alfabetConnect
“IT Director”--“PRAXIS,” current issue
By Eva Hildebrandt and Ina Schlücker
Klaus Wolf, Generali Deutschland
“We've greatly improved our flexibility”
An interview with Klaus Wolf of Generali Deutschland Informatik Services GmbH on implementing a holistic enterprise architecture management (EAM) solution
IT-DIRECTOR: Mr. Wolf, can you describe how IT is structured at the Generali Deutschland Group?
K. Wolf: Information technology throughout our entire group in Germany has been outsourced to Generali Deutschland Informatik Services GmbH. We basically operate as a full service provider within the corporation and are responsible for all IT tasks. We employ a staff of some 1,100 and provided service for approximately 12,000 in-house employees, plus some 35,000 insurance agents.
IT-DIRECTOR: How did the joint project with EAM provider alfabet come about?
K. Wolf: As you can imagine, with the variety of companies under the Generali Deutschland roof, we run a plethora of applications. In detail, we support about 500 large customized IT apps for our German clients, including life insurance policy management. These systems have been developed over the past thirty years and are quite complex. Our first step was to try and get an overview of this highly complex IT environment. alfabet’s software planningIT provided an inventory directory across the entire group’s information technology. We built our strategic planning based on this inventory, initially weeding out any redundant systems and applications that sould no longer be maintained.
In the current second phase, we are melding the EAM solution with system development processes, such as customer relationship management. We are also developing new solutions for the damages department. With the help of planningIT we want to determine strategically the relationship between business domain related knowledge and the IT solutions to realize strategic projects, initiatives, and application development projects. We want to achieve the requirements of our IT master plan within the next three to four years.
IT-DIRECTOR: What are the objectives of your IT master plan? Will you be consolidating all your applications or will you replace them with standard solutions?
K. Wolf: That’s a tough question to answer because it’s a continuous, business-driven process that never ends. Business always poses new and significant challenges for IT. Take our web-based end customer portal, for instance. There, policyholders are able to edit their personal information by themselves, for example, an address change. This kind of functionality can have serious implications for a master plan. The objective of this process can be consolidation — especially if legacy or redundant systems are in play. But the main objective is business IT alignment.
IT-DIRECTOR: How did you go about choosing your EAM solution?
K. Wolf: We initially referred to a market study on enterprise architecture solutions produced by the Technical University of Munich. Next we documented our own requirements, compared them with the study, and concluded that we would have selected the same product. Then we went into action. alfabet’s solution provided us with the flexibility we needed. It even features an integrated meta-model right out of the box, so we were able to jumpstart our project. In fact, even while still selecting the tool, we were already implementing it and loading it with initial data.
IT-DIRECTOR: When a CIO is personally involved in implementing a product like this for the first time, does that necessarily mean that he or she will be engulfed in an enormous project?
K. Wolf: No, not really. Of course, we started out with certain basic information regarding our application landscape. When implementing EAM, a step-by-step policy is essential. In the first stage, even if you only manage to capture a subset of the application landscape with which the teams can work, that is still better than having to juggle seven different and inconsistent Excel spreadsheets, each of which need individual maintenance at seven different locations. EAM functionality is extremely valuable in corporations that have merged with other companies and need to integrate their IT systems. In our particular case, EAM was an enormous benefit when we integrated German insurance company Volksfürsorge within the Generali Insurance group.
IT-DIRECTOR: Your migration process is a great real-world example. Do you mainly utilize EAM for change processes?
K. Wolf: If you want to use a solution like PlanningIT merely to keep track of inventory directories, you’re not taking advantage of all its rich functionality. For instance, even in a regular development project, you want to correlate the whole development process with the EAM tool. At the end of the project, the new system has to be documented in the EAM directory. This way staff can integrate the EAM tool with business processes. The result is a permanent inventory.
IT-DIRECTOR: Is EAM a key factor in your IT strategy?
K. Wolf: Absolutely. We use it for change and development processes. Even our user helpdesk uses PlanningIT proactively because it reveals correlations between business departments and their respective software applications.
IT-DIRECTOR: Let’s get back to IT strategy. Are topics like service oriented architectures or cloud computing on your radar screen?
K. Wolf: Without a doubt. Insurance companies of the future will be doing business IT alignment — also known as the “Insurance Operation of the Future.” This will impact the software we use. You can only this strategy when every pplication is available on the Web — and that is exactly what we plan to do. Someday every single IT application in the insurance industry will be utilizing this technology, regardless of the particular user group — back-office staff, agents, or even end customers. We are convinced of that. One of the prerequisites is a service oriented architecture. planningIT documents services, too. You just have to take into consideration that that the insurance industry has special requirements for cloud computing – especially those regarding data and IT security.
IT-DIRECTOR: Finally, what would you recommend for companies aiming to launch an enterprise architecture project?
K. Wolf: Firstly, secure top management buy-in. If they’re not on board, things could get dicey. Secondly, the project must be able to deliver a quantifiable business value. Be able to demonstrate a financial gain, say, by reducing costs within twelve to fifteen months — which is actually quite feasible. The project should consist of several smaller steps, all of which will reap an ROI. If you cannot provide these benefits, sooner or later management will get restless.
Generali Deutschland Group
Serving more than 13.5 million customers, the Generali Deutschland Group collects more than 16.2 billion euros in premiums. This makes it the second largest direct insurance corporation in the German marketplace. Companies belonging to the Generali Deutschland Group include Generali Versicherungen, AachenMünchener, CosmosDirekt, Central Krankenversicherung, Advocard Rechtsschutzversicherung, Deutsche Bausparkasse Badenia and Dialog, plus a number of corporate-owned service providers, including Generali Deutschland Informatik Services GmbH. For further information, see www.generali-deutschland.de
Back to newsletter