By Anthony O'Donnell, Insurance & Technology

Many insurance CIOs would love the opportunity to manage a technology environment free of the burden of legacy systems. However, it's a case of "been there done that" with newly appointed CIO and senior vice president of specialty lines P&C carrier NYMAGIC (New York Marine and General Ins. Co.) Craig Lowenthal. Having had the opportunity to build from the ground up at Integro Insurance Brokers and Hartford Financial Products (both of New York), Lowenthal took on his new post with a view toward a new challenge.

“I’m very familiar with the lines of business, as well as the available technology products on the market,” Lowenthal comments. “Executing a technology turnaround at a company like NYMAGIC is a big job, but one I’m confident I have the experience to do.”

In the past, NYMAGIC had not put top priority on IT, but current management sees the strategic value of technology, according to Lowenthal. As part of a five-year strategic plan, the carrier’s leadership has made plans to invest in IT in pursuit of ambitious revenue and service goals. The new CIO’s IT plans involve evaluating legacy systems, with high priority on the carrier’s policy admin, billing, accounting and GL platforms. Lowenthal is also planning to introduce a portal-based intranet.

Lowenthal notes that NYMAGIC’s slogan is “We’ll look at anything.” To live up to that ideal, the company will need flexible and nimble systems that can efficiently rate one-off policies and rapidly create and execute on new products, he comments. “You can’t do that with antiquated systems,” Lowenthal says. “And if you want to reap the rewards of additional revenue, you need your expense base to be as minimal as possible.”

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