Michael Anselmo has big plans for Narragansett Bay Insurance Co. (NBIC), the Pawtucket-based company that offers specialty insurance services and products to homeowners through a network of agents. Anselmo was recently hired as the chief information officer, charged with using technology to push the company ahead of the competition. An experienced information technology (IT) professional, he has more than 20 years in the insurance industry.
Anselmo answered five questions about his IT plans at NBIC.
PBN: What are a CIO’s duties and responsibilities in the context of an insurance company?
ANSELMO: A CIO drives business value through innovation. Yes, they are responsible for the information technology department, which supports the daily technical needs of the company and its stakeholders, and delivers new technology in support of a business need. The CIO is not the “IT guy.” And, in fact, [the CIO] uses the IT department to deliver business needs for him as well as the operational manager of the department. The CIO role is a strategic position and has the ability to identify workflow or processes within the business and quickly and effectively improve efficiencies of those that affect the bottom line. Driving new business and capturing market share is really a critical area where a CIO can contribute. CIOs – although responsible for the IT department – bridge communications, knowledge and understand the strategic gaps between business departments that require technology that will help drive business value.
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PBN: What convinced you to take the position at the Narragansett Bay Insurance Co.?
ANSELMO: Surely, the management team at Narragansett. It is a team of experienced, intelligent insurance executives; they are growing a great company with great people and partners. I know I can help and ensure that technology will be a differentiator in delivering our products through “relentless innovation.” In addition, it’s a rare opportunity to come to an insurance company and have the ability to “green-field” technology and processes, meaning start from fresh. I have been fortunate to be involved with other successful startup companies – three insurance related – and reinventing the insurance company and its processes will be in the forefront of what we will be focusing on.
PBN: How does NBIC rank among other insurance companies in terms of technology? Ahead of the game? Behind the times?
ANSELMO: We have a pretty slick system named “Write-1,” which is an insurance quoting system. It’s a product that allows agents to quote directly within their office. But we do have some issues – like many insurance companies – with others that are more legacy systems for us. We will be reinventing them. Yes, we need to reinvent ourselves as well. We will be developing new tools for our agents, providing data to our stakeholders and improving access to systems for ease of us to all through some innovative technology.
PBN: What types of innovation do you have planned?
ANSELMO: We’re going to spend some time defining a long-term IT roadmap and blueprint. It will be based on business needs, where we’re going over a three- to five-year plan. What we will do from an IT perspective is to drive that business plan with technology. I’ve just joined the team and in a few months, we will have a formal IT strategy that will help us move forward into that next generation. We will be bringing in “cloud computing.” And we will provide software services to our clients. It’s a model that will allow you to access information anywhere, anytime and anyplace. From the agent side, we’re going to be building a new client-facing system, Web and handheld for the use of promoting our products. You’ll start seeing some other Internet-based products that will be delivered and allow us to continually consider the next generation of consumer.
PBN: What IT changes can the insurance agents who work with NBIC and the policyholders expected in the future?
ANSELMO: We need to talk about those next steps, which is how are we going to help our partners? Those partners could be our consumers, our agents, our Shelterpride inspectors. We might provide them access to our cloud as well. Data is critical to an insurance company’s business, and through some future offerings to our clients, we will ensure that this data is accessible and secure so proper analysis on premium and claims data can be performed. We want everyone who is searching for homeowners insurance to come first to nbic.com, the premier Web site for all homeowners that will provide them with information in relation to their products. We will incorporate social networking, portable device access, iPhone and Blackberry tools for quoting and other tools that will help us help our clients. Our children and grandchildren already use these services on the Web and we need to be able to move and change with them as they look or search for insurance-related products. I expect Narragansett Bay to be one of those premier sites they will rely on for advice on insurance products.
