One of the largest privately held insurers with a book value of $1.4 billion, IAT Insurance Group embraces digital transformation to build upon its success and continue to drive profitability. It’s why IAT’s board members, CIO, CFO, and CEO prioritized modernizing their business technology to address challenges that included the use of aging legacy business systems.
“Our allocations were inconsistent,” says Katie Bandy, VP of finance and accounting at IAT. “We had copious amounts of spreadsheets and varying month-to-month results. We were bogged down with back-and-forth emails, delaying our process even further.”
IAT saw immediate results in allocations after deploying Workday Financial Management and Workday Time Tracking. “What used to take several AP clerks now only needs one person and we’ve been able to reposition the other team members to focus on more strategic tasks, ” Bandy says.
Smoother and efficient allocations.
Beyond freeing up resources to focus on other priorities, IAT could now consistently apply its cost allocations across all of its businesses.
“We are effectively capturing all costs intended for distribution across our companies,” Bandy says. “And now we have the ability to delve deeper and observe how these costs are allocated.”
Prior to deploying Workday, employees had to open multiple spreadsheets, which exposed them to inconsistencies because they weren’t automated. “If a colleague had to cover for someone on PTO without visibility into cost allocation, it could lead to discrepancies in the numbers,” Bandy says. “Not anymore.”
One of our biggest wins was considerable time savings, which allowed us to reposition three team members to other roles because we now only need one person to handle what used to take four people.
VP of Finance and Accounting
Simplified pooling process.
Because of allocations set up in Workday, IAT can now seamlessly manage the pooling arrangements of its subsidiaries. “We are an organization made up of 10 insurance companies that pool our revenue and expenses,” Bandy says. “What was once a quarterly, three-day task has been transformed into a streamlined, monthly process that takes merely an hour.”
At the end of each month, they simply run a report. “We see our combined ratios equal, and I just move on with my day,” Bandy says. “What used to be a tiresome exercise is much simpler.”
Confidence in the numbers.
The level of trust managers now put into the financial data has never been higher because IAT has access to details on any number. “Being able to drill down into details on the numbers provides immediate insight and peace of mind for the CFO, controller, and entire accounting team,” Bandy says.
Before investing in Workday, Bandy hoped to finalize a reporting package for the management team by the end of the year—a lengthy process because the resulting numbers didn’t always align with the ledger. “Now, the management reporting package more or less is the report from Workday, which is great,” Bandy says. Ensuring accuracy in the figures can now occur earlier when working on important deadlines, providing management assurance even when key employees are out of the office.
It has reached a point where planning time off around critical financial deadlines is no longer a cause for concern.
VP of Finance and Accounting
Big plans in store with Workday Accounting Center.
Looking ahead, IAT is eagerly anticipating the benefits of using Workday Accounting Center to do complex insurance-related calculations for taxes, IBNR, deferred acquisitions costs, and other requirements.
“I am so excited to use it because it will give accounting and finance a secure way to assign things and update the rules as needed,” Bandy says. Bandy also expects Workday Accounting Center to help reduce the number of business days it takes for IAT’s month-end close from 15 to 20 days down to fewer than 5 days.
For other organizations considering Workday, Bandy recommends that they:
- Deploy financials and HCM simultaneously to increase operational efficiencies and save time
- Designate a Workday administrator, preferably outside of finance
- Focus on integrations, especially with banks
- Include third-party systems early in the planning phase to make things smoother
- Gain as much hands-on experience as possible with Workday security features
- Get buy-in from employees by letting them know what changes to expect and when, so no one is caught off guard
“Keeping employees apprised of system updates fosters a smoother transition and a more successful implementation overall,” Bandy says.