Risk managers looking for a centralized source of information on their organizations' risks and coverages worldwide, as well as tools to manage them, have new options from the three largest brokers, including an online portal that Marsh Inc. is rolling out to clients beginning this week and enhancements to existing technology from Aon Corp. and Willis Group Holdings Ltd.

While Aon has operated a portal called AonLine since 1996 and Willis has had Willis Online since the beginning of 2005, Marsh has integrated its information technology systems and recently developed a portal called MarshConnect. All three portals offer a menu of features and are available free to the brokers' clients.

While risk managers welcomed the brokers' initiatives, some said the portals are not critically important and that they are more likely to rely on other measures to monitor and manage their risks (see story, page 21).

Marsh has spent the past five months creating and refining MarshConnect, which begins beta testing with selected clients on July 24 and will be available to all clients starting Sept. 1, said Robert G. Petrie III, managing director and head of North American operations and client technology at Marsh in Chicago.

Marsh is doing "two major things from a strategic standpoint," said Brian Storms, chairman and chief executive officer of the New York-based brokerage: integrating company operations worldwide and meeting market demands to use technology to clients' benefit.

"We became increasingly aware in the last nine or 10 months how our clients need us to operate more seamlessly," Mr. Storms said, explaining that Marsh has long had autonomous business structures. "Technology is among the most important tools" Marsh has to coordinate its various business units, and Marsh wants to provide "tools and capabilities that transcend what the industry is doing," he said.

Mr. Storms said MarshConnect was unveiled a few months ago at a meeting of the brokerage's Global Leadership Team, which comprises about 75 of its most senior executives. "A year ago, these people would've said they were disappointed in our use of technology. They were literally awestruck to sit through a demonstration of MarshConnect. People were stunned at how quickly we're accelerating our use of technology," Mr. Storms said.

One of Marsh's largest clients, which he declined to identify, was "very critical of our lack of data," he said. While a competing brokerage won some of that client's business, the client came back after seeing Marsh's commitment to improving its technology, Mr. Storms said.

"The power of IT is all about data integration. MarshConnect is an integrated data platform," said Joseph A. Varnas, managing director and global head of operations and information technology at Marsh in New York. Mr. Varnas joined Marsh in January from UBS Global Asset Management (U.S.) Inc., with the task of bringing together the multiple technology platforms Marsh had been using.

"If you can't integrate data, you can't display data," Mr. Storms said. "All that changed when Joe Varnas joined....We've integrated our technology from what were 10 or 12 separate and distinct technology companies around the world," Mr. Storms said.

For example, risk management information system CS STARS "was owned 100% by Marsh but operated nearly autonomously. The advent of integration at CS STARS and the arrival of Joe Varnas put us into a position" where the company could finally pull together its various platforms, Mr. Storms said.

"We had to do it for our clients--several of our largest, most sophisticated global clients told us it was simply not acceptable not to use technology" in serving their needs, he said. "Clients are forced to understand and manage risks that weren't even being considered a few years ago," Mr. Storms said.

"The underlying challenge of the global broker is to pull together data," said Mr. Petrie. "The more time you spend chasing paper, the less time you have to be an adviser."

Kathleen M. Burns, chief executive officer of Aon Risk Services Americas' eSolutions in Chicago, agrees. AonLine enables clients to communicate with their business partners and Aon anywhere, anytime, she said.

"Our clients like the collaborative format and a single place to access data in the middle of the night," Ms. Burns said. "Our clients keep saying they like the fully Web-based products, they can access policy data....and have all the data they need to run their business and make decisions."

Willis Online also is "Web-based and can be accessed anywhere in the world" and is designed to give clients "a single point of entry to Willis," said Anthony Russo, the brokerage's Nashville, Tenn.-based global chief information officer. "Clients and prospective clients see (Willis Online) as quite valuable," he said.

"We do not lead with a technology strategy. It's important, but it's more important that (technology) fits into our business strategy," Mr. Russo said. "It isn't the technology in itself that's going to make the company successful. It's serving the clients' needs."

Where they're alike

As Aon, Marsh and Willis compete to serve large, multinational clients, their portals offer similar features. Common features of AonLine, MarshConnect and Willis Online include:

• Information resources, with content generated internally as well as externally. Marsh, Aon and Willis all provide various informational materials, from white papers and market reports to statistical data licensed from Axco Insurance Information Services Ltd., a London-based provider of statistical data on insurance and markets for more than 160 countries. In the third quarter of this year, Aon plans to add news summaries and other industry-specific information.

  Willis already offers similar resources, including links to external content providers.

• Self-service applications for certificates of insurance. Because the ability to provide proof of coverage is important for many clients and their business partners, the three brokers enable users to request or extend access to these forms. Aon offers an automated process for certificates, and Marsh expects to add this function by the end of this year.

• Access to claims and policy data. AonLine and MarshConnect provide information on insurance policies and coverage limits as well as simplified tracking of claims handled by each broker. Willis offers policy management capabilities through its Client Service Platform, used by its client advocates, and is considering providing access through Willis Online, Mr. Russo said.

  Where claims volume and analysis needs are greater, risk management information systems--CS STARS from Marsh and RiskConsole from Aon--offer more in-depth data and tools.

• Document management functions. Users of all three portals can share documents and communicate on projects, send e-mail and issue reminders.

  "Over time, clients have asked to see the (submission) process as it's occurring," and features of MarshConnect let Marsh show that, Mr. Varnas said. One benefit is that clients can see "the markets we approached and how we're getting paid," which aids transparency, Mr. Petrie added.

• Customizable page views. All three portals allow users to select preferences, such as choosing foreign languages and currencies.

  Where they differ

  In other areas, however, the portals vary by type and detail of information.

  MarshConnect, for example, allows clients to view customizable lists of insurers, based on information aggregated by Marsh's security committee from rating agencies and compared with Marsh's professional placement standards, Mr. Petrie said.

Willis Online also offers security committee data on insurers. "Part of our emphasis is to expose our clients to how we do business," said Michael Shelby, Willis' chief development officer in Nashville, Tenn.

AonLine does not currently include Aon security committee information but does offer links to insurer data and reports from rating agency A.M. Best Co. Inc., said Roni J. Anderson, vp and AonLine Americas product and services manager in Chicago. Aon, which pays for clients to receive detailed reports from Best on individual insurers, is considering adding day-to-day market security information as an enhancement, Ms. Anderson said.

A "Test Your Limits" feature lets MarshConnect users compare coverage limits with those of industry peers. "This answers one of the more common questions from clients. One way to answer that is to ask, 'What is the collective industry doing now?' " Mr. Petrie said.

One of the features Marsh touts as a centerpiece of its portal is a section on placements, with lists of policies archived by type of coverage, policy number, insured entity and more.

"This screen gets the most positive feedback from our clients because they know how hard it is to collect this data around the world," Mr. Petrie said. Some large clients spend significant amounts of money to track this data themselves, and MarshConnect allows them to reduce or eliminate that deployment of capital, Messrs. Petrie and Varnas said.

"One of the key tenets of our ongoing IT strategy is to turn off as many systems as possible," said Mr. Varnas.

AonLine also makes policy information available through Aon's Global Account Management System, or GAMS, which is used both by clients as well as Aon's account servicing teams around the world, said Ms. Anderson. "It's a powerful tool and widely used. For some people, GAMS is the most important element for them," she said.

Ms. Burns said AonLine provides three major benefits for Aon clients: collaboration, delivery of intelligence and efficiency tools. Access to policy information through GAMS is significant because "there is no global policy standard. Local countries have local policy data systems," each capturing data differently, Ms. Burns said. "GAMS has created for Aon a global policy standard."

Willis is in the process of linking separate but similar third-party policy management systems for its North American and U.K. users of Willis Online, Mr. Russo said.

In February, AonLine enhanced its project management feature, called My Place, which enables clients to set up secure meetings or "rooms" where users can post documents and images for purposes of online discussions and workflow, Ms. Anderson said. "This makes for a much more rich user experience," she said.

Aon's portal previously was split into two divisions--AonLine Americas and AonLine International--and the broker expects to migrate all AonLine users to a more advanced technology platform called Global AonLine in the fourth quarter of 2006, Ms. Anderson said.

Another enhancement that Aon expects to make available by the end of this year is a single sign-on for Aon RiskConsole, meaning that RMIS clients can access all the Aon RiskConsole functions and navigate through the portal by logging in just once. Previously, separate sign-ons were required.

Willis Online also offers a single sign-on for the various features of the portal, Mr. Russo said. Recent upgrades include the expansion of foreign language choices, and the next planned release will include a database on energy industry losses, Mr. Russo said. Willis also is "building an application to support the construction practice" and serve clients in that business, Mr. Shelby said.

The next version of MarshConnect will be available in 2007, but "we'll add features as we have them available, not wait," Mr. Petrie said.