“It’s not personal, it’s strictly business.” This phrase, and numerous variations on it, is not only among the three Godfather films’ many additions to our culture, it also is a guiding principle in the business world. I was reminded (again) of this truism when I learned that another CIO has left their position within a major London Market insurer.

The notion of using a service-oriented architecture (SOA) implementation to align internal software development with the needs of a changing business has attracted plenty of detractors in the decade or so since it was hailed as the new solution for IT and business alignment. The struggling economy, paradoxically, might be just the catalyst for giving SOA a serious look, according to experts who follow the field.

The outsourcing of some or all of an organisation’s IT operation is becoming more popular in our market. We are seeing a number of high profile companies outsourcing their IT or in the process of transition. Consequently, I thought I would share a situation that I discovered that might be of interest to anyone considering this approach. As it does not concern any of the players currently providing services in our market (as far as I am aware) then I can ‘spare anyone’s blushes’.

In Holland they have an insurance market borse called the VNAB, which is rather like the London Market bureau. A facility provided by the VNAB is a web based system called eABS that started life as a system to manage claims in a subscription market. It is similar in some ways to ECF, but different in many others. eABS is now being upgraded to include support for an ePlacing module.