For some executives, building an IT department from the ground up can be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For Mary Sbaschnig, chief administrative officer at Delos Insurance Group, it almost seems like a calling.
For the second time in her career, Sbaschnig is assisting a company in expanding its IT group and services. In the early 1990s, she helped Clarendon National Insurance bring its technology services in-house and grow its IT staff.
Today, as one of the founding partners of Delos Insurance Group, Sbaschnig is in charge of human resources, compliance, business development, and IT. She is overseeing the development and implementation of the company's cornerstone IT project--a Web-based data interface to attract outsourcing partners and grow the business.
Based in New York, Delos is a program specialty carrier that works closely with managing general agents and general agents to underwrite insurance. In August, Delos changed its name from Sirius America Insurance following its acquisition by an investor group led by Lightyear Capital. The ownership change includes an infusion of capital that allows Delos to expand its operations and write larger, multistate policies in casualty, general liability, automobile liability, and commercial and residential property insurance.
"This is a fantastic opportunity for me," Sbaschnig contends. "Delos offers an excellent platform for us to take our program business model up to the next level."
That model, developed by Sbaschnig and partner Detlef Steiner, chairman of Delos and former CEO of Clarendon, calls for providing an agent-friendly data interface to streamline operations for MGAs. The MGAs use their own policy and claims administration systems to process policies but rely on Delos' interface to collect, validate, and extract data for business management, statistical analysis, and regulatory reporting.
Called the Genesis project, the interface is expected to enter the testing phase by third-quarter 2007 and be in final production by the end of next year. Sbaschnig and her team are developing a centralized data warehouse to capture, validate, and store more than 200 data elements. Based on Oracle's Database 10g, the project will allow users to access data online in real time. The flexibility of the scalable Web-based system also allows rules and validations to be customized to interface with any system used by Delos' outsourcing partners.
"This project is the backbone to our program business infrastructure," Sbaschnig asserts. "Since we outsource the policy administration systems to our MGAs, we needed to find a way to extract data from numerous external systems, collect it in a methodical way, validate it, and then provide development tools to deliver the data back to our users."
Delos expects to write $160 million in premiums in 2006, according to Sbaschnig. The company's strategic plan calls for expanding its business to write more than $500 million in premiums in 2007. Delos is licensed in all 50 states. The company employs 31 people, seven of whom work in IT. Sbaschnig plans to hire more IT staff as Delos grows.
Sbaschnig's interest in computers began in college, when she took basic programming classes while earning a bachelor's degree at Queens College in New York. After graduation, she worked in the human resources department at Tokio Marine Management, where she partnered with the IT department to install an integrated HR and payroll solution. She attended classes at Pace University at night and earned an MBA in management and information systems.
In the late 1980s, Sbaschnig joined Clarendon as an HR manager. Her responsibilities included assisting the carrier in bringing its IT functions in-house and building an IT department. During her tenure there, she helped develop customized internal processing systems, re-engineer a commercial claims system, and develop and maintain a statistical reporting system for the program business.
By 2004, Sbaschnig had moved up the ranks to senior vice president and CIO. She left the company to pursue new business opportunities with Steiner. They spent a year creating a strategic plan and seeking private equity capital to purchase Sirius America.
Now that Delos is up and running, Sbaschnig will focus on completing the Genesis project. Other IT work includes upgrading the company's infrastructure and establishing a disaster recovery hot site. "IT is going to play a vital role within Delos," Sbaschnig predicts.
