Maier Globalizes Zurich N.A.

In taking on the top technology post at Zurich North America as part of a restructuring of IT, Andy Maier has left behind the alpine splendor of parent company Zurich Financial Services' ($59.7 billion in revenue) Zurich, Switzerland, headquarters. Instead, he is forging a dramatic change in the Schaumburg, Ill.-based outpost's IT landscape.

According to Maier, his new task as key account executive in charge of all IT delivery for the Zurich North America business division "is transforming a local IT service production into a global model for IT service delivery." That model, he adds, "should be more flexible, more cost-effective and, ultimately, provide better service to the business division."

Since assuming his duties in Schaumburg last summer, Maier has supervised the centralization of infrastructure elements, such as data centers and help desks, as well as IT service delivery, which, in the past, typically was provided locally. "We have globalized governance and management models, and are now in the process of extending this model to application services," which involves migrating some applications work offshore, Maier notes. "That means we can free up some of the onshore capabilities to work on new projects."

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio