The superannuation sector has been fairly late to the digital transformation party compared to other industries. LGIAsuper began its journey in 2017, a year before its current chief technology officer, Ivan Ortiz, joined the ranks.

At this time, the organisation had in place an aggressive agenda for organic and inorganic growth. Ortiz says he has positioned the company’s technology division as an asset and competitive advantage during merger and acquisitions conversations.

“Consequently, the technology ecosystem at LGIAsuper will be the target platform during the merger of Energy Super in FY22 and also for the acquisition and integration of Suncorp’s superannuation business,” he says.

Ortiz has brokered an agreement with a third-party provider that delivers superannuation administration and technology services to LGIAsuper, while the organisation has retained control of the key differentiating technology stack and ownership of data.

“This agreement has reduced costs by $5 million per annum. We have the advantage of an insource model supported by the economic commercial benefits of outsourcing,” says Ortiz.

COVID response

Through the COVID-19 pandemic, Ortiz and his team created digital service options for the organisation’s members. This was supported by moving all of LGIAsuper’s telephony and contact centre to the cloud.

“Our business continuity processes (BCP) just got better and more economical because we didn’t need a dedicated BCP standby office,” he says.

From a member perspective, Ortiz led the implementation of Salesforce CRM with powerful and innovative integrations with other products.

The power of member intimacy, says Ortiz, commences when customers call the contact centre. Automated APIs identify the member number to instantly populate a member 360 dashboard for its contact centre operator. When a conversation is started, the member’s complete profile is available, including a history of communication with the company.

“The design includes ‘next best action’ and ‘next best offers’ that are relevant to the member. This has been achieved by integrating Salesforce with our data warehouse, running powerful data models, and using artificial intelligence to personalise the conversation,” he says.

“In addition, there are nine bespoke automated CRM journeys to support and automate our marketing campaigns and key member processes. The data models powered by our artificial intelligence engine ‘Einstein’ ensure that member experience is improved by sending the right communication in the right channel at the right time with relevant content.”

Unique implementation

According to Ortiz, a unique part of this implementation is the use of a powerful in-house data analytics capability to drive efficient automated marketing campaigns and member journeys with automated decision points and triggers. AI technology produces the datasets required to achieve a powerful member conversation through the contact centre, says Ortiz.

“Our omni-channel model integrates Salesforce with other products such as Swift to automate bookings for our financial advisors. Our contact centre has all member information at hand in a modern, cloud-based technology and data is updated in real-time with the source of truth engine via APIs and microservices that accelerate the cadence of feature delivery.”

Ortiz has positioned LGIAsuper’s technology division as a partner and using IT to provide scalable member services cost-effectively is one of the organisation’s strategic priorities.

Ortiz says the ‘member differentiation’ proposal he made to the board in 2019 continues to be a fundamental aspect of the corporate strategy. This has been translated into insourcing and investment in three areas of technology: data and analytics; omnichannel experience; and architecture and integration platforms.

“Technology is part of the everyday conversations at the board and executive levels. I have demystified technology and modernised the delivery model, which is aimed at supporting and driving corporate objectives.

“Financially, I have brought transparency and trust into technology. I hold one of the largest operational budgets, not only for the team allocation but the trust of all the software licensing being centralised and well managed.”

Ortiz adds that he also holds the budget allocation for the company due to a well-structured, well-governed and agile project management office. All program and project activities for the company are supported by the PMO.

“Technology is a fundamental area for the business as we endeavour to become a sustainable Queensland boutique fund. The board and the CIO, as well as my executive peers, are confident that through the right investment in technology, the enhanced capability, the innovation through our CRM, I can deliver a 21^st century capability to help members towards retirement,” he says.

Byron Connolly