Business Integration Services
SMS plays a key role in the post acquisition integration of a Personal Injury Insurance Company.
Client Problem
Our client is a Personal Insurance Company with a direct distribution network. The client had acquired a commercial insurer who distributed its products almost entirely through intermediaries.
Both organisations had made a number of acquisitions in the preceding years, and a rationalisation of the systems in use for personal injury insurance was required for this merger to be successful.
SMS was engaged within the Personal Injury division to deliver systems rationalisation.
SMS Approach
Working in a highly regulated environment, SMS established a Programme structure to deliver the outcomes the client required. Establishing four integrated project streams, the Programme involved a number of phases including:
- Establishment of single brand underwriter
- Transitioning responsibility for outcomes to the appropriate business units
- System development
- Data conversion
- Business change and training
- Data archiving
- Decommissioning legacy systems
The programme was delivered by 3 teams across 2 states.
Recommendation
Working closely with the client organisation, SMS delivered the programme outcomes, sought and made a number of recommendations to address a range of difficult issues which arose during the integration including:
- Governance - active executive sponsorship to support the delivery and cultural challenges that arose as part of the integration;
- Methodology - a consistent Programme/Project methodology be implemented, understood and embraced by all;
- Risk and Issue Management - Risks and Issues are always part of the corporate environment, but are especially prevalent in a changing one. A robust, understood and applied risk and issue management regime was applied as part of the methodology and actively endorsed by senior management.
- People - Organisational Change Management principles were employed so that all employees are supported along the change journey, as the success of the merger depended on the continued application of skills and a positive attitude; and
- Regulatory Environment - SMS ensured that legal compliance be actively engaged by the integration team to ensure the merged entity continued to meet all regulatory obligations.
Outcome
The client’s core systems were rationalised from 12 to four, resulting in estimated annual savings of $6.14m. Business processes were aligned and systems properly interfaced and automated.
The necessary business change, including staff training was conducted to ensure continuity of service during system cutover.
The client was position to proceed with a further stage of systems rationalisation.