Risk Management Information Systems

A risk management information system (RMIS) is an information system that assists in consolidating property values, claims, policy, and exposure information and providing the tracking and management reporting capabilities to enable the user to monitor and control the overall cost of risk management.

The management of risk data and information is key to the success of any risk management effort regardless of an organization's size or industry sector. Risk management information systems/services (RMIS) are used to support expert advice and cost-effective information management solutions around key processes such as:

Typically, RMIS facilitates the consolidation of information related to insurance, such as claims from multiple sources, property values, policy information, and exposure information, into one system. Often, RMIS applies primarily to “casualty” claims/loss data systems. Such casualty coverages include auto liability, auto physical damage, workers' compensation, general liability and products liability.

RMIS products are designed to provide their insured organizations and their brokers with basic policy and claim information via electronic access, and most recently, via the Internet. This information is essential for managing individual claims, identifying trends, marketing an insurance program, loss forecasting, actuarial studies and internal loss data communication within a client organization. They may also provide the tracking and management reporting capabilities to enable one to monitor and control overall cost of risk in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

In the context of the acronym RMIS, the word “risk” pertains to an insured or self-insured organization. This is important because prior to the advent of RMIS, insurance company loss information reporting typically organized loss data around insurance policy numbers. The historical focus on insurance policies detracted from a clear, coherent and consolidated picture of a single customer's loss experience. The advent of the first PC and UNIX based standalone RMIS was in 1982, by Mark Dorn, under the trade name RISKMASTER. This began a breakthrough step in the insurance industry's evolution toward persistent and focused understanding of their end-customer needs. Typically, the best solution for an organization depends on whether it is enhancing an existing RMIS system, ensuring the highest level of data quality, or designing and implementing a new system while maintaining a focus on state-of-the-art technology.

Most major insurance companies (carriers), broker/agents, and third party administrators (TPAs)offer/provide at least one external RMIS product to their insureds (clients) and any brokers involved in the insurance program. Most commonly, RMIS products allow individual claim detail look-up, basic trend report production, policy summaries and ad hoc queries. The resulting information can then be shared throughout the client's organization, usually for insurance program cost allocation, loss prevention and effective claim management at the local level. More advanced products allow multiple claim data sources to be consolidated into one “Master RMIS,” which is essential for most large client organizations with complex insurance programs.

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