Editor’s Note: Guillermo Ramírez, VP, Technology Business Solutions, RIMAC Seguros is one of 16 finalists for Insurance Innovation Reporter’s Four Stars Award, which recognizes outstanding insurance IT innovators across four regions of Latin America: Mexico, Central America & Caribbean, Andean, and Southern Cone. 

The strategic task that Guillermo Ramírez, VP, Technology Business Solutions, assumed at RIMAC Seguros (Lima, Peru; approximately US$1 billion in annual written premium) was to achieve a more modernized technology environment that enabled better integration with the company’s sales channels. His approach to fulfilling that brief is to develop a practical vision, communicate it to his team, and empower people to take on the responsibility of realizing it.

As a technology leader, Ramírez is a great believer in the power of communication—which he thinks is too often deficient within IT organizations and between IT and the business. His leadership style involves sharing his ideas with others in a way that mutual understanding is achieved. He considers communication as critical to the success of IT initiatives both internally within the IT organization and among the users across the enterprise. For example, Ramírez identifies effective users of systems to become evangelists and sponsors, and he promotes the value of feedback across the company to maximize alignment and increase the chances of successful initiatives.

Ramírez’s tenure at RIMAC reflects the belief that teams whose members are encouraged to communicate generally work better together. Among his achievements are the legacy replacement of the company’s Life business systems. This initiative took RIMAC from a platform over 20 years old with “dumb” terminals to modern digital technology that projects its functionality to mobile devices. Since its initial go-live in 2013, new life products have been migrated to the system every year, with worksite most recently in 2016, and investment products on tap for 2017.

Ramírez also drove the development of the company’s internally named SAS system (Sistema de Administración de Seguros), which makes various products available to sales channels. The system was designed to overcome limitations associated with AS/400 technology, and confer the following benefits:

• Capacity to open sales channels and rapid implementation of products in Lima and Peru’s provinces;
• Simplification of policy issuance;
• Portability of core system functionality to any platform (e.g., desktop, laptops and mobile);
• Optimization in massive policy issuance processing, centralized in RIMAC;
• System optimization for channels, all a single application;
• Elimination of paper printing and environmental protection through electronic storage (IT Green Policy);
• Implementation of online payments;
• Option to digitally sign policy or certificate, without having to print the policy;
• Record the details of the transaction made on insurance certificates; and
• Display of sales processing status for both the channel and RIMAC.

RIMAC’s development of the SAS system began in 2012 and went live for vehicle insurance later that year. Other products that have gone live since include individual life (2015) and worksite (2016).

Currently the majority of RIMAC’s products are serviced by the SAS, which supports quoting, issuance, endorsements, dispatch through electronic policy, and other processes.

Another important achievement by Ramírez and his team is what RIMAC calls its SAT system (Sistema de Administración de Tecnología). The system is used to manage the various activities of the IT organization through visibility into the department’s workflows. It comprises project management, service management, IT security management, business continuity and IT governance.

Digital Insurance Entrepreneur: Andrés Cordovez Davalos, Seguros Equinoccial (Andean Region)