Linking business needs with technical solutions is a complex process for any business.
For many companies, technology adds functionality to systems that support various stakeholders. Upgrading requires exploring customer needs and then adopting new technology solutions to meet these emerging and changing needs.
Beyond that, successful integration requires bringing the right leadership and team together to gain a deeper understanding of what is needed, where you are going together, and how best to get there. We recently interviewed Farres Moidu, Senior Director of Software Engineering ceriumnoInsuranceto explore what Central looks like.
The Key to Successfully Connecting Business and Technology
In her experience integrating business needs and technology, Moidu emphasizes the importance of weighing opportunity cost versus how the team plans to deploy time and resources.
“Time can be more expensive than money, so it’s critical to consider how best to utilize a limited set of engineering cycles. What are you saying ‘no’ to when you say ‘yes’ to other things. Choices range from a wide range of development solutions to doubling a single part of the experience or something in between.”
As complicated as making calls can be, he insists that the most critical step for any business is anticipating what customers want, whether you can deliver on what you promised, and if you end up being wrong about any of these components. how to deal with it.
“You can’t just do this kind of innovation through technology or experience; it’s an intertwined relationship. Our collective task is to figure out where to place our bets.”
As a multi-billion dollar insurance company serving policyholders for nearly 150 years, there are countless exciting opportunities to enhance Central’s products and improve the customer experience.
Moidu identified some key stakeholders involved in the integration:
- An underwriter whose job is to consider the amount of risk an insurer is willing to take
- Regional Vice Presidents responsible for working with our agency partners
- Claims team focused on delivering on our promises to policyholders
- Internal teams for data, compliance, audit, etc.
Moidu emphasizes that each stakeholder group has specific goals and needs. Below, we dig into a few examples of how Moidu and his team have successfully implemented technology solutions to meet the specific business needs of these distinct stakeholder groups.
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Focus on technical solutions in the claims processing process
An engineering team at Central is dedicated to supporting the claims functionality and is focused on helping streamline their process.For example, the engineering team was recently able to successfully guide Claims to integrate internal systems with the new roadside assistance provider。 This is a decision made as an ongoing effort to meet our high customer service standards.
“We’re building a world-class claims organization and customer experience is critical. The team worked really hard to understand the policyholder experience and through the feedback loop identified the source of policyholder frustration. What happened next was , the claims team searched across the market for the partner they felt would best address these pain points. From there, it was just a matter of making the technology work. The engineering and claims teams worked closely together to integrate this new partner and maintain a best-in-class Claims experience.”
Technological development of central “entrepreneur policy”
The Owner’s Policy (BOP) is another tool Moidu and his team focused on developing after agency feedback indicated a gap between the market and Central’s product offering.
“Overall, our insurance and digital product teams started thinking about what we wanted our BOP experience to be,” he explained. “At first we thought about automating everything, which would require a significant time investment and push the release time far into the future. The second option was to choose a set of automations that were more narrowly scoped but still met our requirements for doing business easily. Business goals. We chose the second option.”
The importance of a collaborative approach
As Moidu sees it, the strategic application of technology solutions to help meet existing business needs must be seen as the responsibility of all the different aspects of the organization. He emphasized the need for multidisciplinary teams to come together in a collaborative spirit to get things done.
For example, at Central, the Digital Products Organization (DPO) works closely with the Insurance Products Organization (IPO). While IPOs focus on the different ways organizations can build and sell insurance, DPOs focus on ways organizations can build that technology or create the desired experience.
“There are a lot of specific financial and legal details to consider when it comes to an IPO. They work with finance, actuarial, underwriting, claims and other aspects, from how we price it, how much risk we are willing to take, how we market and sell, and so on,” Moidu explained. “DPOs, on the other hand, are focused on digital experiences that meet those needs.”
The impact of DPO and IPO cooperation on the development of Zhonghuan BOP
When developing the BOP, Moidu recalls, it was the sales and IPO teams who recognized the gap in Central’s product portfolio.
“There is a need in the market, and we have an opportunity to develop a product to meet it,” he said.
So the IPO started a conversation with the DPO about what the product should be, what features it should include, and what the overall user experience should look like. Working with the engineering team, the group identified a range of options for what the initial release would look like, as well as a quick follow-up.
According to Moidu, integrating engineering into these conversations is most effective and popular when engineering teams present options that product teams can choose from.
Advice for companies embarking on linking business needs with technology solutions
With years of experience bridging the gap between organizational needs and the engineers who can implement them, we asked Moidu to provide some key takeaways to help organizations start this process. Here’s what he had to say:
1. Don’t operate in silos. “Technical and business needs should not exist and operate separately. Our job is to ensure that the right solution is built for a specific problem in the market. The product and research teams help us do this by accurately assessing the problem or opportunity so we can Not making a lot of inaccurate investments upfront.”
2. Get executive buy-in early and often. “Executive buy-in is critical for product and engineering to be successful. To fully support it, leaders must understand why the approach is important and how to deploy it. Where and how to fit into initial conversations at our company, and what to expect from other leaders. He also educates himself by observing what our peers and other industry leaders are doing, both very important and helpful , because we’ve experienced change on such a large scale.”
3. Don’t underestimate the power of your employees. “People are a big part of the equation. Make sure you have the right leaders and teams at every level. Find people who are willing to adapt the way they work. There is a lot of overlap, negotiation and collaboration when it comes to linking business needs with technology options . You want your team members to bring different perspectives and share common values. If so, move forward together.”
Opportunities to join Central’s tech-focused future
A core part of Central’s IT success depends on hiring the right people and assembling the right team. The company’s IT culture is rooted in the collaborative spirit of a start-up, backed by 150 years of investment in innovation and proven success. Leadership values what IT brings to the organization and commits to technology, teams and talent to make it happen.
Deep relationships and connections have always set Central apart from other insurance companies. IT development shouldn’t happen in a vacuum or in silos. We’re growing with excitement and determination as our teams work together to drive technology and innovation at Central. We recognize the leadership potential in everyone and work to unleash it in those who want to make an impact. Central is perfect if you want to build, create, innovate and take control of what you do. Our size allows us to be nimble and adaptable, which provides opportunities for meaningful exploration and growth by providing opportunities you are unlikely to find at a large insurer.
If you’re looking for a job where someone will tell you what to do and how to do it, Central may not be for you. But if you have the opportunity to feel energized from inspiration to idea to implementation, Explore current job opportunities here.
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