Mike Natan, CIO of OneBeacon Insurance Group, understands thepower of technology. When he joined the Boston-basedproperty/casualty carrier in 2001, the company was losing millionsof dollars and in need of a major IT overhaul. Formerly known asCGU Insurance Group, OneBeacon also was in the process of beingacquired by White Mountains Insurance Group.

“My charge was pretty clear: Replace many of the existingsystems in the company, put in a new management information system,and reduce expenses,” Natan explains.

Helping OneBeacon turn itself around required numerous–andsometimes difficult–changes. First, Natan hired a new core ITmanagement team with the necessary skills to move the companyforward. Second, he restructured the IT department to align moreclosely with the business and improve accountability. Then, Natanand his team spent four years investing $120 million in newsystems. They implemented a new claims-handling system, built aWeb-based commercial- and personal-lines policy administrationsystem using Sapiens' INSIGHT solution, converted human resourcesand financial applications to PeopleSoft, built self-serviceportals for agents and employees, and implemented a workers'compensation system. Along the way, more than 140 legacy systemswere retired.

In addition, Natan developed an outsourcing strategy forOneBeacon. Offshore resources in India currently maintain thecompany's sunset systems and perform specialized technicalconversions.

“It's quite exciting to be part of a turnaround environment,”Natan acknowledges. “I frequently tell colleagues if they ever havean opportunity to participate in a turnaround, they should considerit seriously because it's a fantastic experience.”

The company's restructuring efforts have paid off. According toNatan, IT costs dropped more than 50 percent from $186 million in2001 to $85 million in 2005. The size of the IT department alsodeclined from more than 700 employees in 2001 to about 400today.

“We went through a number of painful job reductions over theyears, and that was the hardest part of this whole experience,”Natan admits. “But the biggest benefit to the company is it is nowin a position to compete in its marketplace. If we had continued inour pre-2001 mode, we slowly would have gone out of business.”

Shortly after the acquisition, White Mountains sold half ofOneBeacon's business operations to Liberty Mutual Insurance Groupand focused on turning the company into a profitable regionalinsurance carrier. As a result of the sale, OneBeacon's net writtenpremiums decreased from $4 billion in 2001 to about $2.1 billion in2005. Now that the turnaround is complete, however, the company isbeginning to expand beyond the Northeast. OneBeacon acquired a bookof business from Atlantic Mutual in 2004 and today offers smallcommercial lines products in 21 states.

Natan, who divides his time between OneBeacon offices inMassachusetts and Philadelphia, has worked in the insuranceindustry for most of his career. After earning a degree inindustrial engineering from Cornell University, he worked inmarketing support at Univac, which is now Unisys. He then spent 26years at Cigna Corp., working in IT management positions forseveral business units. Before joining OneBeacon, he was CIO atReliance Insurance Group.

To perform his myriad job responsibilities, Natan relies on hiscell phone, BlackBerry, and other wireless systems. “There'snothing unusual about what I use,” he contends.

He also depends on wireless systems at home. His family sharesvarious computers and printers thanks to a wireless local areanetwork. “I'm looking forward to when wireless becomes even morepervasive in terms of higher-bandwidth applications for televisionand music,” Natan says. “It will be nice to be able to receivemedia from any room at any time without having to wire everythingtogether.”

Natan also enjoys playing around with iMovie on his Macintoshand recently created a 15-minute video as a wedding present for hisson. In addition, he relies on a GPS system in his car and boat butsays what he really needs is something to help improve his golfgame.

“I have a little device in my bag that tells me the distance ofthe pin, but what I need is a little person who can pop up and hitthe ball to the pin,” he jokes.

Oddly enough, that does not seem like an unattainable requestcoming from a CIO who helped his company find its way back to beinga profitable business.