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Lead Consultant
Aon Global Risk Consulting

On the Go and in One Go with iPads

Consultants leap into 3G technology and turn around site surveys in record time.

When a management company in Abu Dhabi wanted surveys of 750 of its buildings done in six months, standard assessment processes wouldn't come close to delivering results on such a tight schedule.

"Generally when you do a property survey on various facilities you go out and do the survey and then you can spend as much as 10 to 20 days doing various reviews and preparing a report," said Anne Parkin, lead consultant at Aon Global Risk Consulting.

But the prospective Abu Dhabi client made it clear it couldn't afford to wait that long.

Enter the Apple iPad 3G technology, which had just come onto the market. Parkin eyed the iPad and saw it as a godsend. "The iPad had just come out and everybody was talking about it, it was everywhere, and I thought it would be great to utilize this technology," she said.

"What happened was that I was brainstorming with our account executive and I said to him it would be great if we could go out and do this work onsite with iPads, and then basically as soon as we finished doing the surveys onsite we would be able to send the report through to the client," Parkin said.

The account executive bought into the idea and soon so did the client, who wanted detailed information to help plan improvements to buildings for the next 10 to 20 years. "The client was very excited about being on the cutting edge of technology," Parkin said.

"The unique thing we were doing in the Middle East was gathering basic information so we didn't need to do the formal reviews we normally had to prepare," she said. "So basically we were able to provide the client with the information as soon as we left the site, which is really a unique thing when you're doing risk-control reports."

This process was saving money as well as time because Aon didn't have to write down the information twice--"we didn't have to write it down in a notebook and then go back and write it down on a computer," Parkin said. "You can get it done on one go. That was the main reason the client selected us, because we were forward-thinking enough to use new technology to save time and money."

In terms of efficiency, Parkin said that the new system, which went into planning at the end of May 2010 and was rolled out in late June, had great results in 85 percent of cases. In the remaining 15 percent of cases, Aon was not able to use the 3G technology and had to redo its work, going offline and then uploading survey information.

"If you have a great 3G connection everything is fine and you have no issues or concerns, which was the case in most instances," Parkin said.

Parkin said that Aon continues to invest money in improving the 3G program. "One of the things that we have done is create a global committee that's spread across all of Aon's regions, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, to look at ways we can to improve the GPS system," she said.

She worked closely with Aon's information technology development team to create the Aon GPS, a web-enabled database that could be used with an iPad.

She also credited Aon Global Risk Consulting team members Mike Panfil, managing director of property risk control¿U.S., Marcel Hanssen, director of risk control¿Netherlands, and Brian Parker, head of risk control and engineering¿Pacific Rim, who helped ensure a consistent global approach to GPS as well as the related iPad application.

Deadlines were tight and the GPS product was released about six weeks after the Abu Dhabi contract was awarded. "I'm a risk control person, but I've become a lot more of an information technology person as a result of doing this," Parkin said.

The return on investment for the Abu Dhabi project was 24 to1. For every $1 invested in Aon GPS, the broker received $24 worth in new client revenue.

Since the use of the iPad technology in Abu Dhabi, Aon has also utilized the system for clients in North America. Aon Global Risk Consulting's innovation committee approved the use of the funds to purchase the iPads and invest in related information technology development.

Based on Aon Global Risk Consulting's success with the iPads, other areas of Aon have looked at ways to use them. Aon is now moving toward using iPads and iPhones for access to email and SharePoint sites.

-- Steve Yahn