Organisational context

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The diagram below shows the organisational context of the case study; those parts of the organisation and people who were important in the story. Hierarchy within the organisation is not shown explicitly because people's positions changed during the three years and the diagram provides a summary of the whole period.

Organisational map

The following descriptions of the three key organisational elements X-Group, X and GIS summarise their situation as described in the chronological story of the Multinational system development.


X-Group

X-Group was the parent company of a large, well-known, UK-based worldwide insurance company that was formed in the nineteenth century. It provided almost all types of insurance in over 65 countries (00089).

In 1991 the Group did not have an overall strategy for IT (00249) with the individual operating companies largely 'organisationally and culturally distinct' (00184) in both hardware, software and development strategies. For example, within the UK one of the major operating companies used Cobol and the other PL/1 and different email systems were used in the UK and America (00278). Although there had been some standardisation on PCs this did not extend to PC tools (00203) but the IT managers from the different operating companies did have a quarterly meeting to share ideas (00334).

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X

At the beginning of 1991 X was formed 'to give more emphasis to underwriting worldwide insurance risks for our multinational customers' (00148). Existing units writing multinational business from the different operating companies were brought together to provide a common identity (00157) and Tim was appointed MD. Although X evolved to include City and Marine business (00001), large complex insurance packages for individual clients still characterised X's business. This low volume, high premium business was quite different from X-Group's typical high volume, low premium business (00254).

Company headquarters were located in London with about 230 X staff distributed in Continental Europe, UK, North America and the Pacific (00147). In Europe X had offices in Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. In the Pacific there were offices in Australia and Singapore and in America in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago (00029). In other countries policies for X were serviced by other parts of the group or through reciprocal arrangements (00020). By 1992, there were 83 different servicing locations, most of which were small (00195). Within the UK much of X's business was handled in Manchester and other regional branches outside London (00191). Most of the business was written from London, US and Holland (00029).

The main IT systems of X were run on the mainframes of the local operating companies - particularly relevant to this story were XUK, XUSA and XNetherlands (00188). Initially, X got virtually all its IT support in the UK from XUK at a projected cost in 1992 of £2.2m (00182) with a total IT expenditure of about £4 million (00183). XUK managed the Group's computer and voice network in the UK (00191). It was mainframe oriented although by 1993 it was starting to use PCs (00249). A large number of PC systems had also been developed within X (00189) by local non-professional groups providing reporting and support for PCs (00187). In particular, for Multinational Operations much of the work was handled via PC systems (00188).

Initially Tim sponsored the IT developments within X but as X grew he appointed a finance director, George, to have specific responsibility for IT (00006). George appointed Kevin as IT manager of X but he was an accountant with little knowledge of IT who only stayed for six months (00355, 00548). Eventually two managers were appointed to replace Kevin, Gordan on the development side and Karl on operations (00724).

Multinational Operations
Multinational Operations was the department in X responsible for underwriting insurance for large multinational companies. It came under Robert, the General Insurance Manager who reported directly to Tim, the MD. At the start of the study David was the manager of the department but in 1993, David moved out and Neville was promoted to replace him. Neville had two Account Managers reporting to him, Jenny and Martin. Brokers, acting on behalf of clients were divided between these two Account Managers. Each Account Manager had specialist property and casualty underwriters working for them. In total there were about 25 underwriters working for Multionational Operations in the City of London (00010).

A large multinational company such as ICI would approach X via a broker wanting a complete package of insurance (buildings, public liability etc) for its different locations (00007). A programme would be put together by an underwriter in Multinational Operations.

This programme of insurance would typically involve policies being written in a number of countries but as the controlling office, claims payments and premiums would be ceded back to the UK (00014). Claims would generally be handled in the local country but large claims would involve the Multinational Claims team based in Essex (00015). Much of the business was reinsured to spread the risk of losses occurring at any one location (00023).

The nature of the business was long term with accounts being renewal annually (00011) although each week there were a few opportunities to quote for new business (00012). Indicative figures for Multinational worldwide in 1992 were: 6,000 policies, 5,000 endorsements, 7,500 claims (00196). Each policy belonged to a programme of which there were about 400 in UK, 80 in USA and 30-40 in Holland (00246).

Multinational Underwriting Services
The Multinational Services Department was set up in February 1992 (00495) and was based in Essex with the rest of Services for X-Group (where the servicing units for X-Group were relocated in 1977 - 00142). They were responsible for the administration of programmes and ensuring local offices issued policies (00016). Each of the major clients was assigned to a specific case handler (00052). Prior to 1992 this administration was handled in London by the underwriters (01038); Multinational Services was set up to take over the data processing side of the underwriter's job.

Multinational Services was set up with three band Bs and half a section head but had grown in 1994 to a fulltime section head and four band Bs (00495). Lucy became section head in July 1992 (00885). She reported for underwriting matters to the underwriting managers but was supervised by a local head of department under the Services Manager in Essex who reported to X management in London (00514). Thus the management of Multinational Services and Multinational Operations only came together at board level within X (01055).

Multinational Accounts
Multinational Accounts Department was based in the City of London and consisted of about ten people. They were responsible for paying claims, collecting premiums and making sure premiums collected overseas, for business underwritten in the UK, were transferred to London (00016).

Consolidation of X results was done by a team based in the North of England (00016).

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GIS

Group Information Services (GIS) provided IT for all the smaller operating companies and X-Group's head office. It consisted of 70-80 people (00249). It was formed by a merger of the IT group in XI (one of the smaller operating companies) and ISD (the Information Services Department in Group Head Office) in April 1992 (00184).

Multinational Development Team
An IT Strategy for X was produced by Colin from GIS (while it was still ISD) and a couple of business people. Following the recommendations of the IT Strategy a joint X/GIS team was set up to investigate the requirements for a Multinational system (00228). This team was led by Gordan (GIS) and David (X) and included Keith (X) and Stuart, Jim and Elizabeth (GIS). This led to the set up of the Multinational Project Team in GIS (00298).

Phase I team
The first phase of the project (from September 1992 to August 1993) was developed by a team in GIS consisting of Gordan (project manager), Scott (technical team leader), Stuart (business analyst), Elizabeth (analyst) and the analyst programmers Matt, Nigel, Jim, Ned and a contractor (00893). From X, David and Keith were still working on the project although I suspect that this was sometimes on a part-time basis (00025, 00419). Gordan regarded it as a strong team with Matt, Nigel and to a lesser extent Jim the key programming people (00252). However, he did say there was some tension particularly between Ned and the other members of the team (01031).

Phase II team
At the start of phase II of the project (September 1993), Scott left the project and a junior member of staff Alan joined. The arrival of Manny, Scott's replacement, was delayed so he was diverted to the separate Marine project (also being managed by Gordan for X). By January 1994, the phase II team was being led by Stuart with about seven or eight people working for him and two accountants working on the requirements for a Financial Accounting sub-system.

Stuart described the team at this point as a 'pretty happy team' (00401). Andy liked the team because of the variety (00898). Nigel described it as a good team because they were given responsibility and were recognised partly through opportunities to work with senior people (00407). However Nigel also said it was a stagnant company from a promotion point of view.

Phase III team
At the start of phase III (July 1994), Stuart was leading the Multinational team consisting of Jim, Nigel, Alan, Matt and two other analyst-programmers (00792). Nigel was working on a sub-system for McDonalds, Matt on the migration of the system to Unix and the rest of the team on system maintenance and analysis of enhancements. In August Matt left and Alan took over his database role (00077).

In October 1994, Jane was brought in (from Touche Ross) to lead the Multinational developments (00872). By February 1995, she had restructured the Multinational team so that there was a team working on client servicing under Stuart, and a team working on underwriting enhancements under Jim (01024) with Alan as Database Administrator (00866). Jim's team had a small sub-team working in London.

Financial Accounting team
In April 1994, a team was formed, under Gordan, to develop the Financial Accounting sub-system for Multinational (00789). Peter was leading the team which consisted of Ned and Kay (00792). Colin was appointed to lead the team in November 1994. By then he had Ned, Kay and a consultant for Sun working for him (00731).

Marine team
By January 1994, Gordan also had a separate team working on a system for Marine in X. Manny was leading this team with about five GIS staff working under him (00356).

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© Clare Tagg 2000