A newly created technology integration committee will oversee all technology-related integration projects. The infrastructure falls into two categories: classic systems and acquired systems. Classic systems include a reinsurance processing system run on an IBM AS/400, an internal sub-ledger system based on Microsoft .NET software, several package systems, and numerous data transformation processes. Acquired systems from Scottish Re include an administration system called Sage for processing traditional mortality risk business and ASCENT, an automated underwriting manual for internal and external use, among other applications and databases.

“We've got a big puzzle box full of pieces we've got to fit together,” Smith says. “Right now, we're trying to figure out what that puzzle is going to look like. We need to take the best pieces and make sure the business processes we put together during the integration are well supported by the technology.”

The committee has divided the integration projects into six work streams–such as financial systems and reporting, actuarial systems, and business infrastructure–and currently is assessing what needs to be done within each area.

“One of the hardest aspects is defining what activity gets included with the integration and what is an evolutionary improvement that isn't necessarily integration,” Smith explains. “You don't want your integration project to go on for five years. You want to define it so there is some kind of logical end point.”

With the acquisition, HLRUS also restructured its organization, moving from a functional model to a business unit structure. As a result, Smith realigned his IT department to support the three new business units: senior markets, financial solutions, and mortality solutions.

One of Smith's top concerns is ensuring his IT department does not become siloed into three different organizations supporting the three new business units.

“We'll be much more efficient with one IT organization that supports the three areas and can move resources between business units,” he says. “Structurally, we've got to be able to support a different type of organization than we're used to supporting.”

Smith also plans to continue to find ways to leverage HLRUS's relationship with its parent company. Since 2001, he has been a member of HLRUS's international IT steering committee, which aims to help the global company's various IT organizations take advantage of each other's technologies and resources whenever possible.

“With this acquisition, we've now become the second-largest data center within the global organization,” Smith says. “We may be able to offer our parent some support in their other locations in the Western Hemisphere.”

Although Smith's undergraduate degree is in economics, which he earned from the University of Massachusetts, he always intended to pursue a career in IT. In 1997, when ITT Hartford sold its life reinsurance business, Smith joined HLRUS to run its IT department.

Today, as the company focuses on strengthening its U.S. presence with the recent acquisition, Smith is happy to be at the forefront of the integration plans.

“We understand it's going to be a lot of hard work,” he says. “But we're pushing to create an organization with three geographic locations, using whatever technologies we can use. It's all very exciting.”