October 17th - 19th, 1999
Hyatt Regency Baltimore, MD

FONT class=HL3>Wiring the Acquisition: Chief to Chief:
Richard Maybin, Senior VP and Chief Technology Officer, Conseco Services, L.L.C.
Monday, October 18th, 1:00-1:50 p.m.

"Conseco Learned Technology Lessons Upon
Merging Companies"

Since 1990, Conseco Services LLC has been involved with more than 19 acquisitions involving more than 40 life insurance companies. When the dust cleared from those purchases by Conseco Inc., the resulting company became the largest publicly held insurer in the United States.

The technological challenges of ingesting all those entities were great. And while Conseco Chairman Stephen Hilbert said the company is taking a break from its buying spree, lessons have been learned that might help other insurers with a penchant for acquisitions.

During a 24-month period between mid-1996 and mid-1998, Conseco consolidated 23 administrative and data centers.

The process began by defining the standards and architecture that would be used, then defining the strategic systems and how those were to be enabled with the technological systems, said Richard M. Maybin, senior vice president and chief technology officer. In that capacity, he oversees all data center, telephony, network and application services, noted Maybin, who spoke at the A.M. Best Insurance Information and Technology Conference, "Continuing the E-volution," in Baltimore Oct. 18.

Each conversion required three to six months of preparation, one weekend for the actual conversion and then follow-up work. During that weekend allotted for the actual conversion, all the equipment from a data or administrative center was loaded into a moving van, trucked to Conseco's headquarters in Carmel, Ind., unloaded and plugged in.

Maybin said given the opportunity to do it again, he would consolidate each center in place before moving it, causing less stress on the overall organization.

"I would take senior management out and start running the company so it would have clarity of direction," Maybin said. That would eliminate the three-to-four-month period when little work was done and reduce the loss of institutional knowledge that walked out the door because of uncertainty as to which employees would be retained, he said.

Maybin would continue offering financial incentives for employees who stayed through the consolidation process.

By consolidating those administrative and data centers, Conseco was able to eliminate 1,500 jobs, saving closed to $100 million in annual expenses.

By Marilyn Ostermiller
Editor, Best's Review