About Vizual Business Tools

Vizual Business Tools develops business process-driven software

solutions for all areas of workforce and people management. It

works with a number of leading organisations worldwide,

including Hilton, Regus, De La Rue, RIAS and Hastings Direct.

Contact us

If you would like to arrange a meeting to discuss how we can

begin to automate your processes and free up your time to focus

on your strategic concerns, or would like more information on

anything in this case study, please contact us on the details below.

Tel: 020 8663 4500

Email: sales@vizual.co.uk

Address: Vizual Business Tools plc, 2 Bromley Road,

Beckenham. Kent, BR3 5JE

www.vizual.co.uk

© Copyright Vizual Business Tools 2007.Vizual Business Tools endeavours to ensure that the information in thisdocument is correct and fairly stated, but does not accept liability for anyerrors or omissions.

Case StudyRIAS and HR.net

“HR.net has proved to be an

invaluable addition to our business,

providing a number of key benefits.

For example, one of the users of the

new system commented that a report

that previously took hours to compile

now took seconds. This is one of the

many tangible benefits the business

is now enjoying.”

Toby Chisnall, Programme Manager, RIAS

vzb_rias_case_study_20070515_07-10210.qxp 11/06/2007 17:17 Page 1

a Vizual case study Driven by you: the strategic future of HR solutions a Vizual case studyDriven by you: the strategic future of HR solutions

To learn more about implementing a fourth generation HR system, go to www.vizual.co.uk To learn more about implementing a fourth generation HR system, go to www.vizual.co.uk

Established in 1992, RIAS is the UK's fastest organically growingintermediary, offering home, motor and travel insurance products to theover 50s market. It negotiates rates and cover with a panel of insurers tosecure competitive, value for money products.The company has over840,000 customers and employs more than 1,000 people.

Part of The Fortis Group with total assets of over £700 billion, RIAS hasexperienced rapid growth delivering 20% year on year growth in bothincome and customers.

Introduction

Whilst the previous HR system utilisedwithin RIAS allowed for basic informationcapture and reporting, there was arequirement to improve performance anddata integrity, and to streamline processes,which were all paramount to the success ofthe HR function and the business. RIASneeded a system to provide self-service

benefits to the organisation, allowingemployees to take ownership of data, and forHR to devolve administrative responsibility to the business.The ability to consolidatebusiness information and improve data quality, leading to the production of moreeffective management information, was also a key project objective.

Challenge

As a web-based system, HR.net not only givesRIAS a highly scalable and dynamic framework,but also the opportunity to improve internaland external communications.Theimplementation of HR.net provided RIAS with an intranet which has quickly beenadopted as a key channel as part of its internal communications strategy.The systemhas allowed "communities" to be created,each with its own web page and access to

the intranet. HR.net allows a number of "mini portals" to be created, through whichvarious employee groups gain entry to boththe static and dynamic data they need.

Toby Chisnall, Programme Manager at RIAS comments, "Having worked with Vizual and HR.net, I can now see the potential to develop it as a business systemrather than just for HR."

Solution

As a consequence, HR.net has been used to support processes and changes withinRIAS, starting with the development of acompliance work package using the .NET framework.

Insurance regulation stipulates that RIASemployees must be competent to perform

their role within the organisation.As part of this, RIAS needs to collect evidence oftheir competence.The compliance workpackage developed allows the capture of call data within HR.net, allowing formanagement analysis whilst at the same time reducing duplication and improving data integrity.

Benefits

HR.net has a customisable workflow engine,databases and user interfaces, enablingorganisations to automate not only HRprocedures, but also other non-HR business

processes. Identifying the opportunities toexpand the capabilities of HR.net, phase two ofthe RIAS project will include a link to e-learningand even a portal for online recruitment.

Future plans

The module consists of the following parts;

The Monitoring Plan defines the callmonitoring activities that should take place.RIAS has a continuous programme of callmonitoring to provide assurance within theregulated environment, and with the use ofHR.net, prompts are issued and reportslooking at completion times and resourcingallocation are produced.

Part of the module provides notification of a potential rule breach, allowing anyemployee within the business to record anotification through the use of the self -service functionality within HR.net.The next development will make use of theintegral report writer within HR.net toensure that comprehensive data analysis can be produced.

Call Monitoring ensures that a call can beretrieved, listened to, and then an online formcan be completed in HR.net. Insurance

regulations require certain items to berelayed during each call. Carrying out callmonitoring and using the form within HR.netprovides a checklist of everything that has orhas not been mentioned.

Once the form has been submitted, thiscreates a call monitoring record, and HR.netcan then calculate how competent theindividual is based upon defined assessmentcriteria.There are a variety of reportsavailable for the compliance work package,and the next step is to use these tocommunicate management information to thebusiness in a simple and effective manner.

Toby Chisnall comments, "HR.net has provedto be an invaluable addition to our business,providing a number of key benefits. Forexample, one of the users of the new systemcommented that a report that previouslytook hours to compile now took seconds.This is one of the many tangible benefits thebusiness is now enjoying."

vzb_rias_case_study_20070515_07-10210.qxp 11/06/2007 17:18 Page 3

a Vizual case study Driven by you: the strategic future of HR solutions a Vizual case studyDriven by you: the strategic future of HR solutions

To learn more about implementing a fourth generation HR system, go to www.vizual.co.uk To learn more about implementing a fourth generation HR system, go to www.vizual.co.uk

Established in 1992, RIAS is the UK's fastest organically growingintermediary, offering home, motor and travel insurance products to theover 50s market. It negotiates rates and cover with a panel of insurers tosecure competitive, value for money products.The company has over840,000 customers and employs more than 1,000 people.

Part of The Fortis Group with total assets of over £700 billion, RIAS hasexperienced rapid growth delivering 20% year on year growth in bothincome and customers.

Introduction

Whilst the previous HR system utilisedwithin RIAS allowed for basic informationcapture and reporting, there was arequirement to improve performance anddata integrity, and to streamline processes,which were all paramount to the success ofthe HR function and the business. RIASneeded a system to provide self-service

benefits to the organisation, allowingemployees to take ownership of data, and forHR to devolve administrative responsibility to the business.The ability to consolidatebusiness information and improve data quality, leading to the production of moreeffective management information, was also a key project objective.

Challenge

As a web-based system, HR.net not only givesRIAS a highly scalable and dynamic framework,but also the opportunity to improve internaland external communications.Theimplementation of HR.net provided RIAS with an intranet which has quickly beenadopted as a key channel as part of its internal communications strategy.The systemhas allowed "communities" to be created,each with its own web page and access to

the intranet. HR.net allows a number of "mini portals" to be created, through whichvarious employee groups gain entry to boththe static and dynamic data they need.

Toby Chisnall, Programme Manager at RIAS comments, "Having worked with Vizual and HR.net, I can now see the potential to develop it as a business systemrather than just for HR."

Solution

As a consequence, HR.net has been used to support processes and changes withinRIAS, starting with the development of acompliance work package using the .NET framework.

Insurance regulation stipulates that RIASemployees must be competent to perform

their role within the organisation.As part of this, RIAS needs to collect evidence oftheir competence.The compliance workpackage developed allows the capture of call data within HR.net, allowing formanagement analysis whilst at the same time reducing duplication and improving data integrity.

Benefits

HR.net has a customisable workflow engine,databases and user interfaces, enablingorganisations to automate not only HRprocedures, but also other non-HR business

processes. Identifying the opportunities toexpand the capabilities of HR.net, phase two ofthe RIAS project will include a link to e-learningand even a portal for online recruitment.

Future plans

The module consists of the following parts;

The Monitoring Plan defines the callmonitoring activities that should take place.RIAS has a continuous programme of callmonitoring to provide assurance within theregulated environment, and with the use ofHR.net, prompts are issued and reportslooking at completion times and resourcingallocation are produced.

Part of the module provides notification of a potential rule breach, allowing anyemployee within the business to record anotification through the use of the self -service functionality within HR.net.The next development will make use of theintegral report writer within HR.net toensure that comprehensive data analysis can be produced.

Call Monitoring ensures that a call can beretrieved, listened to, and then an online formcan be completed in HR.net. Insurance

regulations require certain items to berelayed during each call. Carrying out callmonitoring and using the form within HR.netprovides a checklist of everything that has orhas not been mentioned.

Once the form has been submitted, thiscreates a call monitoring record, and HR.netcan then calculate how competent theindividual is based upon defined assessmentcriteria.There are a variety of reportsavailable for the compliance work package,and the next step is to use these tocommunicate management information to thebusiness in a simple and effective manner.

Toby Chisnall comments, "HR.net has provedto be an invaluable addition to our business,providing a number of key benefits. Forexample, one of the users of the new systemcommented that a report that previouslytook hours to compile now took seconds.This is one of the many tangible benefits thebusiness is now enjoying."

vzb_rias_case_study_20070515_07-10210.qxp 11/06/2007 17:18 Page 3

About Vizual Business Tools

Vizual Business Tools develops business process-driven software

solutions for all areas of workforce and people management. It

works with a number of leading organisations worldwide,

including Hilton, Regus, De La Rue, RIAS and Hastings Direct.

Contact us

If you would like to arrange a meeting to discuss how we can

begin to automate your processes and free up your time to focus

on your strategic concerns, or would like more information on

anything in this case study, please contact us on the details below.

Tel: 020 8663 4500

Email: sales@vizual.co.uk

Address: Vizual Business Tools plc, 2 Bromley Road,

Beckenham. Kent, BR3 5JE

www.vizual.co.uk

© Copyright Vizual Business Tools 2007.Vizual Business Tools endeavours to ensure that the information in thisdocument is correct and fairly stated, but does not accept liability for anyerrors or omissions.

Case StudyRIAS and HR.net

“HR.net has proved to be an

invaluable addition to our business,

providing a number of key benefits.

For example, one of the users of the

new system commented that a report

that previously took hours to compile

now took seconds. This is one of the

many tangible benefits the business

is now enjoying.”

Toby Chisnall, Programme Manager, RIAS

vzb_rias_case_study_20070515_07-10210.qxp 11/06/2007 17:17 Page 1