"Federated dictatorship" appears to be
the dominant IT governance model in global insurers.
In a new report, IT Governance in the
Multinational Insurer, Celent provides insight into the common ways of
organising and measuring IT in global insurers. A perennial question for
CIOs is how best to organise the IT department in order to support
business both efficiently and effectively.
In general, centralised IT is better positioned to
support long-term strategic goals, while decentralised IT is better
positioned to support immediate tactical needs. The pros and cons of each
model are directly related to this difference in focus. For multinational
insurers with operations in many countries and regions, deciding which
model to use is a complex process.
“There is no definitive answer to this question
and, as with most management theories, the pervasive view swings back and
forth between two opposing ones,” says Catherine
Stagg-Macey, senior analyst with Celent’s insurance group and author
of the report. “But we are seeing a trend towards what we call a
federated dictatorship model, which lies somewhere between the centralised
and decentralised models.”
This report takes a look at IT governance models and
examines how the core systems are structured in multinationals across the
globe. It is based on Celent interviews with several C-level executives at
insurers from around the world and discusses the Celent “AAAA” rating
for technology and how this can be applied to the various IT governance
models. The four A’s stand for alignment, agility, accessibility, and
affordability.
The 19-page report contains two figures. A table
of contents is available online.
