LONDON, 23 July 2007 – Information Resources, Inc (IRI), a leading supplier of enterprise market information solutions and services, today announced that it has selected Aon Consulting, a leading pension, benefits and HR consulting firm, as its recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) provider.  The appointment comes as IRI looks to improve its recruitment processes in order to address a number of challenges in this area. 

According to Nick Peligno, Business Development Manager for Aon Consulting, “Up until recently, IRI used two high-cost routes to market: recruitment agencies and traditional media advertising.  The HR department and senior line managers were responsible for hiring decisions, but both were stretched by limited resources.  As a result, the cost per hire was too high and the time taken to fill vacancies too long.” 

In order to address these challenges, Aon has introduced an onsite team for IRI and deployed a customised web-based technology system that automates the recruitment process and enables candidates to apply online for vacancies or submit their details for future opportunities via a dedicated recruitment website: www.iricareers.com

Aon is also assisting IRI to proactively target passive job seekers (85% of the UK working population) as well as the 15% who are actively looking for new roles, in order to ensure that IRI is able to hit its recruitment targets.  As part of this proactive campaign, Aon has designed a multi-channel approach, which includes elements such as advertising online on targeted job boards and revamping the careers section of the company’s website to attract direct applicants for specific vacancies, generate a talent pool and reduce its reliance on agencies and off-line advertising.

Additionally, candidates who apply electronically via www.iricareers.com, are now processed through Aon’s online applicant management and tracking system, which links all the recruitment channels and allows IRI to see instantly the effectiveness of each route to market. 

Aon Consulting’s appointment follows referrals from two of the company’s existing RPO clients, Dow Corning and Christian Salvensen, who were able to outline to IRI the business benefits of the RPO programmes that Aon delivered for them.   These include savings on total recruitment costs, significantly reduced time taken to hire and improved quality of candidates. 

Ros Smith, IRI’s HR Director, said: “Both companies spoke highly of Aon’s credentials, which was an important factor in our decision-making process.  They were also able to provide us with tangible evidence of the benefits that outsourcing their recruitment processes to Aon Consulting has brought to their organisations.  We are looking forward to working with the Aon team and experiencing these benefits for ourselves over the next few years.”

Peligno added “We have been able to show IRI that we understood its issues and have introduced a multi-channelled recruitment programme that specifically addresses the challenges the company faces.  We are looking forward to being able to show IRI the tangible results that outsourcing its recruitment processes will bring to the company.”

About Aon Consulting

Aon Consulting is a leading human capital consultancy, helping organisations of every size to attract and keep the employees they need. We advise on all aspects of employment, including health-related insurance and risk; employee compensation and pensions; human resource strategy planning; job design and change management; and staff assessment and legal issues. Aon Consulting is a division of Aon, one of the UK’s largest insurance brokers and providers of risk management services and a major force in reinsurance and the UK human capital consulting market.  Aon Consulting Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

About Aon

Aon Corporation is a leading provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, human capital and management consulting, and specialty insurance underwriting.  There are 43,000 employees working in Aon’s 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.

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 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, ERISA class actions, the impact of the analysis of practices relating to stock options, 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.

Aon Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority in respect of insurance mediation activities only

Aon Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority in respect of insurance mediation activities only.