New and Improved RMIS

Risk & Insurance, May, 2001 by Tom Starner

Newer software products are giving traditional risk management information systems enhanced capabilities. Here's a look at some of what's available.

In the delicate, yet critical relationship between technology and insurance, there are some applications that no one--risk manager, claims professional, carrier, broker--can do without. Risk management, claims management, policy issuance--all those major functions require the proper technology, mainly in the form of high-end, complex software applications.

Apart from those major systems, however, there are other tools out there that can make risk managers or insurance companies better at what they do. You might call them, as some do, "bolt-on" applications--specialized, niche software and hardware that will potentially give users a leg up on the competition.

One new product in this area, Ki4 QwikTrac (QT), comes from a company called Entegra, based in Oak Brook, Ill. Ki4 QwikTrac is an information risk tracking solution for any organization that has an interest in collecting and maintaining all its risk and "reputation" data in a central database. In other words, it's an enterprisewide incident management system that cuts across all company departments and locations.

"What we're trying to address is what you might call an 'enterprise incident' system," says Jim Kartalia, Entegra president. "From our conversations with the smallest to the largest corporations, right now there is no single incident management system that cuts across all departments."

So why is that important? Kartalia says that the way most organizations work, ethics is tracked by one application, auditing by another, health and safety by another, etc. "Typically, there is no single application that can function as a data consolidator, working across departments, used by anyone who has to report, investigate and manage incidents," he says. "It's important to have an early warning system that can handle everything from sexual harassment to a leaking pipe in a chemical plant."

In other words, an "incident" is anything is or could become an insurance claim. Incidents are entered into QwikTrac, which gives users from a variety of management levels--risk management compliance, ethics, operations, facilities, HR, auditing and information security--a companywide risk incident tracking system.

"What struck us is that this entry level type of application had not been developed before, but it was just common sense," Kartalia says. He adds that Entegra found one retailer using 40 different spreadsheet or database applications working at once to track incidents. "For a risk manager, if the job is to work with insurers and identify risk and help prevent them in the future, they don't have an enterprise application tool."

QwikTrac is designed to help track information on fraud, harassment, workplace violence, ergonomic injuries, good business contact violations, environmental hazards, workplace accidents--any incident that could turn into an insurance claim.

QwikTrac is a "lite" version of Entegra's more established Ki4 Reputation-Risk system (RRS), and as such is offered at a much lower entry price ($1,100 for RRS per user, $399 for QwikTrac). It's currently offered as a traditional client-server application, running on either of Microsoft's two database products, SQL server (enterprise) or MSDE (desktop). It also offers a browser interface, but it limits a browser-based user to viewing data, not inputting or manipulating it. Currently, Entegra is in the process of creating an application services provider (ASP) version, so all users would need is a browser and a Web connection to completely distribute and access the application.

Kartalia says a 40,000-employee corporation, for example, is currently looking at offering the ASP version to each of its employees. Of course, the security issue is critical, since the database could contain some very damaging information. Kartalia says the company will continue to offer both versions, client-server and Web-hosted.

"The value is that QwikTrac allows the entire company to get involved in building a potential risk database," Kartalia says. "It can easily collect information across the enterprise, and serve as an early warning system to make sure an entity is covering all the bases."

QwikTrac also could be offered as a "private label," value-added service by carriers to their insureds, an idea that Kartalia is currently developing.

"Risk managers can use it, but certainly an insurance company could private label the application," he says. "From what our customers tell us, no insurer is offering something like this. It fits right into a smart risk management strategy, and it's an inexpensive product."

Palm and Workers' Comp

While there has been no lack of speculation about how the Palm and other personal digital assistants (PDA) will make life easier for insurance professionals in a direct way (aside from being a scheduler and contact list holder, that is), there hasn't been much evidence of it happening yet. NIIT, a global e-business solutions provider based in India, recently partnered with iCOMP Health Management, Atlanta, Ga., to create a new Web-based application that integrates Palm hand-held and centralized information sharing into RMIS applications--specifically the workers' compensation claims management process.