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An IT Veteran

With over 37 years in IT, UC Dubey's vision is to help expand his organization’s business in rural areas in order to achieve inclusive growth. By Manjari Juneja

Dubey is the Executive Director (IT) at Iffco-Tokio General Insurance Company Ltd. He comes from a small town named Chirgaon in Jhansi district (UP). His schooling occurred in his home town in Hindi medium. Based on his higher secondary performance, he got admission to the Maulana Azad College of Technology, Bhopal, then a Regional Engineering College. He completed his BE (Electrical) with First division in 1973.

Sharing his experience, he added, “Back in 1971, during my engineering college days, I got the opportunity to learn programming in Fortran IV. Computer facilities were so scarce in those days that for practical program testing we had to go to IIT Kanpur from Bhopal.”

He started his career in June 1974 at the Steel Authority of India Ltd.’s Rourkela Plant, as a Graduate engineer and was selected for posting in the EDP Centre. “There were two vacancies for fresh graduate engineers in the IT department and I opted for the same. Luckily, I was selected for it and began my career in IT in 1974,” he said. He worked on a large number of programs for various commercial applications including Payroll, Stores Accounting and Inventory Control etc. He studied, designed, developed and implemented Purchase Order Processing, Inventory Control and Personnel Management Information System modules.

He joined Hindustan Organic Chemicals Ltd at Rasayani, as Head of Computer Centre and worked there from 1981 to 1988. Here he led a team of systems professionals and deployed a number of commercial applications in batch / online mode including marketing information, stores and inventory control, financial accounting and a personnel management information system. He procured, installed and commissioned a LAN at the company’s marketing office in Mumbai. In between, he completed his Graduateship Examination in Industrial Engineering from the Indian Institute of Industrial Engineering and was awarded a Gold Medal for securing the highest marks in India during 1984.

Later, he joined Indian Farmers Fertilizer Co-operative Ltd. (IFFCO) at Phulpur, Allahabad as the Manager (Systems) in January 1988 and established a new Computer Department to initiate computerization in the organization. He led a team of computer professionals who studied, designed, developed and implemented various online computer applications for the organization using the Prime Information relational database. He conducted a large number of training programs for officers and staff of the company to facilitate the computerization program. He evaluated, procured, installed and commissioned a Super Mini Computer System “PRIME-2755” with a large number of terminals.

Dubey established a campus-wide high speed network using fiber optic cables and structured cabling to connect LANs installed in various departments. He designed and developed online computer applications in client server mode using the Oracle 7 database and PowerBuilder 4.0 as a front end tool. He procured installed and commissioned LANs in various departments using Novell Netware 3.11.

He installed a high availability database server with fiber channel disk array storage and commissioned it to provide uninterrupted database services with back-to-back servers in active mode. Business process reengineering was employed to modify and improve various online systems viz. Finance & Accounts, Commercial (including purchase) and Stores as well as Personnel & Administration. Under his leadership, application software was standardized to enable its implementation in different units of IFFCO. Therefore, the concept of IFFCO ERP was realized. System support was provided to Phulpur Expansion Project and Nellore Project in terms of hardware and software requirements. FTDMA VSAT (64 KBPS KU Band) was installed to provide WAN and Internet connectivity.

Intranet applications were introduced and e-mail was popularized for effective and faster communication in the organization. An e-Procurement system was developed and implemented using PKI technology and digital signatures resulting in an efficient procurement process with considerably shorter lead time. A reliable WAN was established with redundant channels of communication including VSAT, leased lines and an ISDN network.

A Human Resource Management System, a suite of some 25 applications, covering the entire lifecycle of an employee, was implemented. A smart card system was introduced for attendance recording. Other applications developed and deployed included Facility Management, Township Property Management, Material Gate Passes and Photo Identity Cards etc. An integrated Hospital Management System was designed, developed and implemented encompassing various activities such as diagnosis, prescription, issue of medicine, medicine inventory, patient history etc.

Current job profile

He joined Iffco Tokio General Insurance Co. Ltd. as Executive Vice President (IT) in 2005 and was promoted to the post of Executive Director (IT) in 2010.

Dubey is responsible for evaluating, selecting, procuring and implementing IT hardware, software and services in order to provide IT support in achieving strategic business goals. He streamlines the core insurance application Policy 400 and ensures the rectification of various hiccups in the P400 system. He designed, developed and implemented a Business Logistics System providing a standard workflow for policy creation, printing, and issuance for streamlining the process and to monitor turnaround time.

He added, “I shifted from IFFCO to Iffco Tokio General Insurance Co. (ITGI) in 2005 as EVP (IT) to head their IT organization. ITGI was established in 2000 and the company was growing and maturing in those days. Like any other BFSI company, ITGI was also driven by IT and it needed full support for ensuring efficient operations and growth. During the last seven years, we have supported the business by providing various IT solutions with effective enterprise-wide implementations.”

Siebel CRM was deployed for effective customer contacts, channel partner management, customer services, and call centre activities. CA’s service desk, an ITIL-compliant IT service management software was implemented as were desktop and server management solutions. Also implemented was a Document Management System to create an electronic document repository for the easy and efficient storage and retrieval of documents. A CRM-based POS solution was rolled out for major retail products and claims processing system including e-survey. A self service portal was set up for online sales of new policies and renewals.

He strengthened IT security measures through Information Security Management System audits and ISO 27001 certification. In coordination with other group companies, he achieved a procurement advantage through Rate Contracts and MOU for hardware, software, networking and services. Coordination with the Millea group companies enabled him to initiate the sharing of application software developed at ITGI.

Noteworthy deployments

Motor insurance is a vital portfolio in the General Insurance business. It is one of the fastest growing retail products and accounts for about 90% of the insurance policies in terms of volume. Proper underwriting control on these policies is required for maintaining a profitable portfolio in the retail line of business. Dubey deployed an innovative motor underwriting project at ITGI.

He said, “Traditionally, insurance agents or intermediaries were using paper-based proposal forms or cover notes to insure a motor vehicle and, subsequently, the data that was collected was transferred to the main policy administration systems. The discounting mechanism was based on the market response and discretion of the underwriter. Intermediaries were expected to adhere to the underwriting guidelines as communicated to them. However, under this model, it was difficult to ascertain that these guidelines were being followed properly.”

To address this issue, a time tested principle of Management by Exception and automated workflow concepts were utilized to ensure adherence to the guidelines while procuring motor insurance business. This solution was implemented in the existing POS solution that was developed in Siebel.

A specific discount calculator was developed using various parameters such as vehicle model, age of vehicle, geography etc. To adjust it with the market realities discretionary powers were allowed at the branch, region and corporate level. Similarly, a discount calculator was developed for the generation of renewal quotations using the above parameters and claim history of the vehicle. Rules were also defined and implemented to improve the productivity and cash flow of the company based on the mean time lag between the collection of checks and issuance of policies. The inbuilt Haley rule engine of Siebel and eScript were used to implement these rules. A user interface was provided to the Product Management team to manage the rules.

An escalation mechanism was blended with Straight Through Processing (STP) to manage the underwriting function. All proposals meeting the underwriting rules can be submitted to the AS/400 based core Insurance Administration System without any intervention from the underwriting department, using the POS system. In case of any exception, the proposal flows to the branch office underwriter. If the variation in the proposal is within the underwriting authority, the concerned person can approve it otherwise the proposal can be escalated to the branch head, regional head or corporate office through the escalation channel. The system determines the responsible person and puts the proposal in his or her work list. Similarly, its return path is also managed automatically. The Siebel workflow and assignment manager was used to develop this escalation mechanism.

Dubey has also implemented Business Intelligence (BI). Earlier, MIS requirements were handled through static predefined monthly reports and ad-hoc data analysis was carried out using spreadsheets. When it came to taking business decisions, there was considerable confusion and a ‘single version of truth’ did not prevail in the organization. Users would bring their spreadsheets and with slight tweaks here and there, these would reveal different versions of the truth. There was also a gap in data percolating to the actual decision makers in the field and they would have to rely on others to get the required data.

“We were looking for a BI tool which is easy to use, quick to implement, cost effective and having excellent performance. After evaluating various tools, we narrowed down to QlikView and implemented the same,” he commented.

This implementation resulted in decision makers receiving up-to-date data allowing them to look at their progress on business done on a daily basis. Further in-depth analysis of various business parameters and processes was made available. Tracking of Key Performance Indicators, dashboards that let the business user slice and dice data etc. were provided. Areas that were previously unexplored were opened out and users are now able to see the efficiency of their business processes.

He said, “We have achieved a quick implementation of KPIs and other dashboards in less than six months from the commencement of the project. We also have successfully achieved getting the user’s buy in.”

Information accessibility has resulted in informed decisions being made across the organization. Standardization in understanding information has been brought about and all users are on the same level and, therefore, communication has become more effective. The evaluation of corporate clients has also become quite effective. In spite of duplication of clients in the client database, the user can get a single view of the client.

Channel heads can see the profitability ratios of a particular channel and arrive at a picture of what direction the channel is heading towards. This leads the underwriter to have better loss ratios. The smoothening of claims and earnings over a long period has been done for these intermediaries so that decision making is not based on a month’s report but rather on a trend line.

E-marine is a Web-based application that enables the customer or the branch user to create certificates online. Certificates are created against the Marine Open Policy (MOP). A marine certificate has to be attached along with every shipment. Prior to the deployment of this application, customers had to wait for a couple of days for them to get a certificate and, in some cases, the details available on the certificate were not what the customer required. Certificates are provided as PDF documents generated dynamically based on data for the case in hand.

Dubey is currently evaluating Mobile computing, Single Sign On, Identity and Access Management and Cloud Computing. The deployment of ERP Oracle Financials, a claims system for health insurance called Cerecon, Server Virtualization and improving the DR setup are underway.

Dubey said that his endeavor was to provide an effective and efficient IT setup to enable the business to achieve its goals.

“Information Technology is the enabler, driver and an equal partner to the business. The concept of insurance has not reached smaller towns and rural areas. We would like to expand the business in these areas with the help of IT to achieve inclusive growth,” he said.

In-person

Dubey is interested in music, classical dance and plays. He also enjoys traveling and likes to spend his free time reading Hindi literature or listening to music.

In his opinion, the CIO’s role demands both technology and management skills. One must keep abreast with latest information technology trends and their impact upon the business.

“At the same time, it is important to have domain knowledge of the industry in which you are operating. For a person with the right aptitude, a CIO’s job is satisfying indeed,” he concluded.

manjari.juneja@expressindia.com