Insurance companies
Merkur Versicherung AG.
Merkur Versicherung AG, Austria’s oldest health insurance company and one of its largest, provides insurance for individuals, along with comprehensive cover for the tangible and intangible assets that they create. In addition to its head office in Graz, Austria, it is active on the market in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro.
The Task
Insurance companies process vast amounts of personal and sensitive data, meaning that data protection is a major part of their day-to-day work. This is particularly relevant when it comes to the destruction of insured parties’ files. Merkur Versicherung AG aimed to meet the strict demands of data protection and expand them further.
In response, REISSWOLF worked with the client to compile a comprehensive solution. The core requirement was to create a centralised solution with transparent costs for the various sites, which had worked autonomously up to that time and complied with diverse safety and quality standards.
Before the project was commenced, it was discovered that the company did not have a uniform strategy for destroying all of its paper records. At the head office in Graz, data protection requirements were met by the company’s internal destruction system, entailing high personnel costs. At the regional and branch offices, however, various solutions were in place with differing safety and quality standards.
For the realisation of the project, REISSWOLF Austria created a cost- optimised, Austria-wide strategy. The larger of the two general management buildings was equipped with five RW240 and six RW500 security containers. As the second management building had a smaller workforce, six RW70s were provided. The company’s internal destruction system was thus made obsolete and it is no longer used. Instead, the new paper collection containers are changed on a regular basis, every two weeks. The internal paper logistics was retained.
The regional management offices were given sufficient RW240 security containers to meet their individual paper needs.
Given the smaller workforce at the branch offices, RW70s are used there. The collection containers are changed as required. The security containers are used for all waste paper. Deciding on the right way to destroy paper data is now no longer an issue for employees at Merkur Versicherung AG.
Thanks to REISSWOLF Austria’s nation- wide network of sites, the collection packs could be delivered in very little time and rapid response times are possible when security containers need to be changed.
Client benefits
n the central management buildings, the new system enabled the client to reduce the amount of time devoted to data destruction while saving on costs, as the costs incurred for the comprehensive paper destruction are lower than the cost of the previously used labour. This frees up time that can now be used internally for other purposes.
At the regional and branch offices, data protection has increased many times over. The uniform system ensures that the same safety and quality standards are used across the board and costs have been made plannable and transparent. As REISSWOLF does not use any sub-contractors and supplies all its services from a single source, the data protection risk is significantly reduced.
Outlook
For REISSWOLF, satisfied clients are always the top priority. Long-term partnerships are built on clients’ confidence in the company and their satisfaction. And Merkur Versicherung AG is no exception. Accordingly, REISSWOLF will be the first point of call for the destruction of all other data storage media and will support its client in many other tasks.