When the growing volume of the Institute’s educational materials and assessments began to create problems, they asked Brennan for help. Now, using a customised Microsoft Sharepoint solution, their internal management platform not only conveniently and cogently stores the Institute’s varied documents, it also assists in their maintenance and production.
Speed, governance and control Before partnering with Brennan, the Institute managed its course modules, communications and assessment tasks using a standard network file-share. Documents were usually labelled according to a set of conventions, but keeping track of changes relied on the rules being followed, which made version control both labour intensive and prone to error. With the fast pace of change in the Insurance Industry, it was clear to Luke Davies, the Institute’s Manager of Projects, Processes and Reporting, that the system needed to improve. “We approached Brennan for expert help in creating a Sharepoint solution because we needed someone with proven experience in our industry,” he says. “The platform has a huge scope for customisation, so whoever we brought in had to have the ability to understand our organisation and the task at hand.”
The solution In close consultation with the Institute, Brennan was able to create a solution for testing within six weeks. The changes have been dramatic. The new system automates version control, revealing a document’s change history, authorship, audit trail, and current status at a glance. It also cross references documents when they appear in multiple training programs, allowing for instantaneous and platform-wide teaching updates when financial rules and regulations change. Now, customised workflows aid in the creation of new documents, providing an efficient framework that streamlines functions like authoring, editing, language translation, approval and publication.
Additionally, automated reminders now notify staff when documents might be in need of expert review, and the system lets them know who might be affected by any change.
The benefits according to Luke the new system has revolutionised the way the Institute creates, shares and distributes information. “The most significant benefit we have seen right from the outset is an increase in productivity. Less time is spent creating updates and correcting errors, and with automated workflows handling most administrative overheads, the pace that our production team can work at has dramatically increased.” The Sharepoint system is fast becoming central to the Institute’s operations. Beyond managing documents, it’s also providing the Institute’s business units with a collaborative arena to post internal information and news. The result is a leap forward for business speed and awareness: a robust governance and control solution with a flexibility that really works.
