Akhil Tripathi is one of the most successful insurance carrierCIOs of recent years. He has been widely recognized in theinsurance technology press as a Tech Decisions IT All Star and with an Innovations inInsurance “Innovators Bronze Award.” Tripathi also has wontechnology industry awards from Information Week, Computer Worldand CIO Decisions magazines. Working as the CIO at Harleysville Insurance forthe past six years, Tripathi created a consistent track record ofaccomplishment. Then, at the top of his game, in August of thisyear he abruptly quit. I was lucky enough to talk at length withAkhil on a number of subjects following his departure. With hispermission I have summarized our conversation below.

Shop Talk: The insurance IT world was somewhattaken aback by your abrupt departure from Harleysville after sixyears of success and industry recognition. Why does a successfulCIO at the top of his game quit a high profile job in the middle ofa recession?

Tripathi: First let me say that my departurewas prompted by personal circumstances and was totally amicable. Weall need to make changes in our lives and this change was essentialfor me in order to explore a new role that I could not haveexplored while being in the last job. As it turns out manysuccessful ventures are conceived during tough economic times. Iwould like to provide advice and create technology-based value fora larger audience as I settle on my next venture.

Shop Talk: You achieved a great track record ofcore systems replacement during your tenure at Harleysville. Whatdo you consider to be your key successes, and how do you measurethose successes?

Tripathi: The overall objectives were ITcapabilities and culture transformation and delivering the businessresults of IT projects. This focus resulted in defining newpriorities including major legacy platform replacement efforts inthe policy area as well as the development and deployment of anenhanced agent portal and integrated underwriting capabilities.

These are large and complex initiatives and require a totalcommitment from the entire organization including the topleadership. You need to have a team and the leadership under youwhere everyone is committed to the same goal. I believe that oneneeds to have tenacity, belief that the goal is achievable, supportfrom the management and all business colleagues and a continuousdesire to work through the problems and challenges that are certainto surface at the most difficult times. I found that ambitiousgoals and accelerated time lines are essential in keepingeveryone's attention and focus to the goal line. These largeinitiatives also need to have many milestones and achievement ofeach milestone needs to be celebrated and reviewed for change intactics.

I strongly believe that successful implementation should clearlyyield measurable business results. There is always a desire tobegin measuring the results sooner than realized. There is anabsorption period for these major changes to be completely acceptedand adopted by the organization. The policy systems replacementinitiatives are large and complex and if implemented successfully,would deliver the anticipated business value. In most instances,the business value has to be extracted by ensuring that technologychange is accompanied by the process change and sometimes mayrequire people change as well. Clearly the measurement has to be interms of the business value delivered by the initiative.

Shop Talk: Two areas seem key to improvedbusiness results–the agent portal and the use of predictiveanalytics. Talk some more about how these two important initiativeswere conceived and executed.

Tripathi: The agent portal was conceived as anentry point for all customer (independent agent) interactions. Thiswas required prior to making policy systems changes and it alsofacilitated operation of multiple systems simultaneously astheagent portal directs customer to the appropriate system. Thepredictive analytics matches risk and pricing by utilizing complexmodels that are developed by using publicly available third-partydata and customer-provided data. Predictive analytics is takinggreater prominence in the insurance industry after beingextensively used in the consumer credit and risk assessment. Ibelieve predictive analytics will play an even greater role in theclaims arena.

Shop Talk: You inherited a classic “legacyenvironment” at Harleysville–legacy systems, legacy people, andlegacy thinking. How did you change the IT and business operationsculture and what were the key challenges of doing so?

Tripathi: I absolutely believe that you have tohave the right people in the right seat with the right skills.Alignment of these three is a continuous process and needs to bemanaged on an ongoing basis. Getting the right people the rightskills requires both bringing outside talent in and traininginternal staff in the required skills. I always give businessknowledge and experience a higher priority as well as ability towork collaboratively with the team.

Shop Talk: You dealt with a lot of vendors–bothsoftware and services–what do you consider the keys to successfulvendor management?

Tripathi: I believe 'vendor management' is aninappropriate term and prefer to use “vendor partnershipdevelopment and management.” For this partnership to be effective,one needs to have the right partner where there is a cultural fitand a clearly understood need for each other's success. It is not aone-way relationship and both parties must see a win-winopportunity. I believe that in the selection of the right partner,this trusted partnership is very important. Of course, the vendor'sproduct must meet the business need from both price andfunctionality perspective.

No matter how strong legal contracts are built, I believe thatmost frequently the relationship helps achieve the solution whenproblems arise. So legal contracts are important and need to befair to both parties, however, ability to resolve issues properlyand quickly are of paramount importance. If one party realizes theyhave a bad deal, a successful relationship would be difficult tobuild. I've had some challenges with some of the vendor partners inmy career. Having a face to face meeting with the right level ofmanagement has always resulted in solving the problem withoutmaking legal threats. However, a solid legal contract is absolutelyessential before a partnership can be built and sometimes duringthe contracting process it becomes clear whether a long termrelationship could be built.

Shop Talk: Why did you choose to replace thepolicy administration systems first, as opposed to claims orbilling?

Tripathi: This decision really depends on theparticular situation and the status of the systems. InHarleysville's case, the policy systems replacement was critical tobusiness success drivers. Also, it appears to me that many claimsissues and processes result from underwriting, product, and policycontract language issues. There needs to be clarity of data fromthe product and the policy contract for a good claims process totake place. I believe that is why the policy system is the criticalfoundation piece. Billing is an important component in the customerinteractions but does not deliver high value unless there arebilling system issues impacting the business.

Shop Talk: Were these major successes part ofan overall systems strategy and if so what were the strategy's keyobjectives and measures and how was it developed and agreedupon?

Tripathi: Absolutely. Early in my tenure, ateam of senior executives and I met over several months to hammerout a business-driven technology strategy. This created a five-yearplan which we revisited and updated on an annual basis.

I do believe a systems strategy should be built upon thebusiness strategy and should be in concert with the overallenterprise strategy. The development of the IT strategy requiresactive participation of the business leaders and a goodunderstanding of current business issues. A thorough understandingof the competitive environment, economic environment, technologycapabilities, and the organizational capacity for the financialinvestments over multiple years need to be integrated in thedevelopment of the IT strategy for it to be successful and acceptedby the organization. For IT strategy to be approved and fundedrequires demonstrated success in the execution of the earlyinitiatives, projects or programs. I strongly believe that eachproject, program or major implementation should include thebusiness value it would generate beyond the typical ROI and therisks it would bring to the enterprise.

Shop Talk: CIOs tend to get the blame forfailure and the acclaim for successes, but like the sports coach,you are only as good as the team that works for you. Talk about thekey roles and responsibilities of team that made your vision areality.

Tripathi: I strongly believe successful CIOscreate teams and leaders underneath them who believe in the visionand can drive to the end goal. I always like to have smart peoplewho understand the business and the technology and are able to workeffectively and collaboratively with the business leaders and thestaff. They need to be strong problem-solvers and need to be ableto see the big picture. I have been fortunate to have these typesof people in my team. I would fail if I did not say that strongcommunication at all levels is absolutely essential. I believe infull transparency of the issues and the solutions.

Shop Talk: Of the major initiatives that youlead at Harleysville, what didn't go as well as you hoped and howwould you do it again if given the opportunity?

Tripathi: It is the little things that you misssometimes. Saying thanks to the team and the staff and buildingpersonal relationships are very important. Also, I have had myshare of challenges and as I have looked back at these situations,I did not have the right person in the right seat focused onsolving the right problem.

Shop Talk: You have a lot of industry exposureand created a great deal of interest from carriers, consultingcompanies, and the vendor community. What is next for AkhilTripathi?

Tripathi: As I mentioned at the start of thisinterview, I am very excited to be looking at a number of differentopportunities including developing a technology value advisoryservice. This advisory service is an opportunity for me to provideadvice and support to CIOs and business leaders in deployingtechnology solutions for specific business functions. I should knowmore on this in the very near future.

If you are interested in hearing from Akhil Tripathi on thesubject of Software and Vendor Selection please join us for thefree Tech Decisions Web seminar on Wednesday, Nov. 17 at 12 noonEST. Registration information can be found at www.tech-decisions.com/webseminars.

George Grieve is CEO of CastleBay Consulting.Previously a CIO and still an acting consultant, he has spent muchof the past 25 years with property/casualty insurers, assistingthem in the search, selection, negotiation, and implementation ofmission-critical, core insurance processing systems. He can bereached at 512-329-2619.

The content of Shop Talk is the responsibility of the author.Views and opinions are those of the author and do not necessarilyrepresent those of Tech Decisions.