The largest car rental company inthe world has to deal with a large number of claims as well. Hertzand its European operations were unable to operate their legacyclaims system effectively due to limited automation, according toDavid Voller, European claim manager, Hertz Claim Management, HertzEurope Ltd.

The Hertz system was "just a means of collecting data" and theonly tool that it provided to users was a simple reminder diary,according to Voller.

"Our claim files were paper and our processes entirely manual,"he says. "We had different claim practices in each country andmultiple copies of the same claim file when it was being worked bymore than one claims office."

When Hertz began the search for a new claims system, Vollerexplained there were three areas of concentration: efficiency;administrative cost reduction; and quality, compliance, procedures,and regulations.

In regards to efficiency, Hertz wanted automated workflowtechnology, document management, and productivity gains.

With cost reduction, Hertz also sought a reduction in the manualprocesses and claims processing costs.

In the quality, compliance, and regulatory areas, Voller reportsthe goals were enforcing compliance through workflow andrules-driven validation, use of best practices, improved dataquality, and a system that dealt with multiple languages andcurrency.

Hertz selected three finalists to visit the Hertz office for adetailed presentation. Hertz Europe also conducted a gap analysisagainst the claims system used by Hertz in the U.S.A.

The selection panel, made up of representatives from theEuropean risk and claim management group, IT, and purchasing teams,selected Innovation Group's Insurer Claims product. Voller citedseveral reasons for the choice:

• Existing functionality

• Flexibility with multiple territory, language, andcurrency

• Integration with existing and future businesssystems.

Hertz developed an online training tool andused train-the-trainer concept. "The most difficult task wasinterfacing with existing Hertz systems, mostly due to complexityof those systems and data migration from our legacy claim systemdue to the complexity of reconciliation," he says

Thus far, the solution has been a success for Hertz. "Ourbusiness objectives have been achieved and users are now happy tohave a leading-edge system and to work in a paperless environment,"says Voller. "This environment also enables us to attract andretain the highest quality staff."

The business strategy was facilitated by the capabilities andbest practice inherent in the system design, according toVoller.

"The corporate objectives of standardization and thecentralization of administrative functions were achieved bymigration of administrative tasks from individual countries to acentral European office," he says.

The project was completed on budget, but Voller reports it tooklonger than originally planned, mostly due to overrun on datamigration.

"There were no insurmountable software issues and allrequirements were met," he says. Voller believes the keys to theprojects success were project management and continuouscommunication between the vendor and all business units.

"In order to achieve the earliest efficiencies and cost savingsthe first territories were implemented without full functionality,namely document production," he says. "While we now have fulldocument management in all territories it remains an area foradditional improvement and investment."

The system currently has users in 11 countries, using sevenlanguages and five currencies, according to Voller.

"It has the flexibility and capability of being used globallyand at minimal additional cost for each additional territory," saysVoller. "We are able to develop new products and services and adaptexisting ones with minimal modification. Each country achievedsavings from day one and those savings were maximized by taking theopportunity to transform the business."