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Before Jeff Stoll arrived at MetLife in 2000, he'd occupied senior technology leadership positions at Chase Manhattan Bank (New York) and had been CIO of both Kemper Insurance (Long Grove, Ill.) and AIG's (New York) Domestic Brokerage Group. A lesser mortal might have seen fit to rest on his laurels, but Stoll plunged into a senior assignment at one of the world's largest insurance companies at the moment it was making the transition from mutual company to a publicly traded entity. As a result, he shouldered responsibility for some of the industry's most challenging technology projects in recent years.
The first originated in a challenge from business executives in MetLife's Individual Business (IB) division in early 2000 to identify ways to reduce cost and gain efficiencies. It was a daunting assignment for more than one reason. First, efforts to consolidate systems had not been successful in the recent past. Second, while Stoll requested four months to study the existing systems portfolio, leadership argued that it needed to be done in six weeks. "You can guess who won that battle," quips Stoll.
The ensuing ProjectLESS consolidation plan identified 53 legacy systems that could be eliminated. In order to get business leadership behind the plan, Stoll says, he and his boss, then IB CIO Tony Candito, convinced IB senior management that "this will simplify our environment. The returns are going to be great."
Tight Time Frame
The challenge for Stoll's team was to complete the project within a 12- to 15-month time frame. That required identifying subject matter experts, ensuring business support through ongoing communication, and instituting a highly structured and dedicated project management office (PMO), according to Stoll.
Stoll reports that his team completed ProjectLESS within the allotted time, resulting in a reduction of more than $10 million in systems maintenance costs the following year, covering the project outlay. Considering...