Sysco Delivers Powerful Risk and Claims Data for Global Operations

With nearly $40 billion in gross sales and 180 facilities located primarily throughout North America, Sysco is one of the world’s largest food distributors, delivering a wide range of food and supplies to restaurants, schools, hospitals, prisons and other organizations.

With 45,000 employees and 10,000 18-wheel trucks on the road, the Houston, Texas-based company places a priority on managing claims and work-related injuries. On a monthly basis, the company receives an average of 500 new claims and issues 8,000 to 10,000 payment checks.

Sysco adopted RISKMASTER in 1998 to replace an old and inflexible system that struggled to handle data feeds from multiple sources, including insurance companies and third-party administrators. “We evaluated many different options and decided that we needed something that could help consolidate our processes," said Pam Floyd, senior staff accountant for Risk Management at Sysco. "We went ahead with RISKMASTER because we really liked what we saw and have been with it ever since.”

Expediting Information Sharing

Moving to a modern risk and claims management system not only centralized claims data and streamlined processes, it positioned Sysco to focus on a key objective: improving information sharing internally and with trusted partners. The company uses third-party administrators for its casualty claims, which encompass workers’ compensation and auto, product and general liability. To facilitate this progress, Sysco upgraded to the Web browser-based version of the software.

“We have a future vision of where we’d like to be with RISKMASTER,” said Floyd. “And certainly the Web-based version offered, was going down that path. We have 180 operating companies, and we’re in every major city in the U.S. This is where the sales and delivery of the product actually happens, and, eventually, we would like for all of them to be able to log in and run some reports and view their claim financial data.”

Improving Claims Tracking

RISKMASTER plays an integral role in tracking the company’s casualty claims and helping Sysco manage risk.

“What we primarily use RISKMASTER for is to record the claim financials, and some safety statistics so we can track and measure frequency in the number of OSHA claims versus the number of DOT claims and the number of DART claims — how many accidents a year, how many claims a month and, of course, what the reserves are on those claims,” said Floyd.

In 2011, Sysco upgraded to the most current version of RISKMASTER Business Analytics to fine-tune its reporting capabilities.

“Each of our operating units is like its own company, and we’re able to provide a report with claims to the entire company. It helps upper management see how various regions and companies are doing.

“Ease of use was a key attribute of the new reporting tool,” she added. “Writing reports with Business Analytics is natural. The infrastructure is laid out very well. It’s very easy to use.”

Staying in Control of the Data

Floyd said Sysco prefers to manage its data in-house, without having to rely on third parties for reports.

“It’s important to us that our claims data be autonomous, and that’s what we like about RISKMASTER and CSC,” she said. “There are companies out there with a similar kind of program, but they require that they host your data. We want to host our own data and produce our own reports for our various departments.”

In terms of overall relationship, Floyd says, “I would rate CSC very high. At Sysco, our philosophy is to be a strong partner to our customers, and when we’re looking at companies to provide us with products and services, we want them to share the same philosophy in terms of innovation, support and flexibility. One of the things that I like best is that whatever level of support I need, CSC can provide it.”