GraphTal, the IT system for group insurance in PZU Zycie life insurance company should have started operations in the second half of 2006. The consortium of U.S. CSC, the author of the program and Prokom, Poland’s biggest IT company, has so far not managed to implement the program. According to “PB” sources, PZU Zycie is going to set aside PLN 70m of reserves which will affect 2006 results of PZU, Poland’s biggest insurance group. The changes will not drastically change the result. According to preliminary data published in March, PZU had nearly PLN 4 billion of income, including PLN 2 billion generated by PZU Zycie unit.
GraphTalk is one of the biggest IT projects in Poland estimated at PLN 400m. “There are two reasons for the delay. First of all, the project was started before the business model and the company’s needs were specified in detail. Secondly, during the implementation phase, the IT service of group insurance was frozen for several months in order to implement applications for polices with investment funds. Because the former itinerary will not be held, PZU Zycie is going to make an additional reserve”, Grzegorz Fitta, PZU Zycie managing director for IT said.
The project will not be deleted. It would mean additional costs and delays. According to specialists, GraphTalk is not a bad product. “Works over GraphTalk have stuck. The tender to buy infrastructure, including servers and other equipment worth PLN 60m was announced six months ago and nothing’s going on here. But it doesn’t look like they quit GraphTalk”, the representative of one of IT companies said.
Specialists believe that the main reason for delays and mischief is the fact that PZU representatives are not engaged in this project enough. People responsible for the project have changed many times already.