Novarica, a New York-based research and advisory firm has entered into an alliance with The Nolan Company, a Dallas-based management consulting firm that specializes in process and operational effectiveness for insurance carriers, have entered an alliance that will enable the two companies to offer their complementary capabilities to their clients. The opportunity for the firms to ally originated in long-time Novarica managing director Chad Hersh’s decision to return to consulting. Hersh has joined Nolan as senior vice president of its insurance practice and will manage the relationship between the two firms.

Hersh, who started his career in consulting, joined Nolan to return to that business in a more strategic role, he says. Hersh also believes that the IT community underutilizes more traditional management consulting. “It’s a great way to bridge the gap between business and IT, particularly when it comes to transformations driven by core system replacement,” Hersh elaborates. “I’m excited to go beyond the traditional role of helping CIOs to select a vendor and to implement the solution in order to help them play a more strategic role in their organizations.”

“Carriers frequently underinvest in business transformation, change enablement, processing redesign and broad IT and business strategy around IT projects,” Hersh adds. “Helping in those areas is a natural extension of the work I’ve done for the past decade, and Nolan’s resources are as deep as you can get in those areas.”

Complementary Offerings

The alliance between Nolan and Novarica will expand the services that both companies can offer their clients, according to Matt Josefowicz, managing director, Novarica. “We frequently run into situation where our clients have additional needs beyond strategy into areas such as business process reengineering and hands-on organizational redesign – things that require full-time consulting,” he explains. “As an advisory firm, we’re not structured to do that. With Nolan, we have a partner we can trust to deliver those additional types of service.”

Rod Travers, executive vice president at Nolan notes that Hersh is recognized as an authority on insurance IT strategy and core system replacement. “His knowledge and experience, combined with Nolan’s capabilities in insurance operations improvement, are an ideal combination for carriers who are looking for objective assistance in achieving tangible results from their investments in technology upgrades and replacements,” he comments. “Chad will be working with Nolan clients to help them achieve the full potential of their technology renewal and business transformation efforts.”

Josefowicz and Hersh previously worked in analyst firm Celent’s insurance practice. Josefowicz founded Novarica in 2008 and Hersh joined the firm later that year. “This is a great evolution for Novarica,” Josefowicz adds. “Chad and I have worked with each other for a long time, and continue to have the opportunity to work together, even as he pursues different interests.”