to look externally for a risk management information system (rMiS)? The need came out the merger, which meant we had twice the number of claims and twice the number of policies. We needed to control the volume of data in a faster and more proficient way. There was also the question of cost, to ensure our in-house system kept pace with rapidly changing and emerging technologies and new operating systems. The other issue was what I refer to as the triangle challenge, which we wanted to reproduce in our risk management information system. By computerizing this we could automatically, and correctly, link thousands of policies to thousands of contracts and to any claims that were made. Back in the nineties, this was extremely difficult, but we knew if we could make if work it would save a huge amount of time. So before the risk management information system was implemented, how much time was spent manually processing data? I suppose, on and off, a department of eight people got involved in that exercise. A lot of our job was about data; of course, renewals come along, and there are policy negotiations to do, but the main 365 days of the year time was spent managing a huge volume of data manually or with archaic computer systems. And, with the merger, the volume literally doubled overnight. And was that to the detriment of other responsibilities of the department? There would have been far too much time spent managing the data, which would take the eye off the ball on policy wordings, relationships and claims negotiation generally. And that wasn't a price we were willing to pay. So a decent computer system was the answer. what lead you to choose Aon eSolutions, or Anistics as it was known then, and did you look at other products then? Yes, we did and we met Anistics in 1992. But, the decision to go with Anistics was without question because of the people. The capability and style was impressive, and here was an organization that clearly understood our needs, understood insurance, and was also very aware of what technology could do. So, we were confident that ARIS (Anistics risk management information system) could deliver what we wanted. A winning partnership in a changing world In a career spannIng 43 Years, alan swallow, the now retIred corporate head of Insurance at amec, the gloBal engIneerIng consultancY and proJect management serVIces gIant, has seen a faIr amount of change—new Insurance legIslatIon, pcs, wIndows, the adVent of the Internet and Increase In no-wIn no fee claIms —to mentIon Just a few. howeVer, one constant has Been hIs trust In aon esolutIons' to proVIde a rIsk management sYstem, whIch formed a VItal part of hIs organIzatIons' operatIonal kIt for manY Years. we InterVIewed alan to look Back at hIs career and hIs 20-Year partnershIp wIth aon esolutIons.

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