CGU Insurance consolidates cloud CRM

According to CGU’s investor presentation in March, the One CGU program would establish a “simplified, function-based organisation” with standardised, centralised systems and processes.

Linked gallery: Photos: Dreamforce 2012 in San Francisco

The insurer planned to consolidate not only its CRM, but also its claims and policy platforms. The transformation program kicked off in the 2009 financial year.

Chief information officer Frew said CGU had undergone a “significant realignment of all of our core systems” as part of the program.

He said a new claims platform, GuideWire, would go live “shortly” — in line with investor expectations of a 2013 launch.

The One CGU operating model was expected to save the company $25 million pre-tax in the 2013 financial year.

The transformation program was expected to cost $35 million pre-tax in the second half of the 2012 financial year and an additional $40 million in the 2013 financial year.

CGU said in March that the program would result in 600 job cuts in the three years to 2015, including 400 in the 2013 financial year and 100 a year in the following years.

Regulatory concerns

US bank Wells Fargo also used Salesforce.com’s cloud-based CRM to find, qualify and reach out to sales leads in its fixed income securities division.

When the bank converted leads to customers, it used custom integration software to replicate all relevant information about the relationship into an on-premises origination system.

All sensitive account information was stored and managed in the bank’s local master customer system, while contact details and information about further sales opportunities and their values were shared with other Wells Fargo divisions on the Salesforce.com cloud.

“Even though we pass all security and trust reviews, there’s still in some cases regulatory and compliance issues,” Salesforce.com’s Sales Cloud product marketing vice president Mark Woollen said.

“Whether they believe we can do it or not, some governments say, ‘you’ve got to hold on to the data, it’s got to be housed in our country, our jurisdiction’.

“In terms of jurisdictions, client data sits where it needs to sit, but parts of the sales process, relationship management, leads, opportunities management and content around products … they can do all of that in the sales cloud.”

Salesforce.com appears to have ceded some ground in its vision of a multitenanted cloud in recent years, announcing a data residency option last year and the Government Cloud for US agencies in April.

The company has engaged with Australian Government representatives — including the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner — about cloud computing.

But Salesforce.com senior vice president of public policy Dan Burton told iTnews that it “[did] not have any further announcements” on an Australian data centre or Government Cloud.

Burton suggested that the Australian Government should “take a hard look at the Australian private sector” when considering cloud computing.

In particular, he highlighted the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which uses Salesforce.com’s CRM, ideas platform, Marketing Cloud, Service Cloud and enterprise social networking platform Chatter.

CommBank chief marketing officer Andy Lark delivered one of Salesforce.com’s key customer testimonials at the Dreamforce conference last week.

“That is a bank; they are very focused on trust,” Burton said.

“They are very focused on their reputation. They are not going to take actions that are going to damage that trust or brand.

“So I think they are going to have a very measured approach of how to use cloud computing.”

Liz Tay attended Dreamforce in San Francisco as a guest of Salesforce.com.