Jahangiri: What are your key IT projects for the year ahead?


Whiteing: All of our various business units have a full slate of projects over the next 12 to 18 months. I would not say that we have any ‘key’ projects that necessarily stand out. One of challenges of operating across multiple business units is that all of them have their slate of ‘high priority’ projects that we need to accommodate. Having said that I expect that like many organisations in the financial services sector in Australia the agenda of application renewal will keep us busy over the foreseeable future.


Jahangiri:  How far in advance do you formulate your IT mandate for IAG; and how responsive are such plans to market changes?


Whiteing: We have a 24 to 36 month horizon with respect to Group IT Strategy, however we review these plans on an annual basis and we believe that they are quite responsive to changes in the market and technology environment. Core to how we manage our business is the belief that part of a good strategy is not to get distracted but shorter-term pressures that might require a more tactical response. You need to have the confidence to stick with your strategy even when conditions are sub-optimal in the short run.


Jahangiri: What emerging IT trends are you keeping an eye on and why?


Whiteing: Like most organisations we continue to look at expanding both the depth and breadth of technologies that we leverage to support our operating businesses. I would say that in support of our strategy of standardising and rationalising our environment we continue to look at leveraging technologies that enable us to support a standard, scalable and highly virtualised technology platform. Our vision is to be able to provide a secure and highly available environment to our business partners in the most efficient manner; this will require us to leverage capability that will undoubtedly not be entirely owned by ourselves. This is much more than a technology challenge and we are some years off realising this vision; however we remain focused on building this capability within IAG.


Jahangiri:  You have stated IAG would pursue a series of cloud computing initiatives. How has this progressed?


Whiteing: I would say that these have progressed more slowly than expected. We continue to believe that the general direction that cloud computing represents is one that will continue to gain traction. Our own initiatives continue to focus more on ‘internal cloud’ potential than external offerings.


Jahangiri:  Voice biometrics is gaining traction in some insurance organisations, particularly with respect to anti-fraud and call centre solutions. What are your views on the potential of voice biometrics and is there a place for it within IAG?


Whiteing: We keep a watching brief on a wide variety of technologies that could be applicable to our business and given the significance of telephony to our business we are particularly focused on those technologies that have application in this space. Voice biometrics is not a technology that we are specifically investigating, however that does not preclude it in the future.


Jahangiri: From an IT perspective, what are some of the challenges preventing the insurance sector from achieving a single-customer-view?


Whiteing: Clearly our legacy systems (some of which are over 30 years old) restrict our ability to create a single customer view in a real-time and integrated manner. However, it is important to recognise that this challenge also extends to the manner in which we as an industry have sold and developed products. It is as much a data issue as it is a core technology issue. We need to simplify our pricing and product along with the systems and technology.


Jahangiri:  How is the customer channel emerging in the insurance landscape; and how do you see this evolving within the next five years?


Whiteing: In the personal insurance arena Australia is rather unique in that we remain (by percentage) the largest direct market in the world with respect to P&C insurance. We believe that this will continue to be the case, with customers preferring to purchase their insurance products directly from trusted brands. We continue to see a significant movement towards the internet channel, with an increasing proportion of customers certainly looking to do their initial shopping and rate comparison online. However, we have found that a large number of customers still appreciate the security of a multi-channel service model. Customers are also increasingly taking advantage of the convenience of an online experience to lodge their initial claim. Clearly the continued growth of the online channel is to be expected but we do not expect other channels to disappear. Our strategy is very much focused on ensuring a seamless experience regardless of what channel our customer selects for any transaction.


In the intermediated space while the relationship with the broker remains paramount we believe that we will also increasingly see the growth of more electronic interactions and the need to be able to ‘shift’ workload depending on the go to market strategy of various brokers.


Jahangiri: To what extent are you involved in developing the IT roadmap of IAG’s online car insurance division, The Buzz?


Whiteing: Like all of our business units in IAG ultimately the IT roadmap is owned and developed by the business unit. However in the case of The Buzz, given that it was a ‘start up’ in the context of our business, we had significant involvement in the initial development and launch of the business. A number of my staff (and I) were heavily involved through the initial stages of the business and we continue to provide critical project and production support capability to The Buzz.


Jahangiri:  What keeps you passionate about your job – is it the technology or the sector?


Whiteing: Both. To be relevant in today’s corporate environment you have to be able to be equally comfortable in either space. It is actually the application of technology in solution of a business problem that energises me. You have to start with a good business understanding and then bring the appropriate technology to bear.


Jahangiri:  What are the essential qualities and skills required to make a successful career as an IT executive?


Whiteing: My comments are reserved for more traditional corporate environments as opposed to either specialist IT firms (firms that produce HW/SW products) or IT service organisations as they still have a much deeper need for specialist IT skills. As most companies continue the trend away from bespoke development to package and other delivery frameworks (SaaS etc.) skills are continuing to migrate away from a more ‘engineering-centric’ context to one that is more business-centric. While strong understanding of core technology remains important increasingly strong business analysis skills and the ability to interact with and engage the business are going to be the key defining skills to be successful in IT.


Jahangiri: Every IT leader, particularly at your level, has a legacy they wish to be remembered for.
What is yours?


Whiteing: I hope that when all is said and done people will remember me as somebody who was passionate about building capability and being part of teams that delivered outstanding results, but above all had integrity in my dealings and was somebody who did not have a political agenda.