Aon Risk Services Completes Implementation of Acorn Systems Profit Improvement Solution

CHICAGO, Nov. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Aon Corporation has selected and implemented Acorn Systems' profit improvement solution Profit Analyzer(TM) for its brokerage subsidiary to further increase the company's profitable growth and operational efficiency.

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Aon Risk Services, Aon's brokerage subsidiary, has begun to use Acorn Systems' Profit Analyzer(TM) to analyze and identify opportunities for profit improvement among its clients. After evaluating profit improvement software vendors and potential in-house solutions, Aon selected Acorn Systems. "Acorn was selected due to its expertise, ability to deliver quickly, and solution flexibility and scalability," according to Karen Steinberg, CIO for Aon Risk Services Americas.

"The system is both scalable and cost effective because it is based on Microsoft's SQL Server and is integrated with the Aon Risk Services' Data Warehouse and Cognos environment for decision support," said Craig Coit, chief financial officer, Aon Risk Services Americas. "This scalability enables Aon to use Profit Analyzer(TM) to capture and aggregate the detailed data necessary to accurately assess and identify client profitability.

"Acorn Systems was the only vendor that presented us with a solution for improving profitability with the level of accuracy and granularity required for our business," Coit added. "The objective, simply stated, was to create an activity-based view of client profitability. We have a complicated product array with unique servicing variations that require detailed costing of resources being assigned to the clients. Early indications are positive that we will be able to give our relationship managers and brokers useful and actionable insights into the profitability of their individual client relationships."

Said J. Alex Fernandez, Acorn Systems' President, "Any time you have the complexity of business that a company such as Aon has, the ability to better understand how to manage for profitable growth, better service your customers, and execute this without carrying excess capacity creates a strong competitive advantage for your company in the global marketplace."

About Aon

Aon Corporation ( http://www.aon.com/ ) provides more insurance brokerage, reinsurance brokerage and risk management services than any other company in the world, and is a leader in human capital and management consulting and specialty insurance underwriting. Aon has 45,000 employees in 500 offices in more than 120 countries. Backed by broad resources, industry knowledge and technical expertise, Aon professionals help a wide range of clients develop effective risk management and workforce productivity solutions.

About Acorn Systems

Acorn Systems provides continuous enterprise-wide visibility into business performance enabling profit improvement at a low total cost of ownership. Acorn Systems delivers a solution that is verifiably accurate, auditable and actionable. Acorn Systems' solution is flexible and dynamic and provides a sustainable, scalable platform for Corporate Performance Management. Acorn Systems' clients come from many industries in North America and Europe, including Financial Services, Retail, Consumer Product Goods, and Distribution and Logistics.

This press release contains certain statements related to future results, or states our intentions, beliefs and expectations or predictions for the future which are forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from either historical or anticipated results depending on a variety of factors. Potential factors that could impact results include: general economic conditions in different countries in which we do business around the world, changes in global equity and fixed income markets that could affect the return on invested assets, fluctuations in exchange and interest rates that could influence revenue and expense, rating agency actions that could affect our ability to borrow funds, funding of our various pension plans, changes in the competitive environment, our ability to implement restructuring initiatives and other initiatives intended to yield cost savings, our ability to execute the stock repurchase program, our ability to consummate the pending sale of the Aon Warranty Group, our ability to obtain regulatory or legislative changes to permit continuous sales of our supplemental Medicare health product, changes in commercial property and casualty markets and commercial premium rates that could impact revenues, changes in revenues and earnings due to the elimination of contingent commissions, other uncertainties surrounding a new compensation model, the impact of investigations brought by state attorneys general, state insurance regulators, federal prosecutors, and federal regulators, the impact of class actions and individual lawsuits including client class actions, securities class actions, derivative actions, and ERISA class actions, the cost of resolution of other contingent liabilities and loss contingencies, and the difference in ultimate paid claims in our underwriting companies from actuarial estimates. Further information concerning the Company and its business, including factors that potentially could materially affect the Company's financial results, is contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

For more information, contact: Al Orendorff Aon Corporation 312.381.3153 al_orendorff@aon.com