Insurance Sector – Rescuing a Global Insurance Organization from the perils of a ‘Managed’ Service
This leading insurance institution was two months away from an IT audit by one of the big management consultancies. Their outsourcer’s operational processes had been unfit for purpose for some time, service perception was at an all-time low and management had lost the ability to even quantify the level of service that the IT department were delivering. Ill conceived, poorly implemented and maintained process was responsible for creating a backlog of work that, overtime, compounded to a point where ultimately the whole operation would have ground to a halt. The staff had accepted that the operation was destined for failure and the will to try to recover the solution was lost.
A small team of two technical authors, two process analysts, an ITIL expert and a team lead set upon the task of re-defining the operational procedures in collaboration with a handful of selected individuals from the outsourcer’s team. All aspects of the operation were challenged and streamlined over the course of eight weeks from incident/problem management to change control procedures, escalation, reporting and operational acceptance processes. The outsourcer’s staff were stakeholders in the process to produce streamline, usable documentation and processes that cut through previous levels of bureaucracy and red-tape with full buy-in from management who could see how reducing overhead need not compromise integrity. The audit went ahead and the firm in question passed albeit with significant action items specifically relating to historical operating practices.
A small team of two technical authors, two process analysts, an ITIL expert and a team lead set upon the task of re-defining the operational procedures in collaboration with a handful of selected individuals from the outsourcer’s team. All aspects of the operation were challenged and streamlined over the course of eight weeks from incident/problem management to change control procedures, escalation, reporting and operational acceptance processes. The outsourcer’s staff were stakeholders in the process to produce streamline, usable documentation and processes that cut through previous levels of bureaucracy and red-tape with full buy-in from management who could see how reducing overhead need not compromise integrity. The audit went ahead and the firm in question passed albeit with significant action items specifically relating to historical operating practices.