Insurance provider takes first step towards a digital transformation

Our client is one of the largest mutual life insurance companies in the United States that has never outsourced in their 150+ year history. They employ approximately 8,000 personnel in the United States and support a network of over 3,000 financial agents in more than 70 offices nationwide. The client has a deep culture of taking care of its people and a laser focus on keeping the clients’ needs primary – an approach that resonates with Ensono’s culture and client-centric philosophy.

This client brought on a new CIO who quickly realized they’re not in the infrastructure business and needed cost-effective solutions that would provide robust IT management and capabilities in line with the size and nature of their business. They were challenged with equipment quickly becoming end of life, an outdated data center and what most companies are facing today, an aging workforce.

The client had a staff of 20+ that solely managed, maintained and supported their mainframe. Staffing was a major concern and sensitive topic to the client as a number of these mainframe staff were at retirement age but didn’t have to take it.

An economic evaluation was needed in order to assess the impact to staff and how outsourcing could work so the client sought assistance from an advisor to find the right managed services provider – one that would not only help them digitally transform to meet the needs of their customers, but also mesh well with their deep culture and values.

Ensono was ultimately selected because of a true culture alignment. A key initial step for Ensono during the onset was identifying how we could help their people – all the way down to the contract level.

Ensono setup an interview day with the client’s staff to answer questions and assess the talent needed to meet the client’s business objectives. Ultimately, Ensono rebadged more than half of the mainframe staff.

The client’s digital transformation journey began with finding the right fit from a cultural perspective. Ensono and the client embarked on a two phased approach slowly and steadily because it was critical for our success to truly learn how the client’s business ran.

• Phase I: Ensono established Remote Infrastructure Management (RIM) support to quickly stabilize the client’s environment and facilitate transition to a fully managed solution.
• Phase II: Ensono established a fully managed solution at a data center in proximity to the client’s critical latency-sensitive applications and deployed new equipment and tools to deliver a fully managed solution.

The client-Ensono team fully transitioned operations over a four month period. With Ensono providing a fully managed solution, the client was able to quickly stabilize its mainframe environment and achieve financial flexibility early on.

As the insurance industry continues to get challenged in delivering an enhanced and digital experience to its customer base, we actively partner with our client to address their needs today and anticipate the challenges of tomorrow.