How to Increase IT Effectiveness in the Insurance Business - Recipe from Softengi

Decreased IT budgets in insurance companies and an overall crisis in the industry are not leaving hope for budget increases in the nearest future. However, this is not a reason to stop IT projects, according to Softengi specialists. "Being agile is becoming one of the success factors," said professionals at the recent Agile seminar for insurance companies in Kyiv.

Kyiv, Ukraine, October 10, 2014 --(PR.com)-- A practical Agile seminar for the insurance industry representatives, held in Kyiv in the end of September, was aimed to answer the main question "How can insurance companies work with a decreased budget?"

"User involvement, management support, as well as a clear statement of the requirements to the future product are the three key factors leading IT projects to the expected result," said Anatoly Kot, Program Manager in Softengi, at the seminar.

During the seminar, the Standish Group report "CHAOS Manifesto 2013" was considered. CHAOS Manifesto is based on the collection of project case information on real-life IT environments and software projects. According to it, 61% of all IT projects analyzed in a variety of companies and industries have been unsuccessful. Out of these, approximately every fourth project was stopped prematurely or has been completed, but the result has never been used. The rest of unsuccessful IT projects (about 44%), as a rule, were not completed in the required time, went beyond the allocated budget or were delivered with the functionality, which differed from the planned.

The most common causes of such negative indicators for IT projects are:
- mismatch of investment in IT projects with business objectives of the company;
- unexamined business cases for IT investments;
- poor management of projects.

Given the millions of invested dollars in IT projects and considering that more than half will fail in the end, the loss of business acquires enormous volumes.

The main message of Anatoly Kot and Denis Popko, Softengi's Program Managers, at the seminar was that turbulent times and budget cuts are the best time to use new methodologies for project implementation in IT.

"The use of agile methodologies for project development allows us to achieve the success of IT projects with a limited budget and in a short time," said Anatoly Kot. "For example, 90% of the projects implemented with Scrum methodology were successful. Due to agile approach, the customer may at any time stop the project when it reaches its budget or time limit, and he will receive already functioning system."

Agile approach is a set of methodologies, which imply step-by-step development, dynamic generation of requirements and their implementation by constant interaction of all involved parties. Agile development of IT projects not only allows customers to get a functioning product at the end of each stage, but also to involve the future user of the system in the process of its creation, which is one of the key factors in the success of IT projects. Due to the flexible methodology, business representatives have the opportunity to participate in the quality control process and adjust the product according to their needs. Thus, the customer on time and within the established budget receives a product which is ready to use and fully complies with the requirements of the customer.

About Softengi:
Softengi provides IT outsourcing services since 1995. Every day more than 150 IT professionals in the offices in Ukraine, USA and Switzerland realize business expectations of the customers worldwide. The company is a member of the Intecracy Group international IT-consortium, Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and The 2014 Global Outsourcing 100 ranked outsourcer (Rising Star #5) by IAOP.

Softengi offers outsourcing software development services, development teams establishment, IT business processes outsourcing, IT consulting, development of business solutions (based on Microsoft SharePoint). Among Softengi customers there are such companies as Enviance Inc. (provides services for McDonald's, DuPont, Walmart, Chevron and FujiFilm), Ingersoll-Rand, Boeing, Peterbilt Inc., JSC Bank of Georgia, Mettler Toledo, IMPAQ, IKEA, UniCredit, Zeppelin and other customers in the U.S., Western Europe and Ukraine.

Source: www.softengi.com
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Olga Iatsyna
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olga.iatsyna@softengi.com
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