September 2023CIOAPPLICATIONS.COM8CIO InsightsCXO InsightsIn My ViewWHAT KIND OF TRANSFORMATIONAL TECHNOLOGY CUSTOMER ARE YOU?magine you finally got tickets to that amazing show that you've been dying to see. You take your seat thinking you'll have a great viewof the spectacle;the show beginsand just as it starts to get good everybody in front of you stands upand you can't see because you're the shortest in the crowd. Your view is blocked and now having overwhelming sense of FOMO. This feeling of being left out thatsome of our business leaders feel when they read articles or hear podcasts about the disruptive or `transformative technologies' like machine learning, RPA, AI, biometrics or IOT. Business leaders look to technology leaders to help be the catalyst for implementing these magical solutions so they can feel confident they're not the shortest in the crowd.Within the insurance space these fears have been around for over a decade. Theadvent of transformative technologies across many industries caused fears that insurance agents would be replaced by digital analogs and completely transform how insurance was sold. Although there has been significant improvements of efficiencies and automation through many of these technologies, this largely has not come to fruition as many had thought. The insurance industry handles complicated processes and transactions requiring an element of humanity that technology has not figured out how to adequately replace, so those who have claimed theindustryis ripe for disruptionlike the Blockbuster to Netflix parallel might be a little misguided. Although there have been hundreds of millions of dollars in write offs from technology investments gone south, there are nevertheless, opportunities which present themselves and it helps to be thoughtful about how one approachesa technology focusedsolution.Hobby Shop Customer(R&D)Maybe you have a budget that's burning a hole in your pocket and the last tech sales pitch was very appealing. The price is reasonable and just maybe the technology could deliver enormous efficiencies or savings, but you won't know unless you try. This is a great position to PETER JOSE , DIRECTOR, IT, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY SPECIALTY INSURANCEIbe in because there might be little to no expectation of a massively beneficial outcome,or even if the project fails it might provide some valuable insights into what a realistic expectation of process improvement looks like. However, beware that your `Dream Team' partnership teammate might have selective memory about the promises which may have been conveyed at the outset of the project. Sales folks and internal stakeholders alike want to project an appearance of success no matter what, so they might provide high level executive status updates where you'll hear 90-100% success Peter Jose
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