identifying problems
“We wanted to craft a solution that would of course solve the immediate problems being encountered when we started. But
by architecting the software as a layered and modular structure, new data formats and content could be added with
minimal disruption. This was a visionary design that sought to pre-empt the future requirements that Tokio Marine
Europe would no doubt have. Our objective was to provide a significant degree of future proofing.”
Colin Whickman, Scyllogis Consulting
agents, each with their own way of delivering their own systems and to changes in Tokio
data, had been brought on stream. Marine Europe’s own systems.
A number of bespoke upload solutions had The solution had to be scaleable, so that
been developed in RPG language on an ad hoc Tokio Marine Europe could step up the vol-
basis by Tokio Marine Europe’s in-house pro- ume of agents’ data without reducing perform-
grammers. By 2005, there was an unaccept- ance or having to re-design the system from
ably broad array of such solutions. first principles. It also needed to be extensi-
ble in the sense that new data structures could
Established procedure error-prone
be added as required.
Developing that interface was a task which
The nature of the conversion process meant Tokio Marine Europe decided to outsource to
that errors were easily generated, and it took ensure the necessary experience and resource
both time and programming resources to without increasing the size of the in-house IT
eliminate those problems each month. There department.
was increasing pressure from the financial
team to reduce the length of time taken to pro-
vide the wholly accurate information required.
Outsourced to Scyllogis Consulting
“Unfortunately from the company’s perspec- The contract was awarded to Scyllogis Con-
tive, few of the ‘solutions’ in place had been sulting. With a track record in completing IT
properly documented and the inherent knowl- projects specialising purely in the insurance
edge of those processes rested solely with the sector, the company could demonstrate expe-
staff involved. At the very best, that state of rience of the GENIUS system and the envi-
affairs was not in the company’s commercial ronments in which Tokio Marine Europe’s
interests.” agents were typically operating,
It was clear to Chris Gordge and his man- Colin Whickman of Scyllogis took up that
agement colleagues that a more effective so- point. “We wanted to craft a solution that would
lution lay in developing a single environment of course solve the immediate problems be-
which could take in the agents’ bordereaux - ing encountered when we started. But by
in whatever format they had been compiled – architecting the software as a layered and
and convert them directly to a format modular structure, new data formats and con-
optimised for GENIUS. tent could be added with minimal disruption.
“Our objective was to create a fully docu- “This was a visionary design that sought to
mented application that would reduce key pre-empt the future requirements that Tokio
man dependency, while improving the quality Marine Europe would no doubt have. Our ob-
of information required by our control and re- jective was to provide a significant degree of
porting systems.” future proofing.”
Flexible interface required Project launched in 2007
Whatever solutions were devised and imple- Launching the project in June 2007, the
mented would need to interface flexibly with Scyllogis team collaborated closely with
agents’ systems in the field. No less impor- Tokio Marine Europe’s in-house IT department:
tant, it would have to be re-configurable in Mr Gordge regards this as one of the reasons
response to changes made by the agents to why it was implemented successfully in the
The client’s objective was to create a fully documented application that would reduce key man
dependency, while improving the quality of information required by its control and reporting systems.
The Informed Executive
7
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