In Person: Allianz Insurance’s chief information officer, Jacob Abboud

On being a technological company, what it has changed for brokers and customers as well as what is coming next.

But if recruiting genuine stars is far from straightforward, then holding on to them must be even more of a challenge.

The question stands, why would real talent not start up on their own to build a firm and benefit from owning the business? Once an individual develops genuine expertise in a cutting edge technology, the lure of equity will surely come calling again.

“The people are really excited because they are in control and empowered, they can see the result of what they are working on,” Abboud insists.

Adding: “We have built the digital factory in Munich as a group.”

This he expounds adds a further dimension allowing Allianz to draw on expertise from around the world and give a sense of reward to the experts who know that different operating entities will reuse the work in different locations.

And so on to the future and what the landscape will look like in, say, five years’ time.

“We have the appetite to transform our platforms to the next generation.”

Brokers will get the capabilities that they need through the portals and e-traded quotes but also to eliminate all the non-value adding tasks

Remember though that it was all the investments of years gone by that created the legacies of today. Insurers are yet to prove that they can manage the sideways jump and ongoing jumps into emerging technologies.

Start-ups and horizontal market enterprises often manage them with an aplomb that larger corporates cannot emulate and without due care and attention history is going to repeat itself in a self-dooming cycle.

It is a problem that he has foreseen.

“If you are not very careful you end up with a new legacy”, he states.

Instead what Allianz is building is an architectural blueprint of components that speak to each other through standard language and interfaces.

In the plug in and play digital future the “system can constantly change” and optimise rather than being stuck in a legacy building feedback loop.

“Brokers will get the capabilities that they need through the portals and e-traded quotes but also to eliminate all the non-value adding tasks,” Abboud predicts.

Technology will not mean the end of brokers but will free up both sides of the fence to get on with striking deals and serving clients rather than chasing data or reports.

“It is fantastic news for the customer.”

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