Farmers Insurance automates HCM reporting with Query Manager

The challenge

In 2010 John Worman started as the HR Services /Analytics Manager at Farmers Insurance. At the time their ongoing predicament was the need for better HCM data and analysis to sharpen business insight and drive decision-making for payroll, benefits, talent acquisition and other HCM functions.

The 100 HCM reports produced every month by the HR Analytics team were patently inadequate. Typically, a report using a variety of SAP tools, would take three separate Queries - some reports required up to ten Queries. The results of these Queries were then consolidated in Excel and distributed by email to the relevant people. This mostly repetitive and manual work kept four analysts busy full-time. Errors were commonplace and the Analytics team was at risk of losing credibility.

Some reports, like the termination report, were mission critical because, among other things, people had to be notified to stop access to buildings and systems. John noted, “The one thing I knew for sure was that the demand for HCM data would continue to grow. We needed to find ways to better utilize our time and automation was the key”.

The solution

Farmers Insurance was advised to look at EPI-USE Labs’ Query Manager by their parent company, Zurich Insurance. Zurich had been using Query Manager since the early 2000s and found it indispensible in streamlining their SAP HCM reporting. The product is an excellent reporting solution for SAP HCM allowing report writers to produce reports immediately from a choice of delivered reports, but also enabling them to create reports from scratch using the delivered reports as a guide if necessary. Any SAP HCM data source may be added onto a single report which can then be delivered via email or ad hoc through the system interface.

Query Manager had the support of the entire team; it was easy to use and interfaced perfectly with other tools like Microsoft Access and Excel.

In 2010 Farmers centralized their reporting in Query Manager. The immediate advantages were noticeable:

• automatic scheduling and distribution of reports via email.
• single reports (as opposed to three or more Queries) containing combined data from any number of SAP HCM sources.
• Analytics team able to set up each report once which is automatically distributed.

As John said, “Now the Queries are running when we sleep and, when the people requiring the information get into work, it is just sitting there waiting for them”.

• Countless benefits due to automation
• Greater efficiency
• Productivity rocketed
• 0% error
• Better focus and directing of skills
• Vast improvement in time use – what would take weeks could be done in minutes
• Easier and quicker distribution
• All-round, better quality reports

The benefits of Query Manager

The automation “freed-up time” that used to be spent on non-value added work. Now the HR Analytics team can focus on statistical analysis, trend analysis and dashboards that support the business strategy. The team has become a trusted advisor to the business and is consulted with confidence.

Before the advent of Query Manager Farmers had four analysts who generated about 100 reports a month to provide business information. Today, with the same four analysts, they are generating 1200 reports a month. Automation makes it possible to support requirements like daily reports, which was impossible before.

Previously, the only available method to examine data was to run numerous reports to extract the entire years’ worth of data, and then manipulate this in an external system such as Excel. In many cases this would take weeks. Now these reports are created in minutes by selecting the exact data required, the period of time and the frequency of the analysis periods. It’s easy to use this data for graphs to provide trend reports for Payroll Results, Leave Quota Data, Headcount, Staff Movements and many other areas.

This HR Analytics team’s thinking is now being shared with all the HR business partners. For example: If deduction details were required to be sent out to 50 different Vendors, then one single report can create 50 different emails. The content of each email can be filtered to contain only the contents that are relevant to that Vendor.

John says it succinctly: “When people ask me how we improved the HCM reporting processes so drastically, the first thing out of my mouth is EPI-USE Labs’ Query Manager”.

About Farmers Insurance

The Farmers Insurance Group of Companies® make up one of the USA’s largest insurers of vehicles, homes and small businesses and provide a wide range of other insurance and financial services products. With over 50 000 independent agents and nearly 21 000 employees, Farmers manages more than 20 million individual policies, touching more than 10 million households across all 50 states.