Risk & Insurance - April 2012

“TECHNOLOGY-BASED CHANGES COME WITH SOME TREPIDATION, BUT RISK MANAGERS MUST GET OUT IN FRONT OF THIS TREND.” — Sarah Pacini, vice present of risk management and insurance, Advocate Health Care Corp.

AP PHOTO/RYAN REMIORZ

THE FACTORY floor of a food production facility in Montreal. Companies from food manufacturers to healthcare providers are finding that they can automate mundane risk management tasks, freeing up resources for enterprise risk management.

; IN-DEPTH SERIES

Overcoming the Mundane

Companies eliminate manual tasks using risk management
information systems, and instead present critical data to the C-suite
so senior executives and boards can make better risk management
decisions. BY TOM STARNER

Over the past few months the staggering economy has shown signs of a pulse. Yet, even with that new glimmer of economic hope, the past three years have been so rocky for many organizations that risk managers today continue to live by the “do more with less” mantra—the seemingly de facto operating slogan for American businesses.

Of course, sometimes hardship and lean times can lead to innovation and progress. In the case of risk management, tough times have meant a more intense focus on harnessing systems and technology platforms to reduce or even eliminate the more mundane manual tasks associated with the risk management function.

According to some experts and risk managers, in
fact, technology advances—over the past few years
and those currently emerging—are finally giving risk
managers the power and opportunity to automate
the “mundane” administrative chores, allowing
them to be more strategic and focus on enterprise-
level risk management. The more risk managers
can harness these technologies, it seems, the more
valuable their contributions to the organization
become, and the more likely they will deliver
strategic value and gain credibility from senior
management—the end game being the proverbial
seat at the executive table.