Most large insurance transformation programmes overrun, overspend, or quietly disappear. The failure rate is not because insurance is uniquely hard — it's because programmes are scoped, sponsored and run in ways that almost guarantee they cannot land. After running and reviewing programmes across Lloyd's, MGAs and global insurers, these are the five failure modes that come up over and over — and what to do instead.
Failure mode 1: vendor-led scope
A vendor pitches the transformation: a new policy administration system, a new pricing engine, a new claims platform. The business case is written to justify the product, not the outcome. Six months in, the team is implementing features nobody in the business actually wants, because the scope was the vendor's roadmap, not the firm's strategy.
The fix: the firm writes its own target operating model and target capability map before any vendor selection. The RFP scores vendors against the firm's outcomes, not the vendor's feature list.
Failure mode 2: an executive sponsor in name only
The sponsor is a COO or CTO who has eight other priorities and is seen once a month at the steering committee. Decisions queue up. Trade-offs get pushed to the programme director, who doesn't have authority to make them. The programme stalls quietly.
The fix: the sponsor must have programme time blocked weekly — usually 4–6 hours protected — and the authority to resolve scope, budget and resource conflicts within defined thresholds without another committee. If the sponsor cannot commit that time, change the sponsor.
Failure mode 3: governance theatre
Three steering committees, two boards, a working group, and a delivery forum — most of which review the same RAG pack. Nobody takes decisions, because decisions have to be ratified at the next meeting up. The programme runs at the speed of the slowest committee.
The fix: a single decision-making forum, a decision log with named owners and dates, and tight delegated authorities. Reporting forums are separate from decision forums and exist only to inform.
Failure mode 4: business change underfunded
The technology delivery is well-resourced. The business change — process redesign, role redesign, training, comms, hypercare — is thrown in late, owned by the line, and given a quarter of the budget it needs. The system goes live, the business doesn't adopt it, and benefits never land. This is the single biggest cause of post-go-live benefit shortfall.
The fix: business change is treated as an equal workstream from day one, with its own director, its own budget (usually 25–40% of technology cost), and its own benefits ownership.
Failure mode 5: benefit cases that nobody owns
Benefits in the business case are aggregated, blended and assigned to no named owner. Eighteen months after go-live, nobody can say whether they have been realised. The next programme starts with a new business case, the old benefits are quietly written down, and the cycle repeats.
The fix: every benefit is named, owned by a single executive, with a measurement method defined at the business case stage and tracked post-go-live for at least 18 months. Sponsor compensation is, where possible, partially linked to realisation.
What good delivery looks like
- A target operating model and capability map signed off before vendor selection.
- A sponsor with protected weekly time and explicit decision authority.
- One decision forum, with a decision log.
- Business change funded and resourced as a peer workstream to technology.
- Named benefit owners and a 24-month benefits tracking plan.
- A delivery cadence that ships value every quarter — not a two-year big-bang.
- Independent assurance reviews every six months — not just the internal RAG.
Three questions to ask before approving a transformation
- Whose outcomes is this delivering — and have we written them down before we engaged any vendor?
- Who is the sponsor, what is their protected time commitment, and what authority do they hold without going to another forum?
- What is the business change budget as a percentage of technology spend, and who owns each named benefit?
JanthanaK helps insurers, MGAs and brokers shape, sponsor and recover transformation programmes — through the Insurance Transformation and Project Management & PMO services. Book a 30-minute call if you'd like a candid second opinion on a programme that isn't landing.