Aviva efficiency plans hinge on BPM and social software

Collaboration technologies will play a central role in the cost-cutting

strategy at insurance group Aviva, formerly Norwich Union, as the company seeks

to reduce spending by £500m by 2010.

The group has embarked on a process documentation and information sharing

drive in support of its One Aviva programme ­ a plan launched in 2007 that aims

to make the disparate parts of the group work smarter and better.

One initiative will see Aviva extend its use of business process management

(BPM) software, to create a platform that can map its processes and improve

collaboration. Another system, to be implemented onsite, will improve its

ability to design, execute and modify processes.

“Achieving excellence in using tools such as BPM, to do more for less, is one

of the projects we will be driving hard this year, as well as introducing

rock-solid, preventative risk management controls,” said Toby Redshaw, chief

information officer at Aviva.

Redshaw said improvements in the Lombardi-supplied platform are a priority as

the company seeks to build what it calls a process asset library featuring

reusable problem-solving information. He added the library will enable faster

decision-making and generate short-term cost efficiencies.

“I am very pleased that the work we have done in this area is truly helping

the business become more competitive,” he said.

Aviva has previously used BPM software to fine-tune its human resources

processes, such as staff recruitment and relocation, and to improve its quality

management procedures. In the latter case, the technology is used to take

comments made on Aviva’s UK insurance web site to provide a feedback mechanism

for service quality.

In addition, the company is optimistic about the internal adoption of a

separate, searchable wiki, which was launched last summer to improve sharing of

employee knowledge and support integration of the different parts of the group.

“Only leading-edge businesses are getting the real value of collaboration

technologies ­ you won’t find another company in the sector with fully

rolled-out capabilities to the level that we have,” said Redshaw.

“Social media helps introduce a global business culture and it connects staff

much more efficiently than getting people to wear a company T-shirt. Our

employees love it and it is great from a cost perspective as it has a zero

training footprint.”

Taken from here