IBM has appointed a team of experts in the insurance and life and pensions industries. The company says this is part of its initiative to put in place established industry gurus to lead its activity in key market sectors.
The team will spearhead the ongoing development of a range of solutions from IBM to meet the current needs of the market.
It will be headed up by Shaun Crawford who was previously vice president and head of the insurance sector at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young.
Other members of the team are Andy Baldwin, Imran Ahmed and Chris Corllett, all previously from Cap Gemini Ernst & Young too.
Crawford commented: "The UK financial services marketplace is going through a phase of rapid transformation as mass consolidation continues and regulators encourage radical changes in the structure of the market.
"Meanwhile consumers are less interested in buying insurance or banking products and more interested in saving for retirement, paying off debt, creating a portfolio of
investment risk and protecting their health and families.
"The result is that financial organisations need rapid solutions that will help them significantly reduce their costs, whilst achieving more efficient routes to market. By solutions they mean answers in the form of real partnerships with companies that are willing to share risk and investment rather than just supply a product or offer advice. They expect credible brands with proven large scale delivery capabilities to respond to the challenge."
"IBM is responding by developing the necessary partnership deals and delivering a series of end-to-end solutions, which provide answers to the questions currently being raised such as how to take costs out of the business and create value.
"As a global player IBM has the depth of experience and skill sets to provide that response and the work of myself and my team will be to grasp that opportunity for the
industry. We need to respond to the challenge of a unified regulatory environment covering investments, General insurance and mortgages, as the FSA are putting these in place."
