|
|
|
New Day for Knights
|
Business New Haven
3/1/2004
By: BNH
|
As the world's largest fraternal organization (1.6 million members) and one of the world's largest insurance providers ($5 billion in sales in 2003), the New Haven-based Knights of Columbus have, by anyone's standard's, formidable technology needs. But before the organization hired Chief Technology Officer Michael Kearney of Middletown in November 2002, it did much of its business the old-fashioned way. Kearney, 44, discusses how he helped to bring the K of C into the 21st century.
What made the Knights of Columbus decide to hire a chief technology officer after having done without one for so long?
I did have a predecessor. We probably didn't have the same title, but there was someone in charge of IT and, after many years of service, he decided to retire. He was retiring at the moment which we were embarking upon a significant amount of investment in IT. I arrived at the right time. They did an RFP for their insurance admin system and they were looking at the idea of starting to do more insurance business on the Web. So, all of those things were already started when I came into the organization.
Did you find the Knights, or did they find you? And what did you do previously?
I was contacted by an executive recruiter. Before that I worked at the Phoenix (insurance company) in Hartford for 17 years in different jobs and capacities, most recently as chief operations officer in the investment portion of the organization.
What did you find when you got here?
The organization had not done a lot of investment in technology. Actually, looking back, that has been a very good thing. You look at the 1990s and how so many people threw so much money into technology without a lot of the clear, quantifiable benefits. [Starting over] allows us the opportunity to look at what those individuals did and make sure we put our money in the right places.
What have you done so far?
We installed PCs throughout the entire organization. They had been here, but not on everyone's desk. So we solidified the infrastructure that way and we brought email in-house. We are in the process of implementing the new life insurance administration system and we are looking at implementing imaging workflow so we can move to a more paperless environment in the organization. We are also in the process of revamping our Web site and we brought content management capabilities to the Web site. This started the process of looking at how we take a lot of our transactions that we presently did through people sending forms in from our various councils and starting to extend those now to the Web.
How do organizations typically begin to apply the same kinds of objective standards to IT management as they do to other aspects of their business?
Excellent question. What I saw in the 1990s was the Internet putting a scare into a lot of people, Businesspeople wanted to put everything on the Web, and I found myself saying, 'How are we going to make money off of that?' Some of these organizations spent a ton of money. I spend a fair amount of time helping [management] to understand the possible alternatives, but in the end these are business decisions and it has to be weighed just like everything else. The mystery of IT is maybe in the bits, bytes, routers and switches.
How did the Knights function previously without technologies for running such a large organization?
You can do a significant amount of business without a significant investment in technology. When you look at us as an organization, we sell to all members. One of the things that drives a lot of organizations - especially in the life insurance and financial services business - is that you are competing against various organizations. Let's say you sell your life-insurance products through brokerage houses. That's going to force you, as a manufacturer, to a certain level of technology. We have been very successful. We had a $5 billion year last year - a record year for us in life insurance sales - and because I'm not being pushed from the outside, we were able to continue to grow and sustain without that level of investment. But we recognize that if we want to continue the growth from the life-insurance side, as well as alleviate the paperwork the volunteers do to run the [local Knights] councils and give them more time to work on the philanthropic things which the Knights are all about, we need to work more efficiently, and technology can be a big part of that.
How have Knights employees embraced changes such as having a PC on every desk?
The people issues regarding change are the same no matter where you are. Looking at what I have done in the past, I better understand the human element of what it takes to be successful in the system. We have to find what we can do to make people comfortable with new technology. We believe we give them all the opportunities with all the training and then it's up to them to come along from there.
|
Go FirstGo PreviousGo
NextGo LastGo
to Index
|
|
