(Image source: Pierre Gagné.)
Every once in a while, one of our valued industry contacts publishes a book relevant to our readers. On this occasion, we’ve connected with Pierre Gagné, President of both Insurance Frameworks Inc., and consulting firm PSG Inc., to talk about Panorama 360: The Insurance and Wealth Management Enterprise Business Architecture Framework. Gagné has over four decades of experience in the insurance and wealth management industries, beginning with a career at insurance carriers, then on the vendor software side, and finally for a global consulting company. In the latter part of his career, Gagné has been founding partner of three management consultant companies focused solely on the insurance and wealth management industries, during which time he worked with nearly 100 insurers in nine different countries.
Pierre Gagné, President of Insurance Frameworks Inc., and consulting firm PSG Inc.
Panorama 360 is a reference framework that has been integrated into the operations of many insurance companies for a variety of purposes, such as architecting company operations, analyzing and organizing business processes, preparing for projects, and requirements modeling. The framework details 75 major insurance business capabilities and over 500 insurance-specific business functions.
“Now integrated into our business activities, the Panorama 360 insurance reference framework ensures greater velocity and more particularly in validating that all business areas and services in our companies are addressed,” comments Constance Lemieux, C.Dir., President and Chief Operating Officer, Property and Casualty Insurance Sector, La Capitale (Québec), which has adopted the framework for itself and its subsidiaries for over eight years, for use in projects, architectural approaches and various analyses. “Used in concert with our official project management, architecture and business analysis methodologies, Panorama 360 ensures consistency in our practices, offering a value proposition centered on business.”
Insurance Innovation Reporter: Tell us about Panorama 360. What is it, and what can it help insurers and wealth management companies to do?
Pierre Gagné, President, Insurance Frameworks Inc.: I see Panorama 360 Insurance and Wealth Management Enterprise Business Architecture Framework as an accelerator for those companies that do not want to start building their enterprise blueprints from a white page or want to improve their already existing model with additional information. Panorama 360 contains a business capability anchor model, a three level decomposition of 530 business functions, 13 information model domains, a capability-to-information mapping matrix, all these perspectives being complemented by extensive descriptions and structure. Panorama 360 covers all lines of business found in the industry.
The industry being comprised of a large number of processes, Panorama 360 demonstrates how to create visionary processes using the different functions that are found in the book. Panorama 360 was initially created for our consulting companies to share the knowledge between our consultants and to avoid learning on our clients’ time.
IIR: Why did you decide to write this book?
PG: We had a tremendous success offering Panorama 360 to insurance companies, initially as a corporate license. We not only offered it in a digital version but also as an industry plug-in model to several modeling tool platforms. By then, we were receiving all kinds of requests from consulting companies, independent consultants, technology vendors and even universities to have access to this knowledge base without having to buy a corporate license. So we decided to write this book containing the same information found in the corporate license and price it as a book to be accessible to any interested individuals.
IIR: Tell us why this book matters to the industry.
PG: It matters because this enterprise reference model is now available to all individuals who want to have access to this knowledge base. Panorama 360 is the most complete insurance and wealth management enterprise business reference model in this industry. Being accessible as a book only extends the value that it already delivers to several insurance companies globally which is increased speed, reduced costs and improved quality in projects and business management.
The value that Panorama 360 delivers is clearly described by our clients as the velocity that it provides, the completeness of what needs to be addressed, therefore reducing the costs associated with projects and business management. One of our clients, an enterprise architect from the parent company of several financial organizations, had the following to say in an acknowledgement to the book:“Panorama 360 has given us a jumpstart for capacity based planning, the next level in our architecture modeling ambition and the management of the strategic changes and project portfolio.”
IIR: Who should be interested in this book?
PG: Anyone interested in having access to an insurance and wealth management enterprise reference model at book price. These are business architects, business analysts, project managers, business strategists, risk managers in insurance companies, banks as well as consulting companies, technology vendors, including independent consultants, and universities providing either insurance, business analysis or enterprise architecture courses.
IIR: Can you give us concrete examples for leveraging Panorama 360?
PG: Keeping in mind that Panorama 360 ensures completeness, increases speed of execution while reducing costs, here is a non-exhaustive usage list:
- Enterprise or business architecture
- BPM or process improvement
- Business requirements
- Software evaluation
- Master Data Management
- Data Warehouse Architecture
- Application portfolio management
- Operational risk management
- Mergers and Acquisitions
- New employee training
The financial industry is going through radical changes in a short period of time. This is where Panorama 360 adds value. Whether you are an insurance company or a wealth management organization, a consulting company, an independent consultant or a technology vendor, you will find in Panorama 360 Insurance and Wealth Management Enterprise Business Architecture Framework a key asset to create value, reduce project costs while increasing quality and speed.