How ILS can provide overnight resources for your BAU actuarial activities

In a nutshell

Our client, an Australian life insurer, needed help to complete their month-end processes under tight deadlines. ILS assisted by adding valuable capacity to their eight-hour workday by operating during their after-hours periods.

We call this our ‘UPTIME’ service offering. Think of it as the equivalent of your business running a night shift. Nighttime hours in Australia are daytime hours in South Africa. During these hours, our team continues to run our client’s standard actuarial activities and supports regular processes.

How we do it

With the insurer being in the Australian Eastern Standard Time Zone (AEST), it means that, between April and September, 15h00 AEST is 07h00 in South African time (and 06h00 between October and March). So, from 15h00 their time, our teams in Cape Town and Johannesburg are available to take over from where they log off. Since there is an overlap in working hours across Australian and South African time zones, collaboration and handovers are effectively executed. When they log off at the end of their workday, we are online during our normal office hours. This means that we can ensure a seamless transition with a daily handover meeting and standardised written communication to eliminate any confusion and duplication of work. We assist in completing their month-end processes on time and undertake ad hoc tasks where their capacity is limited.

Services that we provide the client include:

·?????? inspecting any Prophet runs that were submitted the previous day

·?????? repairing any Prophet run-time errors

·?????? resubmitting the Prophet runs

·?????? investigating Prophet run results and performing checks to identify any anomalies

Benefits of UPTIME

·?????? Deliver under tight deadlines

Month-end processes, for example, are typically associated with fixed deadlines. By outsourcing parts of these processes to us, our client has been able to complete work faster, dependency-based delays are reduced, and more time has become available for analysis of results.

·?????? Reduce employee burnout

Our client is now able to meet deadlines without compromising the work-life balance of their staff. The risk of employee fatigue is reduced, and we expect staff retention to improve.

·?????? Competitive global rates

The South African Rand’s favourable exchange rate means our services are cost-effective for our client and other international insurers. Our highly qualified local consultants offer a world-class service at a competitive rate, allowing our clients to minimise the impact on their bottom line while maximising productivity.

·?????? A seamless extension of the team

We build relationships with our clients centred on quality, integrity, and communication. Our team has become a natural extension of our client’s team as we build a long-term partnership characterised by consistency and dedication.

Other applications of UPTIME

·?????? The same principles would apply to North American time zones, albeit in reverse. When North American teams log on at the start of their workday, we would still be online during our normal office hours, being available for collaboration and handovers as needed.

·?????? This is also not limited to specific software since we have a wide range of expertise, including Mo.net, Prophet, Python, etc., making our skills easily adaptable to our clients’ needs.