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The Allianz Group selected WoodWing’s Enterprise publishing system to produce its annual reports - and managed to increase efficiency while achieving significant cost savings at the same time.

Market leader in Germany
The Allianz Group is one of the leading global service providers in the fields of insurance, banking and asset management. It is one of the largest asset managers in the world, managing 765 billion euros worth of investments. The company serves more than 80 million customers in about 70 countries worldwide. Allianz has maintained its market leadership in the German insurance business.

First SE company
The reliability, service and expertise of Allianz is based on continuous commitment of its more than 180.000 employees. Over the 2007 fiscal year, the Allianz Group attained a total turnover of around 102 billion euros. In 2006, Allianz SE, the holding company, became the first company in the DAX and the Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 Index to adopt the legal form of a Societas Europaea, which is a new European legal form for stock corporations.

Test of three systems
Because Allianz is listed on the stock exchange, it has to adhere to extensive reporting requirements. The Allianz Group has to publish quarterly and annual reports, and Allianz SE must publish its annual company report and much more. The Allianz team did not make a decision quickly. They painstakingly tested three systems, which were selected in large part based on discussions with users who were already utilizing these solutions.

Complex production process
According to Bettina Stoob of Allianz Group Management Reporting, all media materials had been produced in the usual way, in cooperation with an agency. Allianz created the content using Microsoft Office applications, and the agency initially used QuarkXPress and later Adobe InDesign for the layout.

The workflow of financial report authoring and production is complex and time-consuming - many contributors from various departments work together under extreme pressure. In addition, the number of review and correction cycles is usually massive.

Three-month evaluation
That is why the company decided to introduce an editorial system to optimize the process. The objectives were obvious - save time and money, and increase quality and flexibility. And, of course, the system had to meet high security requirements.

After a three-month extensive evaluation phase, the decision was made to integrate WoodWing’s Enterprise publishing system.
Bettina Stoob: “Compared with the other systems, the solution satisfied most of our demands.”

Competent partner support
Because the project could be started just prior to the next report production, little time was available for the conversion. This is exactly the kind of situation in which an experienced and strong partner makes all the difference.

Bettina Stoob remembers: “Because our system integrator, A&F Computersysteme, supported us perfectly, the conversion phase
went well – although, of course, we had a nervous moment or two. A&F was there to help, even late at night or during weekends. We always felt we received competent and customer-oriented advice.”

High acceptance
The biggest changes concerned the workflow, says Stoob. The process had to be established and the staffers had to be convinced and trained. In the end, everyone got used to it very quickly. The staff had been plagued with an outdated and cumbersome process for too long, so acceptance of the new system was high from the beginning.

Bettina Stoob draws an overwhelmingly positive conclusion: “We save waiting time, thus realizing a significantly faster turnaround time for our documents. And we managed to clearly reduce workflow complexity. It is faster, less error-prone and far better structured.”Compared with their previous procedure, they achieved considerable cost savings with a reasonable investment. Bettina Stoob: “We are in control of the process and avoid unnecessary duplication.”

Thanks to these positive experiences, more colleagues and departments will get access to the publishing system in the near future.