Aon Corporation is a leading provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, human capital and management consulting, and specialty insurance underwriting. In the area of human capital consulting, Headquartered in Chicago, Aon optimizes human resource spending, boosts productivity, and improves bottom-line performance. Aon's teams transcend borders and cultures to assist in key areas such as benefits, retirement, communications, outsourcing, compensation, investment consulting, and management consulting. The company has an employee base of 46,000 people across 500 offices in more than 120 countries.
Challenge
The Human Capital division of Aon Corporation needed a better way to automate their data processes. Its existing system had proven difficult to manage and time-consuming to modify. Any time they needed a simple change or addition to an automated process, Aon had to call in a professional services team from the vendor to design and implement the change. These customizations often required additional hardware purchases, such as another server, just to run a separate custom process. Eventually, the company wound up with ten different servers, each custom-configured to accomplish specified tasks. Maintenance and logistics were becoming real headaches.
Lack of security options with the system was also frustrating, and a liability when connecting partners did not have compatible security options. "We could only support plain FTP with PGP encryption, and HTTP/S," said Jim Malkowski, Sr. Systems Engineer with Aon's Human Capital division. "This made the system difficult to integrate with other pieces internally and with partners that had systems that used different security protocols.”
To address these challenges, Aon sought a new solution that would allow them to expand their automation capabilities and take control of their own workflow changes.
Details
Aon wanted a software alternative that would:
- Provide real-time data translation and integration of secured HR information
- Allow for the consolidation of 10-15 servers running proprietary customized systems
- Combine 100+ separate systems into a single, manageable system
- Modify or add new automated processes quickly
- Enable fast deployment—the solution had to be in place in one month from software acquisition.
Solution
Enhanced File Transfer (EFT) Server paired with a DMZ Gateway Server
After vetting several solutions, Aon decided to replace its ten custom servers with a single Enhanced File Transfer system from GlobalSCAPE. The company now runs all its automation processes with a single EFT Server paired with a DMZ Gateway Server. This single server lowers the total cost of ownership because the EFT Server can support hundreds of separate Event Rules. EFT Server's Event Rules lets Aon set up complex automated procedures without resorting to complicated coding and expensive consulting. And EFT Server supports a broad range of industry-standard security protocols to ensure that the partners that need to connect to Aon are supported.
Tremendous savings in hardware infrastructure and maintenance
Aon has consolidated 10-15 servers down to four in a shared fashion, saving $200,000 annually on software licenses and $84,000 annually on maintenance fees.
Automation
The EFT Server's ability to handle automation tasks is key to Aon. The EFT Server has more than 150 Event Rules defined that handle the automation tasks. Using these rules, Aon can easily configure the software to automatically initiate a specific set of actions—helping to speed staff productivity. For example, one Event Rule might define where a newly received file should be stored, which events should be triggered upon receipt of that file, and who should be notified. Aon can even automate the process of receiving a file, decrypting it, processing it, and encrypting it and transmitting it again. This automation not only improves employee efficiency, it helps to codify security policies to protect confidential information.
Ease of customization
Aon also appreciates the ability to control its own customization. Its previous solution required custom coding even for simple process changes, costing upwards of $200/hour in professional services time. “Now we have a single EFT server handling all of that workload,” said Ash Patel, CTO of Aon's Human Capital division. “When a new process is requested, we just implement an Event Rule to automate it. The GlobalSCAPE wizard interface makes it really simple and fast to implement. Setting up a new automated process can now happen in a day or less, instead of weeks. Plus we’re able to handle configuration changes for all our constituents without requiring professional services.”
