How did the need to view customers “holistically” affect the IT organization at Aegis?

(Please answer in fewer than 150 words)

Imagine that you have the opportunity to recommend the next steps to the CIO (Chief Information Officer) of Aegis Insurance around data governance and IT principles. What would you recommend that the CIO do next? Give your top 2 recommendations and explain why.
 

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Aegis Insurance Case Study Aegis Insurance started out as a small company that offered term life, universal life and whole life policies to individuals. Over the years, it acquired other insurance businesses which offered retirement services and group insurance. Each division operated separately, with their own marketing, IT and web presence. The chief executive officer's (CEO) goal was to unite the divisions for cross-marketing purposes. IT Landscape In early 2019, Aegis consolidated its IT resources under a single chief information officer (CIO). All unit IT leaders now report directly to the CIO, with dotted-line reports to their business units. The centralized organization has about 300 personnel at headquarters, with 25 at other sites. Aegis outsources or hires contractors for some services. A Vice President of Enterprise Architecture position was created, and the new hire created working groups on areas including networks, security, IT storage, and so on. These working groups were charged with setting standards and creating a list of ideas for implementing the company's IT integration and standardization goals. In addition to the working groups, a committee was formed to create a set of enterprise-level principles that would guide decision making in both the business and IT divisions of the organization. (See Exhibit 2.) The company's decision to use Salesforce.com as a common customer relationship management platform is a clear outcome of the new IT principles. It i . enterprise-level vendor product (principle 3) aligned with mainstream (principle 5) solution. Instead of in-house legacy systems, the company is moving toward streamlined, enterprise solutions that offer consolidated data. Aegis IT Principles These are the principles that the new CIO implemented. 1. Production is priority #1: We must support the day-to-day business operations and keep them flowing smoothly. 2. Look internal first: We will work to leverage existing technology solutions before turning to alternatives. 3. Buy before build: purchase existing services rather than expending effort to build internally, unless no suitable option exists on the market. 4. Prioritize and evaluate: We will evaluate IT initiatives while considering factors of alignment, value, risk and capacity. 5. Ease of integration: Our chosen solutions will include mainstream components and industry standards to ensure they can grow with the company and integrate across systems. 6. Customer first: Our technology services must be easy for the client (internal and external) to use and access. 7. Enterprise data: To ensure successful integration across the IT enterprise, we will define and maintain a "master source" data warehouse with a clearly defined owner. Aegis Insurance Case Study Aegis Insurance started out as a small company that offered term life, universal life and whole life policies to individuals. Over the years, it acquired other insurance businesses which offered retirement services and group insurance. Each division operated separately, with their own marketing, IT and web presence. The chief executive officer's (CEO) goal was to unite the divisions for cross-marketing purposes. IT Landscape In early 2019, Aegis consolidated its IT resources under a single chief information officer (CIO). All unit IT leaders now report directly to the CIO, with dotted-line reports to their business units. The centralized organization has about 300 personnel at headquarters, with 25 at other sites. Aegis outsources or hires contractors for some services. A Vice President of Enterprise Architecture position was created, and the new hire created working groups on areas including networks, security, IT storage, and so on. These working groups were charged with setting standards and creating a list of ideas for implementing the company's IT integration and standardization goals. In addition to the working groups, a committee was formed to create a set of enterprise-level principles that would guide decision making in both the business and IT divisions of the organization. (See Exhibit 2.) The company's decision to use Salesforce.com as a common customer relationship management platform is a clear outcome of the new IT principles. It i . enterprise-level vendor product (principle 3) aligned with mainstream (principle 5) solution. Instead of in-house legacy systems, the company is moving toward streamlined, enterprise solutions that offer consolidated data. Aegis IT Principles These are the principles that the new CIO implemented. 1. Production is priority #1: We must support the day-to-day business operations and keep them flowing smoothly. 2. Look internal first: We will work to leverage existing technology solutions before turning to alternatives. 3. Buy before build: purchase existing services rather than expending effort to build internally, unless no suitable option exists on the market. 4. Prioritize and evaluate: We will evaluate IT initiatives while considering factors of alignment, value, risk and capacity. 5. Ease of integration: Our chosen solutions will include mainstream components and industry standards to ensure they can grow with the company and integrate across systems. 6. Customer first: Our technology services must be easy for the client (internal and external) to use and access. 7. Enterprise data: To ensure successful integration across the IT enterprise, we will define and maintain a "master source" data warehouse with a clearly defined owner.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

The data quality issues should be taken on by the data stewards in each division in order to ensure accuracy and comple teness of the data The data st... View the full answer