For a large insurance company

Modernizing legacy infrastructure with dynamic IBM OpenPages GRC solutions

Client Profile

The client is a leading global reinsurer, providing comprehensive solutions and services to assist insurance companies in risk management. Established in 1970, the company is headquartered in Paris and operates from 38 office locations, extending its presence to 160 countries across Africa, the Americas, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. Independently evaluated by reputable rating agencies, the client consistently ranks among the top-rated reinsurance companies worldwide, further affirming its industry reputation and reliability.

Project Overview

The client had already been using a GRC solution that was not well maintained. In its current state, enhancing and customizing the old solution to make it suitable for internal users and meet business objectives was nearly impossible. The client was looking for a new solution and was ready to invest since they aimed to build a strong foundation and prevent potential future losses.

Challenges

The critical challenge for the client was user acceptance. They wanted more and more of their internal users to use the new solution. To make this happen, the client was looking for the following:

A highly versatile tool: The client was looking for a highly adaptable tool to accommodate the methodology tied to their internal controls.

A cross-border solution: They needed a global solution for their teams in all of their locations worldwide.

An intuitive system: The client was looking for a user-friendly system to get more acceptance from the business side of their operations.

Solution

With adaptability as their primary criterion for selecting a solution provider, the client chose the OpenPages with Watson platform to fulfill their requirements. This platform equips business users with integrated functionalities, enabling them to document processes and conduct self-assessments of operational risk. The client was also offered lab services to customize and integrate the solution and provided training on the platform for key stakeholders.

Initially implemented within the risk division, the OpenPages with Watson platform proved beneficial and was subsequently adopted by the compliance division. The client’s fully deployed solution includes the following components:

Operational risk: The IBM OpenPages Operational Risk Management module facilitates assessments, manages internal control processes, addresses data quality management requirements, and documents processes.

Compliance: The IBM OpenPages Loss Event Entry module addresses compliance concerns related to loss events.

Policy management: The IBM OpenPages Policy and Compliance Management module manages the entire lifecycle of internal guidelines.

By leveraging the comprehensive capabilities of the OpenPages with Watson platform, the client enhances their operational risk management, compliance practices, and policy management, improving overall efficiency and effectiveness.

Business Outcome

By implementing the OpenPages with Watson solution, the client accomplished its primary objective of promoting wider acceptance and utilization of the GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) solution throughout the enterprise. Internal users have embraced the solution and are now requesting the deployment of additional tools on the platform. Several benefits have been realized by the client, including:

Reduced repetitive tasks: The new solution significantly decreases the effort required from process owners within the company. Through the OpenPages with Watson platform, more detailed and effective self-assessments related to operational risk are created, leading to a notable reduction in the number of repetitive actions performed by business users.

Decreased manual work: The solution eliminates the need for specific manual tasks, such as labor-intensive data crunching during system entries.

Independent reporting: The client can now independently produce reports, enabling them to add new fields and generate reports based on those fields without relying on third-party assistance as they did previously.

Streamlined governance: The OpenPages with Watson platform greatly streamlines and expedites the efforts of the senior management team responsible for corporate governance. Through IBM OpenPages, the client empowers global function owners with a tool that enables risk management to function as a business enabler.

Seamless rollout of risks and controls: The client’s global function can easily define complete global processes, including the minimum set of risks and controls, and effortlessly deploy them to various locations for adoption by local process owners.

With these advantages, the client experiences enhanced operational efficiency, improved risk management capabilities, and greater autonomy in reporting and governance processes throughout the organization.