Case Study of Data Governance at Insuracorp

CASE STUDY of

Data Governance at InsuraCorp

Case Summary: This case study is regarding an organization called InsuraCorp which decided to merge the IT solutions of various divisions into one integrated solution throughout the organization. InsuraCorp had three differentbusiness units: (a) individual insurance, like universal life, term life, etc.; (b) retirement services, like retirement plans—401(k) etc.; and (c) group insurance, like group life and disability insurance. Previously, the business units at InsuraCorp operated autonomously. Also, the customers had to go to different websites for the products in different categories. Every line of business had a separate IT infrastructure and the supporting staff. This divided system resulted in processing inefficiencies and duplicate IT resources. Off course, it was costing more to the organization and was a roadblock to the company’s intent to cross-market items of the three business lines under the fresh InsuraCorp brand (Brown, 2012).

Current CEO wanted to have a synergy across the various business units in the organization. For this purpose, the company’s first CMO was hired in 2005. The purpose of this whole thing was to provide one number to call for customers and help the sales people and customers gain access to all products and services. The marketing vice presidents now have a dotted-line relation to the chief marketing officer in addition to their immediate business heads. Cross-marketing means ability to offer products from the other categories. This initiative required spending on organization-level IT system to provide access to consolidated organization data. In the beginning of 2006, a new common structure for IT was declared in which all of the IT infrastructure was placed at the corporate office. The IT leaders from different business lines have a solid-line relation to the chief information officer and a dotted-line relation to their own business line. The centralized IT organization had a...