The process of taking a paper-intensive business such as ACUITY, a regional property/casualty carrier in Sheboygan, Wis., into a paperless environment is not unlike someone trying to break the smoking habit. It aint easy. The tie to paper is very hard to break, says Gary Henderson, a director of information systems at ACUITY.
The battle began five years ago and is now near completion. But unlike some long-term projects, the return on this investment came rather quickly. ACUITY is saving $6 million annually in paper overhead and facilities thanks to the implementation of Content Manager by IBM, according to Neal Ruffalo, ACUITYs vice president, enterprise technology. We were able to close all of our satellite offices and empower our field personnel with the tools to work out of their homes, he says. We have between 150 and 200 remote users now.
ACUITY has been an IBM shop for years, even prior to 2001 when the company changed its name from Heritage Mutual Insurance. The relationship didnt keep the insurer from examining other document management solutions, according to Henderson. He reports four software companies were contacted before the decision was made to purchase what was initially known as IBM Visualinfo but has since changed to Content Manager.
Recommended For You
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
