Managing change is a vital area for the insurance industry, but many players are wasting millions each year through a lack of capability and investment in this area.
This is the view from Junction, the partnerships arm of the BGL Group.
Paul Loucas, Associate Director of Commercial Delivery Junction said: "Change management is a low profile capability in many organisations, although its impact - both positive and negative - to the bottom line is unmistakeable. Any company operating in general insurance has to implement hundreds of changes in any given year, ranging from changing policy wording to launching significant technology projects. Handling these badly means major costs to the business and a poor customer experience."
Junction handles more than 500 changes a year for its partner brands, which include M&S Bank, Post Office Financial Services, Lloyds TSB, Halifax and RAC Insurance.
The standard industry measure of project success predominately centres on meeting time, budget and quality requirements. Junction's own measures expand on these to include ‘meeting all objectives', ‘stakeholder satisfaction', ‘team satisfaction' and ‘delivering added value'.
Paul Loucas continued: "The secret to successful change management isn't bureaucracy although ensuring you are in control throughout is key. At the outset it's vitally important to ensure the final outcome of the project is agreed and fully understood. Throughout any project strong active sponsorship is key, as is continued stakeholder engagement. Everyone involved must understand what's expected of them and the importance of their role in the success of the project. Then it's a case of good governance to ensure delivery. Importantly, there's no right or wrong approach in methodology. Many Change teams spend days arguing over Agile vs Waterfall methodologies - but an open-minded, often blended approach that is tailored to the project's needs gives the greatest chance of success."
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