MUMBAI, INDIA: Enterprises have been churning out products and offerings with the regularly changing needs of its customer and his/her family. Insurance companies are an example one such sector that witnesses every player vying for the larger pie and go that extra mile. Irrespective of the company's domain, the influence of IT cannot be ruled out.

In a conversation with Prasad Ramasubramanian of CyberMedia News, Abhay Johorey, Director Transformation & Services — Aviva Life Insurance — shared the influence of IT in his company and many more! Read on.

CMN: Could you elucidate on the expenditure on Information Technology (IT) systems in 2006-07 (figures) in Aviva and how much budget does your enterprise allocate for IT expenditure each year? What is the expected change with respect to the previous year?

Abhay Johorey: Robust technology system is very crucial for a financial company like Aviva. Between manufacturing and services, I would say services use a significant portion of IT. In services, I would say that plays an important role in the financial services. Between services, financial services use information technology more.

Over the last one year, we have invested in various systems such as customer interaction system, policy administration system, and sales productivity systems etc and as a company policy we don't share the figures but I can tell you that there is a significant amount of expenditure on that front.

If you look at a broad percentage — you have to put 5-10 per cent of your expenditure and the amount is significant and as I mentioned IT is a core competence of the BFSI segment.

CMN: What part of IT implementation plays a more prominent role -- software or hardware or networking? Why?

Abhay Johorey: Well, it's a difficult one because all the components — software, hardware and the networking — put together make an application and it depends on the situation. If you have hardware in place, then software becomes important. To say which is important depends on the situation, all the three play a role in giving utility to the consumer. With the businesses going to tier 2 and tier 3 cities, then networking plays an important role. The answer really depends on the situation.

CMN: Since the rupee is growing stronger against the dollar, don't you think it is the right time to purchase IT products (both hardware/software)?

Abhay Johorey: There is a never a right time to purchase. The bigger role is played by when you need them. You can't really inventorize! Price of the currency does not play a role in buying the product.

CMN: Being in the services space, how have you ensured that you are continuously performing well in the yardsticks of service, quality, cost, compliance, operational risk mitigation and client/end-user satisfaction?

Abhay Johorey: It's a continuous process and we always benchmark ourselves based on reverse auction and based on competition. We comply with the ISO standards and when it comes to quality and service our standards are high and we have a lot of automated monitoring. A fairly standardized best of class practices that is world class and it's on a continuous way.