Insurance IT All-Star: Magna Carta’s Lawless Enjoys Solving Problems

"I look for people that are self-motivated and self-directed," he says. "The last thing I want to do with an IT staff is to tell them, 'This is what you need to do and this is how you need to do it.' We work in a collaborative way and if you are coming to me with a problem and have no answers, you are just delegating up. If you want to work for me you should come to me with an array of possible solutions so together we can work to reach the best result. We enjoy very little turnover here at Magna Carta and I believe one of the reasons is people feel very independent and they have the ability to operate within their sphere of influence."

Lawless feels this manage ment style brings out the best of his IT team.

"I've had the illustrious opportunity to work with some of the same people for about 20 years and we are a pretty tight group," he says. "We support each other. Two people that I was with at IBM are still with me today. They are really terrific guys and I'm glad to know them professionally as well as socially."

Lawless sharescredit for all projects that have been implemented under his supervision with oher senior staff who actively work with him to achieve the3se corporate objectives. The projects that have made him the happiest are the ones that are implemented quickly.

"What makes a project successful is how much it positively impacts the organization," he says. "That's the fun part. Is the organization better off at the end of the day? I like companies that have projects that really take the company to the next level of productivity."

One way that Lawless has helped Magna Carta reach that next level has been through automation.  When he arrived at Magna Carta in 1994, there were approximately 600 employees; today there are fewer than 180.

"We have reduced the number of people it takes to run the company," he says. "We continue to get more efficient as we move along the technology curve because of what I call good bosses and their ability to not settle for second best. Also, the technology that comes alongside that has helped us to enjoy efficiencies and to compete better within the marketplace."

Lawless explains that if anyone was asking him for his advice on how to structure the base technology for a company, he would tell them to get rid of all paper.

"Imaging accompanying electronic workflow allows management to distribute work to available resources no matter where they are and provides a real-time view of operations," says Lawless.

 He also notes that the industry is returning to centralized computing that was the standard in the 1970s and 1980s with mainframe computing. 

"The pendulum is swinging back to centralized computing, particularly with sever virtualization, desktop virtualization and now phone-system virtualization," he says. "We've gotten the opportunity to deploy those technologies here at Magna Carta." 

This model, considered a "private-cloud", opens the door to public cloud-based processes.  In Lawless's view cloud-based computing is similar to outsourcing a business process.

"Magna Carta is big in using outside resources for very specific services like loss control and premium audit," says Lawless. "Take something as simple as print and mail. Twenty years ago, people outsourcing policy printing and mailing were ahead of the curve. Today, insurers wouldn't think twice about outsourcing their policy print and mail operations because there is an expertise with vendors who do this all day long, everyday. With virtualization or cloud-based services– we are, in effect, outsourcing the machines themselves."

While some are defensive about how the insurance industry is perceived by other technologists from the outside, Lawless tends to agree with those that believe insurance was and is behind the times in the use of technology.

"A decade ago the insurance software solutions weren't as user-friendly as they could have been. I think this helped cause reluctance among employees to embrace technology in our industry as compared to others." says Lawless.

Lawless explains he used to worry about the adoption of technology within an insurance company and how automation was accepted among business users. Those worries have changed as technology has become ubiquitous in everyday living.

"Ten years ago, the work force was technology-deficient and had no interest in technology," he says. "With the advent of social media, people are using technology more. Smartphones are a part of their daily lives. This translates to not only a better acceptance of technology in the workplace, but a demand for it."

Lawless believes over the next 10 years he and his IT staff must work even harder to stay ahead of the technology curve as the focus of the insurance industry will shift from processing to analytics.

"Insurance companies are going to be drastically more efficient than they are today and that is exciting," he says. "I think here at Magna Carta we have enjoyed being ahead of the curve and while it is nice to be on the leading edge, other companies are going to start using alternate resources, whether it is outside labor resources or specialized services where they start picking and choosing aspects of the company and start outsourcing. I think you will see insurers become more efficient in that way.

That efficiency is certainly greater than when he joined Magna Carta.

"I thought I was only going to be here for six months," he says. "My team and I kid around that we are just finishing our first assignment after 20 years."