8 September 2016By John Petersen, CIO, Heffernan Insurance BrokersAs the leaders of our company's technology efforts, a short list of things we are charged with are making sure that IT is aligned with the business goals, helping the company to differentiate itself in the market place and, making big news lately, facilitating innovation efforts. The subject or focus of that innovative idea can be over any area of the business and be anything from a big data initiative to mobile, security, client related or who knows what. How do you keep your eyes open for that disruptive idea that could help propel your company through the next year or even further, when you have so many other areas to focus your efforts? Especially if that thought, idea, or new technology doesn't show its true potential at first glance.I have experienced several barriers to innovation efforts, the first of which was the willingness to look deeply at new ideas. Inboxes and voicemails are flooded daily with cold calls and advertisements for the latest and greatest app offering to save your company time, money, and or increase your efficiency. Our headquarters location near the Silicon Valley creates unique opportunities, as well as challenges, since ideas are brought to us by employees who are friends or neighbors with people at local tech companies, all with the next great app. Many times our employees inevitably sit next to someone on a plane who talked about or read about the next best app and now they are bringing that idea to you to implement. There can be so much of this internal and external marketing that it has become "white noise." I found myself tuning out most of it because of the amount of work that was already taking place in the department. Besides, I know technology, and it is pretty easy to see if something is going to help the staff or work in our environment. How many innovative ideas have been missed by tuning out the white noise?Another barrier is that most of the software you see or the ideas that you receive are not innovative or disruptive to your industry. Sure, they may help operational inefficiencies, be a best practice, or any number of things. In my opinionInnovation Challenges and the Insurance Broker
< Page 7 | Page 9 >