Managing Information Technology

Case Study I-5 • Data Governance at InsuraCorp 167

Individual

VP (IT)

Individual

CEO

Retirement

Services

VP (IT)

Retirement

Services

Group

VP (IT)

Group

Corporate

Applications

Payroll

HR

CIO

Enterprise

Architecture

Planning and

Finance

Systems

Operations

EXHIBIT 1 Centralized IT Organization

leaders have a solid-line report to the CIO and a dotted-line
report to the business unit they support (see Exhibit 1). The
CIO’s four other direct reports are the VPs of Corporate
Applications, Enterprise Architecture, Planning and Finance
(including a Project Management Office) and Systems
Operations (Data Centers and Telecommunications). The
new centralized IT organization has a total of about 300 IT
personnel. About 25 other IT personnel are located at other
sites. In addition, IT contractors are typically hired for
on-site work when the company does not have the required
skill set for a particular IT initiative, and InsuraCorp utilizes
outsourcing for IT services such as 401(k) statement print-
ing and spam protection.
The VP of Enterprise Architecture position was
created in early 2006 and filled with an outside hire in
response to the need to develop a new IT architecture to
support enterprise-level infrastructure services. One of this
VP’s early initiatives was to establish 11 IT working
groups to focus on particular aspects of IT architecture—
such as desktop computing, networks, security, IT storage,
and so on. Each group was charged with the task of setting
standards and generating ideas for IT projects that would
be needed to accomplish the new integration and standard-
ization objectives of the company. The activities of the IT
working groups are coordinated under an Enterprise
Architecture Development Committee (EADC), which
includes a few of the working group leads and the VP of
Enterprise Architecture.
The move to a centralized IT organization also
meant that new processes and committees needed to be
established to review, approve, and prioritize IT projects.
A new standing committee that includes a representative

from InsuraCorp’s corporate planning department was

given the responsibility for initially approving requests for

IT work. Approved IT project requests are then passed on

to the company’s Executive Committee (which includes

the CEO, CMO, CIO, and all business unit heads) for final

approval and prioritization.

Another initiative under the current CIO was the

development of a set of IT principles to define the role of IT

and communicate the standardized IT practices to be used

throughout InsuraCorp (see Exhibit 2). The members of the

IT Committee referred to as ITC (which includes the CIO’s

seven direct reports) developed a detailed rationale and a

set of implications for each principle. The CIO understood

the significance and necessity of the enterprise-wide IT

principles:

It’s amazing to me once you develop those IT princi-

ples how pervasive they’ve become throughout the

organization...You hear business people say “yeah,

we buy versus build,” and we do... It has been more

powerful than I thought it would have been.

—CIO

These IT principles are used to guide all business

and IT managers and other staff involved in IT decision

making. For example, Principles 1 and 9 define the pri-

mary IT role at InsuraCorp as providing “uninterrupted”

support for company operations (principle 1), and establish

the importance of providing technology tools that business

users find easy to access and use (principle 9). The “work-

ing model” for investing in and using IT solutions includes