Driving Digital Excellence in Insurance with a Product-Oriented Operating Model
The
Client
In 2022 our global insurance client, embarked on a transformation programme to build a world-class, future ready Digital delivery capability.
The vision was to establish a product-oriented operating model, which would empower its business. The vision was underpinned by a strategy comprising four pillars:
- Reframe – deliver microservices to enable rapid delivery of new functionality
- Rewire – create leading edge infrastructure and platforms
- Reinvent – transform IT through an investment in people
- Realign – enable each business line to manage its priorities and outcomes.
Rewiring. Without the shock
Mozaic was already engaged by the client, undertaking a review of its Service Management capability.
The maturity review, based on our standard approach, resulted in wide-ranging recommendations for change, including tooling, processes and capability. We led the transformation engagement, redefining roles within the team and leading the recruitment of key roles. Ultimately providing a visible, consolidated service desk and greatly improving internal customer focus and customer service.
Based on the success of this work, and our hard-earned reputation for operating model transformation, Mozaic was engaged to support the wider strategic change.
Making the change
Our immediate challenge was to take the strategy, refine it, and provide a roadmap for change – an IT Transformation roadmap, which we would shape and collaboratively deliver.
Mozaic worked with the CIO to design a new IT organisation structure, ensuring that IT functions were supported by a strengthened IT leadership team. Following our standard model, we organised around Product, Common Services and Platforms; designing practices and governance structures to ensure business and customer alignment.
Importantly, we established the Office of the CIO to ensure governance and management of enterprise-wide IT concerns including: IT Strategy; Governance and Risk; IT Portfolio; Talent Management; Cost and Budget; Technology Transformation Office; and Comms.
We helped to define new IT roles and assisted in the selection and onboarding management. Where there were delays in recruitment, we provided interim support, including Head of Tech Enablement, and the IT Resilience Lead.
To achieve the change, our team designed the IT organisational structure and processes, providing the role specifications, and supporting the interview process. During the course of the transformation, we interviewed over 50 senior candidates for roles within the leadership team.
The shaping
The Challenges
No transformational change is without its challenges, and our client was not an exception. We were leading a fundamental reshaping of its technology function at the time of Digital being at the forefront of the business’s thinking. Allied to this, International Group, reports into the US, which in-turn reports to another country, we had a second and third set of eyes on everything we did.
Our approach was to work collaboratively in the open. All plans were shared in real-time, and all collateral (planning and output) was collated and shared from client repositories. We made sure there was nothing hidden in the shadows.
At the outset, not all stakeholders were fully supportive, questioning the rigour of the approach and funding models. We introduced new governance including business design authority and strategic architecture and provided clear escalation paths. We were able to quickly demonstrate that the new processes, focused on outcome, provided the same, if not greater, level of visibility and control to executive stakeholders whilst importantly, empowering and enabling the Product teams to better enable change delivery.
The final element of our engagement was the implementation of product-oriented delivery squads. Working collaboratively with Technology and the business, we identified initial areas where we could prove value.
We provided:
- New cohort training and mobilisation – Mobilising the teams, to help set them up for success.
- Coaching – Provision of skilled and experienced Agile Coaches to coach members of each squad, both in terms of the processes and procedures associated with the model.
- Coaching included all aspects of Agile, user-centric development including user research techniques; using prototypes; incremental planning, prioritisation management, simplification and batch size management; working in iterative sprints and agile ceremonies; feedback, learning.
- Iteration review and planning – structured facilitation of retrospectives.
We established four exemplar squads, which achieved immediate buy-in from the business. These helped provide customer focus whilst significantly increasing change velocity. The learnings from this work is now being applied to support the final phase of the transformation, as Mozaic’s role naturally becomes redundant.
The shaping
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