GREG TACCHETTI
21ST CENTURY PROBLEM SOLVER

Greg Tacchetti, SVP, Chief Information & Strategy Officer of State Auto Insurance, has always loved figuring out complex problems. It’s what first attracted him to the military and later, the insurance and IT industry. It is also a key focus of the the 2019 CIO Tomorrow Conference.

Editor's note: Greg Tacchetti, SVP, Chief Information & Strategy Officer of State Auto Insurance and the 2019 CIO Tomorrow Committee Chair, was the featured leader at IT Martini Today on April 29th, 2019.

“There are a lot of different parts to insurance. Good service and value is contingent upon a good level of automation. With a lot of insurance, you can’t do what you want without good IT.”

Tacchetti said the lessons he learned during his time as a Navy pilot continue to help him as in his position at State Auto Insurance.

“I’d say the things from my time with the Navy that helped me the most - first, training and drills. The Navy invests a lot of time in training, and then runs very regular drills on all types of events scenarios. We use this methodology to run unplanned disaster recovery tests as well as many other 'table top' scenarios; cyber attack/breach, active shooter, etc.

“Second - redundancy. [It] seemed like everything on a ship had double/triple backups to, hopefully, ensure a ship stayed in the fight after failures and/or damage. We try to do this with making sure we have multiple people back-ups in critical platform componentry so we're not at risk when someone is out.”

DAY TO DAY PROBLEM SOLVING

“In my current role, I don't do much of the detailed problem solving,” Tacchetti said, “but creating a vision for where we are going, and then spending a lot of time with the teams solving these problems to both encourage them to accomplish things that haven't been done before, and to help them stay focused on the critical path items, does provide a multitude of complex conversations that I particularly enjoy.”

When asked about the complex problems driving his focus at State Auto, Tacchetti zeroed in on two that are the focus of many CIOs across a variety of industries - modernization of software and innovating the customer experience.

“We're trying to solve 2 very complex problems,” Tacchetti said. “First, how do we modernize our back office core applications, so we can enable the delivery of capabilities [and] functionality our customers expect from any company in 2019, and second, how do we re-imagine the insurance company, independent agent and policyholder (client) experience.”

“[First,] typical policy administration/billing system modernization projects are three years of development for one product in one state, followed by a state roll out. We launched six products and completed the countrywide state roll out in just over three years. In order to accomplish this, we needed to rethink and challenge every traditional assumption, process, tool set and methodology. There were thousands of moving parts, so it was an extremely complex problem.

“[Second,] largely due to old back office systems, data flows, and therefore capabilities, we are not real time. In order to deliver a real time experience - think, I put my credit card in and I have my auto ID cards instantly - we needed to modernize our back office, but we also needed to re-architect and build an entirely new ecosystem of partner companies that meet our new requirements. Creating this new platform and keeping all of the data flows straight was another extremely complex problem.”

SOLVING THE COMPLEX PEOPLE PROBLEM

Developing high functioning, diverse teams is another problem Tacchetti is focused on at State Auto. He said innovative focus on the talent pipeline is key.

“We have to think as a region about how we define entry level tech jobs and then educate and stimulate interest within students. We have to look at what positions don’t require a CS [computer science] degree. I know a lot of companies are still requiring that, but some of the our best developers don’t have one.”

Tacchetti said one solution to the talent pipeline issue is to partner with the education community to help them understand the talent needs of the tech community.

Creating diverse talent pools is also a priority and that solution starts with company culture, he said.

“The reality is, the better companies are going to become known [for supporting diversity]. How do we make sure we are creating a culture that people want to be a part of?”

BRINGING THE MIDWEST TOGETHER TO SOLVE BIG PROBLEMS

As chair of this year’s CIO Tomorrow conference, Tacchetti is excited about the conference’s potential to address some other pressing problems.

“We are bringing the emphasis on tech back, especially with our expo. Thirty companies sharing what they accomplish with innovation and application of tech. We’re going to talk about creating a pipeline of talent, including women and underrepresented [populations], so we don’t end up like Seattle and Sacramento, and we are also going to talk about how we can be better leaders.

“I want people to walk out thinking it was a good investment of their time,” Tacchetti said.