What are good strategies for creating IT tools that work across middle and back office?

Drew Price, Head of Capital Reporting & Analytics, Swiss Re, gives his thoughts on trends in financial modelling, including inter-departmental collaboration, and where AI can be of use.

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Drew Price, Head of Capital Reporting & Analytics, Swiss Re.

Andrew Putwain: You have experience in building a software tool. Can you talk us through the process when building a tool that goes across departments about what is key? Especially in terms of the cooperative element, as well as longevity?

Drew Price: I would say the most critical factor is early and continuous collaboration.

I led the development of an application called the Capital Planning Tool (CPT), which is managed by Treasury but is used by over 200 people across the organisation, primarily in Finance.

This application was built by our IT department, with me providing continuous guidance from both an owner and user standpoint. While it was based on an earlier version, this was our opportunity to create something new and improved.

We used an agile methodology. The IT team would develop features, hand them over, I'd give feedback; it would go backwards and forth, and it slowly took shape as a minimum viable product.

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