Generali: An Agile IT Pioneer in the Insurance Industry
Challenges
- Incomplete overview of the entire IT portfolio
- Absence of a central tool for release management
- Errors resulting from insufficient documentation and communication of interface changes
- Accommodation of many specialized architectures in standard operations
- Increasing regulatory requirements
Results
- Centrally planned and coordinated release management for 745+ internal applications
- Transparency into the dependencies of the applications planned for release
- Compliance with regulatory requirements and efficient handling of compliance-related questions
- Seamless release runs and faster time-to-market for products and services
- Agile business processes uninterrupted by faulty application releases
The key to running a highly efficient business is ensuring that everyone is aware when changes are made. We’ve created the ideal conditions for this with Bizzdesign Alfabet.
— Detlef Lemmen, IT Architect at Generali Deutschland
Enterprise release management as a holistic approach
The insurance industry has been undergoing change for years, as new market participants, increasing regulatory requirements and, not least, the global pandemic have increased competitive pressure significantly. To stay ahead in this disruptive market environment, Generali relies on long-term growth and digital investments targeting improved transparency – a strategy that is building the foundation for agility and future viability.
For Generali Deutschland, agility means bringing new products and services to market quickly, reliably and in compliance with regulations. This strategy is reflected in the company’s IT. Its IT management is pioneering in the industry – and part of that is its holistic approach to enterprise release management with Bizzdesign Alfabet.
This software for enterprise architecture and IT planning and portfolio management provides a comprehensive overview of the company’s application and technology portfolios, the responsible owners and all of the specialized architectures for the company’s many business functions. As a central hub, Bizzdesign Alfabet collects all the information required for the company’s five main annual releases and vets that information against the architecture it has documented in its repository.
Without Bizzdesign Alfabet, there would be no view of the dependencies among the numerous applications, which – in the case of a conflict – could have a negative impact on IT and business continuity.
Transparency is the best condition for agility
Generali’s central release management runs seamlessly and virtually error-free – and the team there is proud of this: “Before Bizzdesign Alfabet, not all users were aware of the changes being made to the various interfaces. This impacted process integrity significantly,” explains Thomas Wittrock, Enterprise Release Manager at Generali. “Now it is possible to see at a glance where there are technical or content-related dependencies between systems and which companies in the Group are affected,” he says.
In short, Bizzdesign Alfabet has led to transparency at all levels. Up to 100 systems are involved in each release, and the release content targets, among other things, process optimizations, service measures, new products and regulatory requirements. All dependencies are recorded and assessed – with up to 80 interfaces.
Another positive side effect: diligent documentation of the information by the release requester and the release management team ensures a reliable data basis, which is absolutely necessary for successful enterprise architecture management.
Agility, yes, but not without compliance
“To keep our processes running smoothly, it’s very important for everyone to know what’s changing. We have created the ideal conditions for that with Bizzdesign Alfabet,” says Detlef Lemmen, IT Architect at Generali Deutschland. To date, almost 1,000 applications have been documented in the software. That portfolio includes around 745 applications that are regularly involved in release dates.
Generali is also confident that it will be able to meet rising regulatory requirements, as compliance-related information is entered and displayed in Bizzdesign Alfabet. This includes an analysis of security requirements in four categories, recovery priorities and the related emergency management. Enterprise release management helps the company to be agile while at the same time meeting governance requirements. All Agile teams must document their deployments in Bizzdesign Alfabet.
With the appropriate decoupling, the deployments can be approved and discharged from the central release management process. Prerequisites for this are clean documentation and proof of whether they conform to CI/CD and compliance specifications.
What's next?
The next step for the team at Generali is connecting Bizzdesign Alfabet to Jira to be able to import demands and requirements from Jira into the release management framework in Bizzdesign Alfabet. This will provide a detailed view of the individual demands and requirements and their related architecture elements, and thus insight into potential hindrances to a seamless release. As per Generali’s strategy, this will further increase transparency in all areas and maintain the company’s agility.
Meet our customer hero
Generali is a leading direct insurer on the German market, with premium income of €14.4 billion and some 10 million customers as of the end of 2020. As part of the international Generali Group, Generali Deutschland represents the Generali, CosmosDirekt, Dialog and Advocard brands in the life, health, injury/accident and legal protection segments.
Solution
- Bizzdesign Alfabet for Enterprise Architecture Management and Enterprise Release Management
