A business leader in technologist's clothing: Barbara Piehler focuses a career of life insurance management experience into building new technology at Northwestern Mutual.

One of Barbara Piehler's occasional challenges is explaining exactly why she's the one running the technology department of Northwestern Mutual. Piehler, who just celebrated her 20th year at Northwestern Mutual, is the company's chief information officer and a senior vice president, overseeing the 950-person terminology staff. She didn't begin her career as a technologist--and maintains that's an asset.

"I've been a client for more than 18 years," she said with a laugh, adding that she's had a broad range of posts inside Northwestern Mutual's corporate structure."I know a lot about our business and our customers. I'm learning a lot about technology. I know the business really well. Out technical people are speaking English to me and our client partners."

Piebler, a certified public accountant by training, joined Northwestern Mutual from Arthur Young and the Stroh Brewing Co. She rose through the ranks, and found herself overseeing projects that increasingly involved deploying technology to address business issues. For instance, she helped bring in the company's first toll-free phone numbers. She went on to help develop case-management systems, then worked to improve the company's customer-service technology. She describes the mission of her career at Northwestern Mutual as:"The question was always: How do we provide the best service to policyowners?" Several years ago, Piehler was charged with drafting the company's Internet strategy. That put her in a position to take over as Northwestern Mutual's CIO following the retirement of former CIO Walt Wojcik.At that time, she held the title of vice president, information systems.

Northwestern is an "IBM shop" that in 1957 became one of the first companies to acquire outright its own mainframe computer (in that era, big hardware was typically leased or shared). Today, it still relies on a huge mainframe system to support its 3 million policyowners. It employs IBM's WebSphere platform for its Internet development and Lotus' Domino for communications-based tasks. Northwestern Mutual also turns to Interwoven and other content-management systems for organizing and updating information.All of Northwestern Mutual's IS staff is housed in Milwaukee at company headquarters. "Out people are hot all over the map, which is a big advantage," Piehler said.

Mutual is known for its high-touch produccoverage, spearheaded by its 7,900 financial representatives. Northwestern Mutual Financial Network consists force, meaning clients can purchase the company's products only through a network representa-Many Northwestern Mutual Financial Network representatives have law or accounting degrees and specialize in work with high-income clients. From the start, Northwest-Mutual didn't follow the herd by developing its Internet model to leverage e-commerce.

"We don't sell anything on our Web site,"Piehler said."And we don't plan to sell anything on our Web site." Instead, Northwestern Mutual uses its Web infrastructure to promote its representatives. Clients who visit online can check balances and update their accounts. "Out policyowners go through the financial representative's front door to get to their service, so it feels that they are dealing with their financial representative"

Northwestern Mutual makes a crusade of its quest for value, and makes a mission of operating as a low-cost financial services company. That means controlling expenses wherever possible, including on IS."It's a balancing act," Piehler said. The recruiting environment is strong and Piehler reports no problem in luring skilled technical people; however, Northwestern has outsourced some of its software development to India-based shops.

An ongoing task is to integrate Northwestern Mutual's huge volume of legacy system with its new server system. The company has been in business since 1857. There are 34 policies on the books covering people who were born in the 1800s (the policies were all issued in the 20th century). The average life insurance benefit is paid on a policy purchased 39 years earlier.

Piehler said her vantage as CIO gives her a view of the entire company, and her background on the business side means the technology staff won't be short-changed in dealing with other segments of the company. "We see the enterprise view probably more so than the business side does," she said. "We look at all the projects that people want to do and we see file synergy.We all need to work together."

Technology keeps changing, and that's one of the things that's fun about this job, Piehler said. "We have to partner with the business side, we have to challenge them, ask what is possible.Whether it's about something like using a tablet PC, the business needs to understand there are opportunities out there.We want to be at the table."

Northwestern Mutual, a mutual company owned by its policyowners, is the nation's leading direct provider of individual life insurance. In addition to life insurance, the company provides a broad range of financial security products to individuals and businesses--annuities, mutual funds, and long-term-care and disability income insurance--which are distributed through the Northwestern Mutual Financial Network.

EFUSION 2003 Insurance-Driven Technology

Speaker Spotlight

Barbara Piehler

Northwestern Mutual

Opening Keynote Address: "Building on a Legacy"

Hyatt Regency Hotel 

Philadelphia

Sept. 28-30, 2003