In With the New
I&T: How do you keep up with new technologies?
Brown: I definitely read a lot. I'm also very hands-on. I don't see how you can't be - the best way to keep up with technology is to play with it. When we began the migration to a .NET platform, I felt that intimately knowing the underlying database would enable us to create better applications for our users. I wanted to know the database myself, so I wrote some of the code. For one brief moment in time, I was better at .NET than my staff was.
I&T: Is your management concerned that you may be implementing too many new technologies too quickly?
Brown: Not at all. At Canal, our users lead the charge, and they are excited once they see what technology can do. As an example, we had one very conservative person in the claims department try to dig in her heels about a year ago and not use the new technologies. I've recently overheard her saying that she could not do her job without our new claims system. That's great validation that what we are doing is having a positive impact and that we are not overwhelming our users.
One of the best things technology has done for Canal is enabled the vice presidents and the users of each area to look at their current processes and get a chance to change and make them better. With the mainframe, you have to work around the constraints of the systems; with these new technologies, the users tell us how they want the process to run, and we can do it.
I&T: How do your legacy systems fit into the new .NET-based architecture?
Brown: We have not done a full-scale lift out of our legacy systems, but are taking incremental steps. We have an exhaustive amount of information on the mainframe. The mainframe applications have been developed over 30 years and have some incredibly solid code. We've decided to take major application pieces off the mainframe and downsize the mainframe. We've taken off claims, general ledger, policy administration and reinsurance. Right now, we store historical data on the mainframe and are slowly migrating that off as well.
We will not buy a software package that runs on the mainframe, and we'll never have to upgrade the mainframe. But, at this point, the mainframe isn't costing us anything, so there is no urgent need to retire it. Right now, I'm training mainframe programmers in .NET technologies. This gives them time to span both worlds - the mainframe and .NET - and migrate our mainframe code over to .NET as they get comfortable with the new technology.
I&T: How does the IT budget process work at Canal Insurance?
Brown: Believe it or not, we don't have an IT budget - which is a gift. But we run at about a ratio of 1.7 to net written premium, which is very good. I would say we spend about $7 million a year on IT.
Rather than having to manage to a budget, we get a chance to make our business cases. If you've got a great idea that is going to have a really great return, there is no issue with being out of budget - you just make your case to our IT governance committee.
I&T: What's your biggest challenge as CIO?
Brown: The biggest challenge is always prioritization. Our users are extremely good, but they've had such tremendous success that they want to change the world. Sometimes, they can be very demanding. My challenge is to balance their wants and needs while continuing to give them an extremely good experience.
On The Net
www.canal-ins.com
www.microsoft.com
www.guidewire.com
www.sap.com
www.imageright.com
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