Zurich Insurance Group’s Group Risk Management deploys IBM OpenPages SaaS GRC platform in Zurich, Switzerland; enables AI-enabled risk decisions
A global risk architecture, simplified: Group Risk Management at Zurich Insurance Group and IBM OpenPages
By deploying IBM OpenPages® as a SaaS platform, Zurich Insurance Group’s Group Risk Management created a scalable governance, risk and compliance (GRC) foundation for strong governance and better forward-looking risk decisions—all without custom code. Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich) is a Swiss-based multi-line insurer founded in 1872. It operates in more than 210 countries and territories, has more than 65,000 employees and serves tens of millions of customers worldwide. Within that global organization, Group Risk Management is responsible for strengthening the frameworks, processes and tools used to identify, assess and manage non-financial risks. These efforts align with evolving regulatory requirements, operational resilience expectations and business change. The legacy governance, risk and compliance (GRC) setup used by Zurich’s Group Risk Management supported the organization for many years, but enterprise risk management frameworks and regulatory expectations evolved significantly. Upgrading the existing GRC environment would not provide the flexibility or sophistication needed for the future. A greenfield implementation of the GRC tool gave Zurich’s Group Risk Management a cleaner path forward. First, the team established the right data model foundation and then built core processes on top of it. It also gave teams a simpler way to strengthen governance and manage risk across Zurich Insurance Group. Deployment speed was critical. Because the GRC tool supports critical risk processes, Zurich’s Group Risk Management deliberately chose an ambitious timeline. The goal was to go live with a robust set of core capabilities and then extend the platform to address further regulatory and methodological requirements in a controlled way. These requirements led Zurich’s Group Risk Management to IBM OpenPages, a scalable, AI-powered SaaS GRC platform that met its precise and complex enterprise risk management needs without requiring any custom code. The Group Risk Management team needed more than a place to record risk and control-related activities. It required a system that could help teams identify current and emerging risks, assess controls and connect regulatory requirements to day-to-day business operations across Zurich Insurance Group. A central design choice was to make internal controls an integral part of the framework used to identify, evaluate and address potential threats, not a separate compliance workflow. In the GRC context, controls are the policies, procedures and safeguards used to manage business risks, ensure regulatory compliance and enforce company directives. That gave risk managers and business teams a clearer path through the work. They saw which controls reduced which exposures, how issues were moving through the process and what actions needed follow-up. Common processes for assessments, issue management and action planning also helped teams work consistently across the organization while still adapting to local needs. IBM OpenPages serves as Group Risk Management’s GRC platform at Zurich Insurance Group. Group Risk Management selected a SaaS deployment model to reduce operational effort for the risk management organization. The SaaS approach keeps the management of cloud infrastructure, security operations, platform availability and continuous delivery of new functionality and updates in IBM’s hands. As a result, Zurich’s Group Risk Management can focus on its core risk management responsibilities. IBM Cognos® Analytics is integrated into the infrastructure that delivers operational reporting and analytics, including the monitoring of risk information, controls and actions across the organization. The modular structure of IBM OpenPages was important to Zurich’s Group Risk Management. The organization needed a flexible platform that supported its enterprise risk management requirements without requiring a custom application. Zurich’s Group Risk Management and Pentos used native OpenPages capabilities, including UI configuration, workflows and calculations, rather than writing custom code. That configuration-first approach reduced complexity, simplified maintenance, supported upgrades and lowered the long-term total cost of ownership. The platform creates an AI-ready foundation. The AI, analytics and governance capabilities of IBM OpenPages align with the Group Risk Management’s plan to connect risk data and automate processes. These capabilities also help generate insights and support more forward-looking risk management across Zurich Insurance Group. The deployment gives the Group Risk Management team a global cloud-based GRC platform with standardized processes, an integrated non-financial risk model and a foundation for AI-enabled governance. It now supports a single view of non-financial risk across Zurich Insurance Group’s global business. For Zurich employees, the most important impact is a more connected experience. Risk managers and business users no longer need to treat risks, controls, action plans and regulatory requirements as disconnected workstreams. They can use an integrated platform that reflects how Zurich’s Group Risk Management manages risk across the enterprise. The zero-customization approach also has a positive impact on total cost of ownership (TCO). Configuration-only delivery reduces system complexity, limits upgrade friction and avoids the long-term maintenance costs that often come with bespoke code. The modularity of OpenPages enables Zurich’s Group Risk Management to adapt the system as needs change without turning every new requirement into a custom development project. The GRC transformation led by Zurich’s Group Risk Management shows the value of a disciplined architecture: integrate from the start, protect data quality and keep the platform simple enough to scale. The technical choices reinforce the operating model. A holistic data model connects risks, controls, events, issues, action plans and policies. Native OpenPages configuration avoids custom code. SaaS delivery shifts infrastructure, security and platform updates to IBM. Common workflows help teams manage risk consistently across Zurich Insurance Group. By building on IBM OpenPages, Zurich’s Group Risk Management has turned a global non-financial risk modernization effort into a scalable GRC foundation. It can support continuous monitoring, AI-enabled insight, stronger governance and broader first-line ownership without rebuilding the core architecture as requirements change.