Individual risk management enables efficient decisions

Industry: research
Company size: approx. 1,520 employees
Requirements: Mapping of specific structures, (release) processes, assessment methods and reporting for management
Users: approx. 100
Project category: Opportunity and risk management

The GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, founded in 1969 and based in Darmstadt, operates one of the world's leading particle accelerator facilities. Its focus is on atomic and nuclear physics, plasma physics, biophysics and materials research. About 1,520 people are employed at GSI. In addition, about 1,200 scientists from universities and other laboratories worldwide come to use the research facility for their experiments each year. GSI Helmholzzentrum also maintains international cooperations with about 400 institutes from more than 50 countries. The company's shareholders are the German federal government (90%), the German state of Hesse (8%), the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the German state of Thuringia (1% each).

In addition, FAIR, an international accelerator center for research with antiprotons and ions, is currently being developed and built at GSI in cooperation with international partners. There, matter will be produced and researched in the laboratory in a way that otherwise only occurs in the universe. Researchers from all over the world expect new insights into the structure of matter and the evolution of the universe, from the Big Bang to the present day.

As a research institute, GSI had very specific requirements for the opportunity and risk management system, for which numerous providers were evaluated in the course of a tender in 2019. antares RiMIS® convinced with its mature basic functions and the possibility to easily add individual requirements.

The basis of the selection process was a requirement and performance specification created by GSI, which included e.g. an individual risk map, special release processes and evaluation options.

In the first step of the project, the existing risks from the previous system were taken over and transferred to antares RiMIS®. Additional features and new functions were activated in the new software environment, thus optimizing the process. The project team was then quickly enabled to use the application quickly and effectively with antares' training concept. The complete project from start to individual enhancements to implementation and go-live was realized with an effort of about 30 project days. The complete corporate structure of GSI, including all rights and duties of the employees in the area of risk management, could be adequately mapped due to the implemented workflow. By assigning roles to corresponding employees, an efficient and error-free overall process could be created.

Special approval process: A special and extended approval process was developed and introduced. The users (risk owners) can release risks directly depending on their severity and viability and thus act more efficiently and independently in terms of time, thus relieving the management accordingly.

Special assessment process: With GSI, a multi-dimensional and completely individual assessment is carried out across a total of eight dimensions, including severity, with the effect of a significantly more precise statement. The result is used to make a well-founded decision on the risk situation and the countermeasures to be taken.