OCI Helps Sara Lee Food and Beverage Reduce Workers’ Comp. Claims Reporting Time from Three Hours to 20 Minutes

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - August 29, 2005 - In today’s business environment, it is critical to reduce the amount of time risk managers spend on administrative tasks so they are able to function in a strategic capacity helping a company create a safer work place and reducing the costs of insurance.

Based on its 21 years of experience helping Fortune 500 companies, OCI recently helped Sara Lee Food and Beverage reduce the time it takes to file a Workers’ Comp claim from three hours to 20 minutes.

With dozen’s of locations around the world, Sara Lee Food and Beverage’s insurance division handles thousands of Workers’ compensation claims every year.   The company utilized a rudimentary claims reporting system using an 800 number and Web site in an attempt to streamline the process.

"Even with the 800 number and Web site, we still had to complete paper forms to send to the TPA, then another form for OSHA, and yet another for Sara Lee Corporate.  The same information had to be re-entered on every form," said Tanya Parker, Workers’ Compensation Claim Specialist with Sara Lee Food and Beverage.

After working with the rudimentary system for two and a half years, Sara Lee Food and Beverage began looking at solutions that would streamline their claims processes and offer greater reporting capability to the group.

"We were looking for a one-stop-shop," said Parker.  "The number one deciding factor was the ability to customize.  Although a pre-packaged solution gets the implementation done quickly it often can’t be used by 80 percent of the people.  It’s great for the vendor, but the customer suffers because it simply doesn’t fit our business processes."

Working with OCI, Sara Lee Food and Beverage developed a reporting system designed around their specific needs.  With content such as forms for OSHA, the TPA and Sara Lee Corporate, OCI created a Web-based application that enables claims information to be entered only once - the data is then automatically entered into all the necessary forms, and automatically submitted to OSHA, Sara Lee Corporate and the TPA.  Entering data only once both reduces the risk of error, and greatly streamlines the submission process.

"Originally, it started out as a data warehouse, one consolidated place where we could keep the data," said Parker. "Then we expanded into reports and now they do everything.  One thing about OCI, they aren’t a canned product.  We took the time to design what we wanted it to look like and what we wanted it to do.  I think once we thought about what we wanted in the system, it was better we went with OCI."

"The benefit we received from the system far outweighs any costs," said Parker.  "Everything OCI says it’s supposed to do, it does."

About OCI

Since 1984, OCI has delivered flexible, integrated solutions to companies that need timely information to effectively manage their risk programs, control costs and improve productivity. As a premier application service provider, OCI delivers customizable information solutions exclusively over the Internet, managing the technology so companies can focus on managing their businesses. For more information, visit www.oci.com or call (800) 678-6604.

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