In the April 2003 issue of Tech Decisions, Udo Shucar, an IT project manager for Munich Re, spoke about the global reinsurer's plan to consolidate all its systems into a single point of entry: "The diversity of systems around Munich Re Group caused parallel development and maintenance and would hinder Munich Re from achieving its objectives within an acceptable time." Now, however, time is on Munich Re's side. After four years of work, the reinsurer has consolidated "16 or 17 legacy systems," according to Shucar, and merged everything into "one system for the future"–the SAP Reinsurance Management system.

The project, which began in February 2002, was rolled out on May 15 of this year, followed by a stabilization stage, reports Shucar. "In the middle of June, the board of management decided to switch off the old systems because everything was stable," he says. "[The system] proved to be stable as we produced our first quarterly close, and it looks like it will remain stable through the third-quarter reports. It was without any serious problems, which even for us was a little surprising with all the major development that went into the system."

The SAP product purchased by Munich Re is the core administration system, explains Shucar, as it handles the reinsurer's treaties, claims management, technical accounting (including providing figures for the quarterly closing), and all the operational reports prepared by the business units.