Experience 2013: A preview of Pendulum's session
Eight years of Aon-hosting: The Pendulum experience with RIScloud hosting of the iVOS application and data
Susan Jones, director of Claims & Adverse Event Management Services with iVOS client Pendulum, will join Scott Wilson, Aon eSolutions VP of Hosting and IT operations, to lead a session at the upcoming Aon eSolutions 2013 Experience Conference in Atlanta.
I recently spoke with Susan about what she and Scott plan to discuss at their session, Come See What's New in our Hosted Environment.
Susan and Pendulum bring a unique perspective to RIScloud hosting of the iVOS claims administration system in that Aon has always hosted Pendulum's iVOS application and data. As more and more iVOS clients move to RIScloud hosting (approximately 40% of iVOS clients are now hosted on RIScloud), experiences like those of Pendulum can serve as useful examples for other clients interested in learning the ins and outs of moving away from on-premises hosting.
What's the planned focus of your session at the 2013 Experience Conference?
Susan Jones: We're still building out our session, but I'll be joining Scott Wilson to discuss Pendulum's experience with Aon hosting of iVOS. Pendulum has been an iVOS client since 2005, and we've always been Aon-hosted. The fact that we've always been Aon-hosted makes us somewhat unique, and I'm excited to share the Pendulum experience with other clients who might be considering making the move to RIScloud hosting of their iVOS application and data.
Can you tell us a little about how Pendulum uses iVOS, and why it's significant that Pendulum uses RIScloud-hosted iVOS?
Susan Jones: Pendulum is a risk management firm based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We offer our clients claims management services, including incident and event management services. Our clients utilize iVOS through Pendulum; part of the value proposition for our clients is that we make iVOS available to them at a much lower cost than if they were to go out and acquire it on their own.
In addition to the cost advantage of accessing iVOS through their relationship with Pendulum, we and our clients benefit from the built-in security protocols and processes that Aon eSolutions puts in place through RIScloud.
Security is a hugely important factor in that the data we help our clients manage is highly regulated. The fact that Aon eSolutions is a single-source, HIPAA-accredited provider of application and data hosting is very important. It would be very, very difficult and costly for Pendulum or its clients to match the levels of security that Aon eSolutions provides through RIScloud.
The cost of hosting iVOS, in terms of IT hardware and infrastructure, is another reason its significant that Pendulum is hosted on RIScloud (that's in addition to the cost advantages of our clients accessing the iVOS application through Pendulum). The fees we pay Aon eSolutions for hosting iVOS on our behalf are much, much less than if we were to take that responsibility in house.
Being hosted on RIScloud also means that Pendulum and our clients get cost-effective, immediate support from the iVOS team when it comes to system upgrades, data conversions as well as everyday use of the system.
How do you think the Pendulum experience of being Aon-hosted will resonate with other iVOS clients? As a risk management firm, Pendulum is in a somewhat different position than the bulk of iVOS clients, most of which are public entities, TPAs, insurers and the like.
Susan Jones: In some ways, Pendulum differs from many other iVOS clients, but we do have significant parallels. Just like many other iVOS clients who have multiple locations or units within their organizations, we serve a number of clients in different locations and with different needs. At the end of the day, Pendulum and its clients rely on iVOS for many of the same needs that most other clients do. So, whereas we might look different from other iVOS clients, we use the system in much the same way and for many of the same needs that other iVOS clients do.
What do you expect attendees will take away from the session youll be leading together with Scott Wilson?
Susan Jones: This will be the fourth Experience Conference I've attended and the first at which I've led a session. I'm looking forward to sharing the Pendulum experience with my fellow iVOS clients and, through what I hope will be an active question-and-answer portion, help them apply our experience to what they could expect to gain from moving to RIScloud hosting of their iVOS application and data.
As I said earlier, the cost to Pendulum of RIScloud hosting is much less than if we were to do it ourselves. It seems to me that the same would hold true for many other iVOS clients, especially clients that, like Pendulum, are small- to medium-sized.
I expect that part of our session will focus on how iVOS clients who currently host the application and its data themselves, on-premises, can weigh the costs and benefits of self- versus Aon-hosting.
At past conferences, it seems that most of the iVOS clients I've met have been end users of the claims admin software system. As end users, we often don't have the technological knowledge or experience to fully understand the pros and cons of self- versus Aon-hosting. I hope this session will be a good way for iVOS clients to get a better understanding of the differences in hosting models. With that knowledge in hand, I hope that attendees will be better prepared to discuss with their colleagues and superiors the business case for moving away from on-premises hosting.
Kari Jones is a client development manager with Aon eSolutions. Contact Kari at kari.jones@aon.com.
