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Because Nationwide took an early lead in modernizing its operations, it could meet members where they are, with new products and experiences. “You see other organizations much earlier in their core modernization journey,” says Shelly Fliehe, partner, financial services, at EY. “Having already invested in modernizing the core, Nationwide has an advantage over its peers in its ability to bring innovations to market quickly.” Fowler says when he explains to industry peers that he uses just one mainframe app, “they look at me like I have two heads.”
The core platform modernization is accompanied by investments in modern technologies, such as digital capabilities, APIs and modern data architectures. “This allows Nationwide to respond with speed to evolving circumstances, member needs and distribution channels,” says Masa Abdelhadi, partner at EY Technology Consulting.
The Courage—and Expertise—to Transform at Scale
A transformation of this magnitude takes courage, says Raj Sharma, EY Americas vice chair for consulting. “A journey like this is going to take lots of twists and turns. And you have to have the courage to see it from beginning to end.”
It also takes a trusted partner. After all, Fowler says, few companies have the in-house expertise to manage such a large and complex transformation. To find that expertise, Nationwide turned to EY, which brought technology capabilities at scale, transformation at speed and experienced insurance talent at the center. Beyond those skills, Fowler valued EY’s ability to challenge ideas when necessary. “The team wasn’t quiet when they saw us going down a route of groupthink,” Fowler says.
Today, Nationwide is a model of agility within the insurance industry. That speed was the result of keen foresight and decisive steps taken over a years-long execution. Fowler proudly recounts the experience of a recently processed claim. Within an hour of the Nationwide associate initiating the claim, the cash was sitting in the member’s bank account. “I couldn’t do that on a mainframe-based legacy application,” Fowler says.
Ultimately, Nationwide’s transformation has been so successful because customer needs are the guiding force. “Transformation is about changing your business,” Fowler says. “And any time you’re changing your business, you better be doing it with your customer in mind.”
This is part of Transformation in Action – a Leadership in Action series. LIA is a premium storytelling experience that invites the viewer to hear first-hand, unique and engaging stories from featured leaders.