Past Elite 8: Where Are They Now?
ING US Moves Toward Single Culture
Paul Donovan, chief information officer, ING US Financial Services (Atlanta) and a 2002 Elite 8 honoree, explains that "ING has progressed on several fronts by pushing the envelope" within the past year. Although many initiatives are still works in progress, areas of improvement include more efficient infrastructure and application environments, as well as movement toward the creation of a single information technology culture.
"ING is a company that was created through mergers, and we had legacy systems that were all over the place," Donovan says. "With minimal funding we've rolled out parts of an improved architecture." The carrier is also "managing IT better than we ever did," as a result of the formation of an information management office, contends the CIO.
Donovan's plans for 2004 include more steps toward achieving a unified IT culture. "ING has gone through a significant infrastructure assessment and we will make the decision to improve it by outsourcing or fixing it internally," Donovan explains. "We will also continue the rollout of our improved architecture to make ING's business much more efficient," he explains.
Callahan Gets a Promotion
Although he was challenged with "doing more with less" in the past year, 2002 Elite 8 honoree Dennis Callahan reduced IT expenses while enhancing services-and at the same time he managed to get a promotion. The former senior vice president and CIO of The Guardian Life Insurance Co. (New York), is now executive vice president and chief information officer. "In addition to information technology, I am now responsible for facilities nationally, e-business, business process outsourcing and Guardian's corporate security office," he explains. Callahan is also a part of Guardian's Risk Management Committee.
In 2003, the CIO faced challenges such as the soft economy, the need for business continuity and a changing regulatory environment. He responded to those hurdles by improving financial management as part of a strengthened IT governance culture that focuses on reducing costs and maximizing value. "Guardian continues to aggressively negotiate vendor contracts, evaluate outsourcing alternatives and embrace project management best practices and project portfolio prioritization," says Callahan. To aid in its reinforcement of a business continuity plan, Callahan has hired a chief security officer and established the Corporate Security Office.
Another accomplishment has been the launch of a corporate-wide intranet designed to foster information sharing and collaboration. Callahan also made "significant progress" implementing an enterprise component-based architecture, and rolled out variable-pay rewards based on performance. In 2004 Callahan hopes to focus on straight-through processing, sales force automation and CRM.
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Levine Takes on "Second Job"
This year has been a busy one for 2003 recipient Bill Levine, executive vice president and chief information officer of New York-based AXA Financial. Levine has struggled this year to find time for "my other full-time job," he says. In addition to his CIO responsibilities, Levine took over leadership of AXA's Service Delivery department. The job was vacant as a result of the retirement of Richard Matteis, AXA's former EVP of service delivery.
Levine's "second job" entails overall management responsibility for service delivery operations, and he also oversees the company's service delivery strategic initiatives. "Service delivery basically consists of back-office functions including new policy issuance, and in-force policy servicing, death claims and annuity payments," says Levine.
In the past year, Levine's technology accomplishments include the in-house development of a customer assignment system that links financial representatives with "orphaned" customers. Additionally, the carrier has "hit all of our cost-cutting objectives, while we continue to grow our staff," says Levine, who reports that AXA was once again named to Computerworld's list of the 100 Best Places to Work in IT.
Levine is hoping to make AXA's IT department an even better place to work as the carrier makes job advancement for employees more attainable. Levine and AXA's IT department are forming a directory of IT job descriptions and the steps that IT employees must take to advance to the next job level. In the fourth quarter of 2003, the directory will be made available to employees on the carrier's intranet.
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