If you’re interested in enterprise risk management, I encourage you to view a recent webinar hosted by Aon eSolutions called ERM: Advancing from spreadsheets to a formal system. The webinar runs for 35-minutes and includes presentations from Justin Lovell, business risk manager in the chief risk office of Aon UK Ltd., and Angus Rhodes, RMIS consultant with Aon eSolutions. The webinar was recorded from a live, online presentation given Friday, December 6.
Angus begins the webinar by looking at some of the latest trends around ERM adoption and structure. Citing the Advisen 2013 RMIS Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Survey, Angus notes that ERM adoption is rising (63% of respondents to the Advisen survey indicate that they’ve fully or partially implemented ERM).
Organizations are adopting ERM for three main reasons:
- Mandates by boards of directors (driven primarily by corporate governance imperatives).
- Initiatives by risk managers themselves.
- Regulatory requirements.
Following on from presentation by Angus, Justin Lovell gives a case study presentation, which looks at how the chief risk office of Aon UK Ltd. has implemented the Aon RiskConsole risk management information system to enhance its formal ERM strategy. Aon UK Ltd. is a subsidiary of Aon plc and, according to Insurance Times (subscription required), the UK’s largest insurance broker.
In 12 minutes, Justin covers a lot of ground, all the while remaining accessible and engaging to risk managers. Among the topics Justin covers:
- An overview of the Aon UK Ltd. ERM framework;
- How the Aon UK Ltd. ERM framework translates into practice;
- How Aon UK Ltd. managed its ERM framework with spreadsheets, and the shortcomings of that prior system;
- Why Aon UK Ltd. chose to deploy an enterprise risk management software solution to manage its ERM;
- The Aon UK Ltd. requirements and implementation experience; and
- The experience to date and key benefits of moving beyond spreadsheets to a risk technology-based system of ERM management.
Justin ends his comments with some important words of caution for organizations at any stage of deploying an ERM framework and ERM system. I’d like to share them as I end this blog post, because I think they’re important and representative of the valuable information risk managers stand to gain by viewing this webinar. Says Justin:
'The key thing about ERM is embedding it in the culture. If you can’t get it into the culture, into the DNA of an organization, it’s very difficult to get the full value from it. Basically, everything we’ve been talking about so far has been around mechanisms that help a company succeed in executing an ERM framework that’s been accepted and promoted across an organization.'
In addition, both Angus and Justin say it’s essential that organizations develop a formal, appropriate-to-the-company ERM structure before they look to risk management software to help execute an ERM strategy.
Steve Cloutman is managing director of Aon eSolutions’ EMEA operations. Email Steve at steve.cloutman@aon.co.uk
