ABSTRACT
This chapter covers the ups and downs that the Lukas Financial Services insurance company faced in two financial enterprises IT projects, one led by IT, the other by Finance. It answers what are the people and system-related concerns, who should lead transformational IT projects, and how should such projects be governed. The chapter explains the questions that the IT and Finance leaders face as they create their project strategy for the new SAP integration (MASON) and the business reorganization (OCTOPUS). Lukas Financial Services, one of the largest global insurance companies, has more than 50,000 employees based in 150 countries. The OCTOPUS Plan establishes a Center of Excellence and it allowed for the standardization of processes in the General Insurance part of the organization. Both the OCTOPUS Plan and the foundation of the Center of Excellence created a need for a standardized enterprise information system, and so a new SAP consolidation project led by Finance was launched: the MASON project.
