Zurich Financial Services executive joins TATA Interactive Systems

John Kusi-Mensah has joined the global e-learning producer, Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) as a worldwide business consultant. Kusi-Mensah joins TIS from Zurich Financial Services – where, as head of knowledge management, he introduced a TIS-produced e-learning electronic performance support system (EPSS) that has significantly reduced the time taken by Zurich staff to handle claims, increased the competence of the staff and resulted in significant savings.

Kusi-Mensah holds an MBA from City University Business School in London and an undergraduate degree in business studies. Before joining Zurich Financial Services, he worked for HSBC Investment Bank and Abbey National.

He commented: “I am excited about my new role with TIS and I am looking forward to contributing to TIS’s further development as a worldwide producer of e-learning materials.”

The TIS-produced EPSS enable and expedite at the point of transaction – thus reducing the backlog of claims. The EPSS contains precedents from case law; explains each test case and contains diagrammatic scenarios to help the claims handler talk directly to lawyers.

In the past, a typical ‘whiplash’ claim used to take 21 months for Zurich’s claims handlers to resolve. Now, with these e-learning tools, that time has been cut to seven months – enabling three claims to be settled in the time it used to take to settle one.

Since, typically, Zurich sees a 20 per cent return for each claim, the more claims Zurich staff can resolve, the more money the company makes.

Moreover, where it used to take up to nine years to train a claims handler, the introduction of these EPSS tools are enabling Zurich’s claims handlers to become fully qualified in just three months – providing further major savings for the company.

“We’re pleased that John Kusi-Mensah is joining TIS,” commented Manoj Kutty, TIS’s worldwide president of sales and marketing. “The best training managers recognise that project sponsors are primarily concerned about developing solutions that directly impact on productivity and performance.

“John Kusi-Mensah has made a huge impact at his recent assignment at Zurich. We look forward to his contributions in providing focus and momentum to this area of our business."

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Notes for Editors:

About Zurich Financial Services
Zurich Financial Services, which operates in the life and non-life insurance along with risk management markets, as well as offering wealth accumulation services to individuals and businesses, now manages programmes in more than 120 countries; provides insurance for the majority of Fortune's Global 100 companies, and wrote US $48.9bn in gross written premiums and policy fees worldwide in 2003 alone.

About TIS’s e-learning materials produced for Zurich Financial Services
TIS’s e-learning tools comprise:
• Process maps: to help claim handlers to map the entire claims process cycle and help them guide customers through the entire claims process cycle.
• Calculators: to help claim handlers to perform quick calculations on risk exposure on disease claims.
• A medical encyclopaedia: containing details of various industrial diseases, their causes, symptoms and related human body anatomical parts.
• Case laws: motor and property related case laws referring to specific cases.
The e-learning programme examining employers’ liability, personal injury disputes, and motor accidents, covered more than 170 distinct laws. Each of these was illustrated by an animated scenario which included a brief description of the background, the claim, and the judgement. The programme used realistically animated scenarios to overcome the hurdle of conveying complex legal concepts to an audience with a limited understanding of the finer points of law.

The information is provided in a way that facilitates both understanding and recall. It offers the claim handlers an authoritative reference that helps them to arrive at the right decision quickly when responding to the customers’ claims.

About Tata Interactive Systems (TIS)
Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) is a global pioneer in e-learning. A part of the £7bn Tata Group – one of the largest and most trusted business conglomerates in India, TIS has 15 years of experience in designing and developing innovative and cutting-edge e-learning solutions.
TIS employs a global team of 850 multi-disciplinary specialists – a unique mix of project managers, software engineers, instructional designers, content developers, visual designers and animators. Its service bouquet includes Simulations, Systems Training, New Hire Training, Business Processes and Skills Training, Regulatory and Compliance Training, Sales and Customer Service Training, Adaptive Assessments, Story-based Learning Objects and EPSS. Powered by creative talent, sound processes and technological excellence, TIS has developed over 950 e-learning solutions for more than 300 clients – including 50 Fortune 500 companies – across the UK, Europe, US, Australia and Asia. Its client roster includes leading corporations, renowned educational institutions and government bodies such as British Airways, BECTA, Citibank, Colgate-Palmolive, ExxonMobil, GlaxoSmithKline, HP, McGraw-Hill, NHS, ntl, Orange, Pearson Education, Qwest, Royal Mail, Swiss Re, UNICEF, University of Phoenix, University of Maryland and Vodafone.
Apart from holding ISO 9001 and BS7799 certification, TIS is the only e-learning organisation in the world to be assessed at Level 5 in both the SEI CMM and P-CMM frameworks. TIS’s quest for excellence is reflected in 23 prestigious industry awards, including BETT 2004 Best Product Award, Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Awards in 2004 and 2005, APEX 2004 Award of Excellence and being shortlisted for the ‘Team of the Year’ in the UK’s E-Learning Awards.

For more information log onto www.tatainteractive.com

About the Tata Group
The Tata Group, established in 1904 by the great visionary Jamsetji Tata, is one of India’s largest and most trusted business houses. The group pioneered the industrial revolution in India by founding, among other things, the first steel plant, power plant and chain of luxury hotels.

The Group employs more than 220,000 people in 91 companies across diversified industry sectors including steel, automobiles, cement, telecom and IT. Generating revenues to the tune of $17.8bn (some £10bn) per year – 2.9 per cent of India’s total GDP – it is recognised as a leader in several industry segments such as such as steel, power, software exports and chemicals. It is also the parent company to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Asia’s largest software producer.

Further information from:
Alan Samuel, Tata Interactive Systems, 020 7905 0156, www.tatainteractive.com
Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, 01727 860405, www.boblittlepr.com