The Client and Its Challenge
An international and industrial brand management company with an annual turnover of $3 billion, more than 22,000 employees in thirty-one countries and products and services sold in over ninety countries decided it needed to implement a quality Risk Management Information System (RMIS). The company, and its employees, provide the vital link between manufacturer and customer, adding value through sales, after market support and the provision of total solutions to customer needs.

The need for a quality RMIS encompassed more than just the desire to track traditional information, such as claims, for the company’s local operations; it required similar capabilities for its international operations as well.

A local third-party administrator (TPA) had handled the company’s local claim administration needs for several years, providing monthly reports on claims, payments and policy erosions using a DOS-based system. However, in March 2001, the company’s risk management department began to plan its strategy for the future, where it identified the need for a risk management information system (RMIS) that was scalable, centralized, web-accessible, integrated and globa1.

The company was seeking an RMIS that would be robust enough to track the high volume of annual claims and maintain a history of prior claims. It would need to be centralized so as to be a repository for national and international data, as well as make risk management information available to local and international users via the Internet. The RMIS also needed to consolidate claims, incidents, risk control, policy and location management, and facilitate data collection for renewal purposes.

It was clear that a DOS-based system would not be able to accommodate the informational and international needs of the company.

The Risk Consulting Solution
STARS was able to meet all of the company’s above requirements for its RMIS, as well as provide additional upgrades. STARS ASP was selected as the RMIS solution to manage the new risk management strategy, in conjunction with STARS Web.

Due to the size of the project, the implementation of STARS was phased. Phase I, completed on November 1, 2001, tailored STARS to handle all renewal information for the 2001-2002 period. In addition to the renewal information, STARS was customized to track all claims for the company.

The company had custom work done on its STARS ASP installation, including the design and implementation of custom reports for requesting claim payments and for providing valuable feedback to in the format required.

Results
This STARS project continues to move apace. All claims management has been successfully handled via STARS, the renewal information is being inputted in the location manager, and STARS Web has been implemented for low-end users, allowing access to the data from anywhere in the world, via the Internet.