Uniform risk management solution for an insurance company

The LocalTapiola group is a group of companies based on a mutual company structure and owned by its customers, which serves private customers, farmers, entrepreneurs, corporate customers, and organizations. LähiTapiola’s products and services cover general, life, and pension insurance, as well as investment and savings services. The LocalTapiola group is formed by the nationally operating LocalTapiola General, LocalTapiola Life, LocalTapiola Asset Management, LocalTapiola Real Estate Asset Management, and LocalTapiola real estate equity fund--as well as 20 regional mutual non-life insurance companies. LocalTapiola operates nationwide in Finland, offering its services to approximately 1.6 million customers. LocalTapiola has 135 service locations and staff numbering approximately 3400.

The fundamental purpose for the existence of LocalTapiola is to provide comprehensive services to its customers. Because of this, rather than being seen as a traditional insurance company, the operation is seen as a life safety company that aims to provide versatile and proactive safety in health, security, as well as economic areas.

As a company that provides safety and security throughout life, LocalTapiola’s operations are very broad and versatile, which, in turn, also creates a need for risk management.

Operators in the financial sector are subject to many legal responsibilities set by both Finnish, as well as EU legislation, which LocalTapiola, too, must be able to respond to.

When Tapiola and Lähivakuutus merged in 2012, the new organizational structure created a new need to standardize business models. When the management structure was formed for the corporate group, a simultaneous need to develop a risk management culture was identified.

Risk management solutions were sought for at the group level, which would enable an integrated framework for risk management, risk management models, and to provide user-friendly and simple tools for risk management operations.

Granite and the Granite ERM risk management service were selected as one of LocalTapiola’s risk management solutions that helped respond to the increased regulatory intervention, tightening competition in the markets, and increased demands for efficiency.

Simplified, the goal of LocalTapiola, as it was expanding its risk management operations, was to find a risk management system that would serve the company structure as a whole and provide an integrated risk management method for the entire group.

In terms or risk assessment and the progress of corrective measures, it was vital that the selected system would enable a clear and up-to-date overall picture of the entire organization's situation.

Reporting that is intelligible and practical, and advances risk management procedures has always been at the core of Granite's business idea for risk management services. Consequently, harnessing the Granite ERM service to implement LocalTapiola’s new risk management method was an agile and effortless process.

A shared risk management system ensures that the risk situations of individual companies are clearly visible in one place, and no additional effort is required to track down and update information.

LocalTapiola originally procured the Granite ERM service for internal risk assessment and management within its own operations. It was possible to create different risk registers, risk structures, as well as risk classification to support the operations of insurance companies.

The user-friendly service was adopted effortlessly as part of the company's daily operations. Corrective measures directed by the service are performed daily, whereas deeper risk mapping is performed at least twice a year, in spring and fall, according to directions from the central organization.

The smooth user experience of the Granite ERM service led to its deployment in the customer interface, as well. LocalTapiola supports the risk management operations of many of its large corporate customers, providing both comprehensive risk mapping, as well as evaluating workplace hazards and levels of safety. Consequently, it was natural for Granite’s services, which had been proven to work in practice, to also be utilized in customer work.

After deploying the Granite ERM service, LocalTapiola has also deployed other Granite services in developing its business operations. Beyond the Granite ERM service, among others, Granite Information security training and the Workplace risk assessment service have also been in use, enabling the fluent systematic mapping of risks and hazards and development of workplace safety.

The development of workplace safety also entails a number of legal responsibilities. The Granite Workplace risk assessment service has facilitated the efficient integration of varying procedures between different teams.

Producing an up-to-date picture is achieved conveniently when all the organization’s members perform their risk management with a service that promotes the integration of standard practices. Granite’s Workplace risk assessment service enables the supervision of work, opens a comprehensive picture of the progress of operations, and the results of work can also be explored.

In addition to Granite ERM and the Granite Workplace risk assessment service, LocalTapiola has also developed its own risk management services on the Granite platform. Among other things, risk management services developed to manage reputation risks, or outsourcing management are in use.

The EU Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, has also affected the increase in the requirements set for LocalTapiola's business operations. The Data Protection Regulation has created additional work for insurance companies, which entails updating and erasing many databases and registers.

The Granite GDPR-auditing service has proved to be a good tool for this. Granite GDPR-auditing enables the processing of all LocalTapiola's operations as a totality to create an intelligible situational picture.

Granite GDPR-auditing, which works simply by following the principles of GAP analysis, helps to compare the level of the organization's performance to the requirements of the Data Protection Regulation.

The Granite GDPR-auditing service enables the monitoring of the status and progress of corrective measures and produces useful documentation for accountability.

For a multicompany environment like LocalTapiola, Granite services are clearly the right choice. Bringing various risk areas into the same user-friendly information system enables effortless support for developing the multicompany structure and the integration of operating principles for risk management.

The cooperation with Granite has proceeded straightforwardly, and Granite’s substantial expertise in the field has fostered the expansion in the use of the services.

The ability of the user to utilize their own competence and work in developing Granite’s services has also been fruitful for LocalTapiola, particularly through the effect of the user management integration that lowers the threshold of use.

Adopting Granite’s services has been effortless for end users. The user-friendly features of the clear user interface have made risk management work more efficient.

The reporting abilities of Granite services enable the monitoring of the risk management process and directing it from the central organization in such a way that the overall picture of the risk situation stays up-to-date all the time. Drafting summaries at the group level is possible due to the structure of the system, and automatic email notifications support the implementation of risk management procedures.