Mainframes Still Have A Home In The Industry

“I think The Hartford has had a very good retention rate,” Barger states. He attributes this to the fact that the company values its employees, and he notes that they, in turn, have maintained “very high” technological skills.

Nissenberg says it is important to challenge staff by providing opportunities for exposure to and training in the evolving technologies. Then you “pray that they’re going to stick around.”

He also notes “there are those folks that will be comfortable staying in the role[of] managing and working with what they know.” At the other end of the spectrum are employees who “always want to do more and be challenged. You have to be able to pick and choose between the two,” he says.

Another viewpoint is that once the decision is made to retain a mainframe system, it may be better to utilize it as a database server rather than to add functions that mainframes are not designed to handle efficiently.

While Barger agrees mainframes are good for running databases, he notes that at The Hartford they also have performed “very, very well in running a number of our mission-critical business systems.”

Still, he indicates that in his company’s view, “the mainframe is just another server” in the infrastructure.

He also reports that The Hartford’s mainframes have been integrated to the company’s Internet environment along with other systems.

“We have a number of Internet-based applications that access critical data from the mainframe,” Barger says. In addition, the company has managed to integrate those Web applications through some of its e-business portal technologies, such as its electronic business center, he says.

Barger explains that the Web-based systems obtain information from both the mainframe and other open-system environments while still providing “a nice portal to all that information for our agents.”

Nissenberg considers the mainframe “a good repository and data storer” for electronic information. He also believes mainframes can be used for distributing information or that other systems can “front” for mainframes to move data around.

In contrast, the browser component of Internet-based systems “is much more geared toward a client-server environment,” he states.

Nissenberg indicates that Willis is finding that its clients increasingly “are looking for information to be provided via the Internet,” he says. This client demand that has helped prompt Willis’ move toward browser-based technology.

But Nissenberg stresses that he does not favor technology for technology’s sake. Instead, he is interested in having the right tools to “enable business development,” he indicates.

“At the end of the day, for us what’s important is gaining new clients” and servicing them “in the best manner possible,” Nissenberg says.

E.E. Mazier is an assistant editor of NUs Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Life & Health/Financial Services Edition, April 1, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.