BPM helps insurance company improve risk and compliance behaviors
Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Company Australia Pty Ltd (ADICA) needed a way to integrate risk and compliance factors into its standard processes to ensure best practices were always followed. ADICA was also looking for software that would assist with meeting regulatory requirements and simplify training for new users.
ADICA enhances risk management capabilities and reformats processes to meet requirements
Nintex Process Manager ushered in a risk management culture at ADICA. In addition to automating and simplifying existing processes, Process Manager provided a way to integrate risk management and compliance into procedures. It also assists ADICA in meeting various regulatory obligations, linking them to corresponding business tasks.
When ADICA began underwriting operations as a locally incorporated subsidiary, the existing branch operations were scaled down and placed into run-off. This was the catalyst for ADICA’s decision to implement a business process management tool.
Nintex Promapp was identified as a tool that would enhance the risk management environment, through its ability to integrate risk and compliance requirements directly into processes, ensuring risk and compliance awareness becomes part of the organization’s everyday activities.
ADICA also identified Nintex Promapp to assist in meeting its obligations under the various regulatory and prudential regimes to which it is subject. As a general insurance company, ADICA is authorized to carry on general insurance business within Australia and is supervized by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). APRA oversees Australia’s authorized deposit-taking institutions, life and general insurance companies and superannuation funds.
A key objective of implementing Nintex Process Manager was to reduce business risk and facilitate the management of risk.
Why Nintex Process Manager?
“A key objective of implementing Nintex Process Manager was to reduce business risk and facilitate the management of risk,” says Narelle Iacono, Internal Audit and Risk Manager at ADICA. “Nintex Process Manager captures the risk description, business area, owner, inherent risk rating and residual risk rating of business risks in one centralized location.
“We are currently in the process of linking the risks with the mitigating policies/ procedures that have been documented within the system” says Iacono. “It is envisioned that in the near future an individual company risk, its mitigating process and any recommendations made (via audits and risk assessments) will be clearly linked for view within Nintex Process Manager , providing a visible audit trail.”
Having a clear and detailed audit trail of all processes, and amendments made to these, will assist ADICA in meeting their regulatory requirements, such as APRA.
Given ADICA is in a period of growth, the ability to quickly and easily train new users on the software also played a role in them choosing Nintex Process Manager . This will be an advantage to the company in the future too, as knowledge is captured in a central repository and retained when staff leave.
The key to successful risk management
Nintex Process Manager has supported a risk management culture at ADICA. Iacono explains: “Nintex Process Manager raises the awareness of risk management throughout the company and improves transparency of controls via the links between risks and processes. Each staff member can better understand the requirement behind a process based on its link to a risk.”
“Furthermore,” she says, “Our managers can now access the risk add-on, which allows for greater awareness of risks across the whole company and the potential impacts that they present, where previously a central spreadsheet was maintained by the risk department and managers were provided copies for their specific business area.”
Narelle has been impressed with the higher level of staff awareness and engagement of the business risks ADICA faces.
“With risks now linked to processes, staff members have become more aware of the potential risks associated with processes they follow. This has resulted in staff members from all levels approaching the risk department with queries and suggestions regarding risk mitigation.”
Improved risk and compliance behaviors
“Nintex Process Manager integrates risk and compliance requirements directly into processes, which has promoted risk and compliance awareness across the business to an everyday activity,” says Iacono. “It has helped document, enhance and share process knowledge from a central online repository and has contributed to process improvement by assisting the business to maintain processes via simplified process mapping.”
Visibility of processes and a clear audit trail
Having a central database for company policies and processes has been beneficial during audits. It allows for quick and easy access to processes and has increased the number of documented procedures now followed within the company. From a risk management perspective, it gives increased visibility via the risk register.
It also helps with version control and gives the risk team more assurance that all teams are working to the most recent, agreed-upon process. This puts the company in a stronger position when it comes to compliance. Recommendations made as a result of internal audits will likely be managed via Nintex Process Manager ’s improvement add-on.
Continuous improvement
Being a Japanese company, continuous improvement (Kaizen) is one of ADICA’s guiding principles. Iacono explains how this is achieved:”Nintex Process Manager helps us in facilitating a ‘common process’ across a department or the whole company and helps to drive continual improvement via the ‘Feedback – Suggest an improvement’ functionality that must be actioned by the process owner.”
