Allmerica risk management
information systems assessment
In
today’s rapidly changing and competitive environment, organizations are
faced with the ongoing challenge of growing the top line while assuring
bottom-line profitability. Key elements in achieving these objectives
are the creation and execution of a well-defined business strategy. Effective
execution requires that the organization has the right people, processes
and technology to support their business strategy and enable timely delivery
of expected results.
Allmerica Financial Corporation is headquartered in Worcester, Massachusetts. The
organization writes over $3 billion in annuity, life, and property and
casualty products. The organization’s P&C division had recently redefined
its business strategy. This strategy was heavily dependent on the implementation
and utilization of emerging technologies for marketing, distribution and
product administration. It also required rapid IT development cycles to
meet aggressive business requirements.
The ATS (Allmerica Technology Services) organization provides information
technology support to the Risk Management business community and its customers.
The Robert E. Nolan Company was selected to work with key members of the
ATS organization and a cross section of Allmerica’s Risk Management user
community. They were to evaluate the current ATS environment in relationship
to the business strategy, identify gaps in support that would affect delivery
of the business strategy and develop a strategic plan to address any gaps
identified. The assessment was to cover ATS’ plans through the next five
years with a primary focus on the next three years.
Nolan designed and developed databases to track and analyze information relating
to the number of applications, languages and platforms, and the associated
people and skill sets.
A steering committee comprised of members of Allmerica’s business and technology
divisions was formed to validate business strategy, confirm process goals,
review progress and approve recommendations. The steering committee confirmed
that the key enablers of the business strategy would be People, Process
and Technology. This set the stage for the analysis process and provided
a central focus for the recommendations that would ultimately be developed.
Technology
The Allmerica-Nolan team completed an inventory of existing technology
and defined the inventory of technology that would enable business strategy
delivery. Based on this information, they performed a gap analysis between
the current and desired state and developed recommendations to address
the gaps identified.
People
A skills evaluation of all existing IT and business support staff was
performed and the results were compared to the required skills, traits
and experience to support required technologies and effectively deliver
the business strategy. A plan was developed to address all identified
gaps.
Processes
The team also examined existing technology development processes and identified
the modifications that would be required to support reduced implementation
timeframes. They also evaluated how to maximize teamwork between the business
and technology communities and meet the organization’s evolving strategic
requirements.
Allmerica’s redesigned technology strategy supports faster delivery of new applications
and reduces traditional implementation and maintenance costs. It capitalizes
on existing technologies and utilizes new technologies to provide added
functionality. The strategy also promotes effective selection and management
of vendor business partners and the effective transfer of knowledge to
internal support staff.
Recommendations
to increase productivity and enhance internal employee skill sets will
reduce reliance on outside vendor resources and create significant savings
over the next five years. The maximization of current technology and the
strategic investment in new technologies will result in additional savings.
Allmerica has a sound business strategy, with an IT plan that will support effective,
timely delivery of that strategy and assure achievement of expected business
results.
