The outside and inside view: Terry Walker, Hartford Life's new CIO, sets his sights on enhancing the company's micro-enterprise model, strengthening its IT talent pool and using technology to help increase the company's international presence.

Hartford Life Insurance Co.'s new chief information officer says his nontraditional career path will help him lead the insurer's technology advancements and its micro-enterprise model.

In June, Terry Walker succeeded Vic Severino, who had been CIO for nearly five years. Walker, who led technology for Hartford life's group benefits division, will now lead the company's enterprise-wide technology initiatives involving its four primary businesses: investment products, individual life insurance, group benefits insurance and international businesses in Brazil, Japan and the United Kingdom. Risk management technology initiatives and the consolidation of technology infrastructure are some of the key projects.

Walker describes Hartford Life's micro-enterprise model as a decentralized business model across the company's major business lines. Each is a "separate P&L type of business" with operations tailored to the uniqueness of its customer base, products and business situations, he said. "They're all a very diversified mode of operation, and therefore the IT operation needs to be aligned in a very similar manner." He sees his role in the model as being more decentralized than that of a traditional CIO. "We have very tight alignment with each of the businesses, and IT teams set to support each of them," he said.

Among his top goals, Walker intends to leverage information technology to gain a competitive advantage and enable the business to move more quickly. He's also dedicated to matching the right tools to the businesses' various distribution organizations, and to focusing on regulatory issues, compliance and information protection.

Much of Walker's effort will focus on personnel. "The successes and failures of the IT operation and being able to do the right thing for our businesses are heavily dependent upon the great employee base we have." He plans to grow the 1,100-member IT talent pool by developing skills, discovering the right competencies needed within the organization, cross-training and sharing personnel with other company operations. "That whole component of talent management is going to be very critical for us" he said.

On the Job

While advancing at Hartford Life, Walker gained knowledge and perspective. "Having spent time in two of the business areas within the company, I have a very firm appreciation for how the micro-enterprise model works and the challenges the line-of-business IT leaders face daily. So, I come to the table with some good insight that relates to what things I can be driving that will help them ... be responsive and supportive to the businesses and not get in their way," he said.

Walker also believes his time spent outside the IT realm gives him a significant advantage in working and connecting with the business side of the operation, particularly with skills concerning distribution and the selling network. "From my vantage point, this is really all about how we drive the most effective business solutions to the table for our customers." It's not about technology, he added, but about solving business problems for both internal and external customers. "And having spent a lot of time in a sales capacity early in my career has ingrained that in me," he said.

Annuities Expertise

Hartford Life, the fourth largest U.S. life insurer based on admitted assets, has been a leader on the IT front over the years, particularly in its hedging efforts and risk management initiatives. In addition, Hartford Life was among the first life insurers to implement grid computing, which involves sharing computing, data, storage, application or network resources, Walker said. "On the grid computing front, we have some income protection benefits associated with annuities, and it requires tremendous computing horsepower and daily calculations to properly hedge the risks of those benefits," he said.

Grid computing supports the statistical modeling of how the company's book of business responds to a variety of simulated market conditions. "We are able to model in minutes, scenarios that used to take days," said Walker. Not only has the grid technology significantly reduced the time it takes, but it's also more scalable and cost-efficient, he added.

Walker said the company's willingness to invest significantly in technology is key. "Business tools that embrace technology can be a major competitive weapon for us." For example, Hartford Life's service costs are industry leading in the annuities arena. "That's all enabled by technology," he added.

What the company doesn't do is just as important as what it does, he said. "We don't throw a lot of things up against the wall and see what sticks and hope there's a winner amongst them. And you won't see a lot of constant churning of new technologies that get put in place. We look at our battles very carefully on the technology front and leverage that as we move forward," Walker said. He said the company's imaging and work-flow management initiatives are good examples of that. "Ten years ago when the U.S. annuity marketplace was really booming for us, the innovation that was put into place on implementing imaging and work-flow capabilities was a major technology-leading move on behalf of the life company. It was a very forward-thinking approach, and we just leverage that core capability up off the board at this point in time."

IT also facilitates international growth, including day-to-day operations support. Hartford Life recently launched an operations center in Ireland and began selling unit-linked bonds for variable annuities in the United Kingdom. Within the last five years, the company opened operations in Japan and Brazil.

Within the next three to five years Walker envisions more consistent processes across its IT operations and more effectively leveraging best practices. "Today, we're fairly siloed within the organizations, and for good reason, because it made perfect sense from where we came from, but I think there's good opportunity for us to move forward associated with that." He also believes technologies that have been highly successful, such as grid computing, will be extended into other business operations where it makes sense to share those opportunities.

Learn More

Hartford Life Insurance Co. A.M. Best Company # 06518

Distribution: Independent agents, brokers, banks and wirehouses

For ratings and other financial strength information about this company, visit www.ambest.com

Terry Walker

Chief Information Officer Hartford Life Insurance Co.

Spent 12 years at IBM in sales, marketing and product management positions that helped him develop a strong customer-solution and business orientation.

Joined Pitney Bowes to assist with its re-engineering work and run a large part of its IT operation, including strategic planning for that function.

Was CIO of GE Financial Assurance E-Business.

Joined Hartford's investment products business in 2000 and became the business technology director for the group benefits business.

Education: Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics, University of Connecticut; MBA, Columbia University 

Key Points

* Hartford Life Chief Information Officer Terry Walker believes business tools that embrace technology can be a major competitive weapon.

* Successful technologies such as grid computing will be extended into other business operations.

* Hartford uses a decentralized business model.