Digitalisation is an integral part for its newly released, with IT supporting vital transformation.
Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE (AGCS) has announced Olav Spiegel as its newly appointed CIO, effectively from January 2021.
Spiegel joins AGCS from Allianz SE where he was responsible for developing the modern workplace strategy for Allianz Group employees, ensuring modern IT equipment, effective performance both in the office and remotely as well as high security standards.
In his new role, Spiegel will report directly to AGCS SE COO and board member Bettina Dietsche, and lead AGCS’s new IT organisation as it transforms itself into an agile IT product delivery organization. This transformation, which started already last year, is targeting a holistic overhaul of AGCS’ IT operating model with core IT functions working in partnership with the business, understanding underwriting, claims, finance or sales requirements and translating them into data-driven and digital end-to-end solutions.
AGCS not only aims to establish a new global IT organization replacing legacy and purely local IT solutions, but also to introduce scaled agile methodologies to efficiently coordinate solution delivery across various functions and teams.
Spiegel will also oversee IT functions such as workplace strategy and enterprise architecture, driving the further integration of AGCS’ IT into Allianz Group’s systems and platforms to leverage existing innovation and technology.
Business leaders cited interruption, pandemic outbreak and cyber incidents as the top three business risks for 2021 – all strongly interlinked, in the Allianz Risk Barometer 2021.
According to the recently released report, cyber incidents may have slipped to #3 but it remains a key peril with more respondents than in 2020 and still ranking as a top three risk in many countries, including Brazil, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, South Africa, Spain, UK and the US.
The acceleration towards greater digitalisation and remote working driven by the pandemic is also further intensifying IT vulnerabilities. At the peak of the first wave of lockdowns in April 2020, the FBI reported a 300 per cent increase in incidents alone, while cyber crime is now estimated to cost the global economy over $1trn, up 50 per cent from two years ago.
Already high in frequency, ransomware incidents are becoming more damaging, increasingly targeting large companies with sophisticated attacks and hefty extortion demands, as highlighted in the recent AGCS cyber risk trends report.
