ČSOB Pojišťovna, a. s. - case study

ČSOB Pojišt'ovna is a universal insurance company that has been operating on the Czech market since 1992. It provides its customers with life and non-life insurance services. As a member of the ČSOB Group, it has an extensive sales network which has made it one of the largest insurance companies in the Czech Republic for many years.


 

Requirements

The aim of the project was to create a comprehensive planning applicationthat would replace the previously used planning in MS Excel. The basic requirement was the centrality of the model which would allow subsequent adjustments according to business requirements for planning and reporting. At the same time, it was necessary to ensure the correct setting of access rights to eliminate the risk of unauthorized access to data.

As an extension to the existing model, the life-insurance section was added directly to the planning tool. The implementation also included simplification and unification of the planning approach for the different parts of the business plan.

The choice of modern technology opened up the possibilities for parallel planning of multiple versions of plans and forecasts.

Solution

We have designed and implemented a modern planning solutionfor the customer containing a central data model with a total of 6 interconnected modules. The planning application supports the following processes:

  • System configuration by a business administrator
  • Data connection to the central data repository (in/out)
  • Approval of plans
  • Plan comparison and what-if analysis
  • Top-down, bottom-up and driver-based approaches to plan creation
  • Change management for the implementation of adjustments related to the IFRS requirements

The implemented solution thus covers the comprehensive creation of plans, while thanks to the MS Excel add-in, it maintains the integration to other user applications procedurally linked to the created plans.

A number of alternative hierarchies and code lists are used in the planning process. The model supports online data conversions between these different views of the data.

Benefits

Centralised code list management
There is no need to complexly maintain product and distribution channel code lists in multiple environments.

Increasing data detail
Thanks to the robust technology, it was possible to increase the detail of the data used to refine the plans created.

Clarification of the planning process
Users are easily informed about the planning process and the centralisation of the model removes the need to identify differences between versions of the same plan.

Modelling of plans
Like regular users, controlling staff can use what-if scenarios to monitor the impact of changing input conditions on plan outcomes online.

Data clarity
In Excel, it was possible to overwrite a formula, now there is only one formula in the central warehouse with limited access.

Access to real-time data, reducing time

  • of the planning cycle from months to weeks
  • Processing reports and analyses is significantly easier.

Tracking user activity
Keeping a history of user activity makes it possible, if necessary, to find out who entered what data and when, or if there are errors.

Technology: IBM Planning Analytics Cloud