Digital transformation at 150-year old insurer: CIO Interview with James Holmes
James Holmes, CIO of North P&I Club, discussing his organisation's digital transformation and use of machine learning to improve critical business processes
Senior IT leaders must understand the diverse needs of the business and how technology can help if they're to succeed in today's digital age.
That's according to James Holmes, CIO of marine insurer North P&I Club. Having spent the last two decades leading software development teams for various organisations, he's witnessed a changing industry.
"I think one of the key things nowadays for a CIO and other senior IT management is to really understand the business," he explains. "It's not just about understanding technology, but it's understanding the business and the value that technology can add to that."
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Holmes entered the technology industry after studying an engineering degree in the 1990s. "I went to university here in Newcastle and then went down to Norwich Union to do software development. I joined their graduate training scheme, and really have come up through it. I spent a number of years there," he reflects.
"I then briefly went to a company called Torex Health, which developed software for the medical industry, before spending the vast majority of my career at Gregg's. I spent 16 and a half years at Greggs and started as a software developer, before moving up to running the service desk and ultimately going on to lead their SAP implementation."
Holmes next career destination was North P&I Club, which he joined in January 2018 to lead its IT department. He says: "I've been here just over two years. We provide cover against risk and loss at sea, offering immediate, professional support and ongoing technical and legal expertise.
"Our comprehensive P&I cover keeps ship owners protected from a broad range of third-party liabilities, such as damage to cargo, personal injury, pollution, collisions, wreck removal, fines and more.
"FD&D insurance provides members with cover for legal advice, costs and expenses for disputes that are not covered by other forms of insurance. And we also provide Loss Prevention services, which is an advisory service helping our our members(customers) make informed decisions on risk avoidance and claims management."
North is currently undergoing a major digital transformation programme to modernise its products and help empower its global network of employees. The 160-year-old firm, which employs 390 people and provides insurance to around 5,000 vessels globally, is rewriting its claims and underwriting systems and replacing legacy computing infrastructure.
"We have a business change programme running at the moment at North, which will go live later this year, which is a rewrite of our underwriting and claims systems," says Holmes.
"We are replacing some very old legacy solutions. It's a bespoke product that we're writing with a combination of in-house development and outsourced resources over in Poland with a company called Future Processing."
Since joining North, another important part of his role as CIO has been to lead a legacy operating system and hardware replacement programme. North is looking to provide its global workforce with more modern software and devices to do their jobs.
Holmes explains that the firm has made a significant investment in replacing all its end-user PCs and upgrading them to Windows 10 and Office 365. He says: "That has been deployed globally across all of our users. As part of that, we made an investment to transition a lot of people from desktop devices over to laptops, to provide more agile/flexible working."
"And also with people travelling around the world, we have given them an opportunity to use and access all systems remotely. We've got some further hardware upgrades with our server infrastructure and are looking to improve our global network. We will be replacing our HR & payroll systems too later this year."
He describes North's digital transformation efforts as a three-pronged attack, telling Computing: "There's the transformation programme, the replacement of legacy PCs, and the other piece of work that I've been working on is changing our IT staffing model from largely contracted to a permanent base. We continue to develop that culture and that high-performing team."
As well as updating internal systems and hardware, the firm is also leveraging new technologies to modernise its products. Holmes says: "We have just partnered with Concirrus. We're using their solution, which utilises machine learning to help risk profile vessels. This will result in providing better risk profiling information about vessels we insure, or potentially are going to insure resulting in longer term benefits to underwriting and risk selection"
Holmes says "North sees the benefits of investing in technology and is working with some of the wider business on how North can further utilise technology to further enhance the services we provide enabling our members to trade with confidence"