The IT system that couldn't deliver

Diana Sullivan, CIO of Lenox Insurance, thought she had done her job when, after three years of hard work, she had delivered Lifexpress on time and on budget. A sophisticated computer-aided system, it enabled Lenox's 10,000-plus agents to do everything from establish a prospect's financial profile, to select the most appropriate products from the company's myriad policies, to generate all the paperwork needed to close a sale. But now Sullivan's boss, CFO Clay Fontana, seemed to be holding her accountable not only for the creation and implementation of the system but for realizing its business goals as well. And Lenox's CEO, James Bennett, appeared to concur. Two of Lenox's competitors had launched similar systems and were training their agents on them at a faster clip. Fontana and Bennett made it clear they believed it to be Sullivan's problem that Lifexpress wasn't boosting sales productivity as much as management had expected. "It's your system," Fontana had said. "We made this tremendous investment based on your recommendations." A 20-year veteran information systems executive, Sullivan knew going into this job that computers had never been one of Lenox's strengths. And she had taken what she felt were the appropriate steps to bring the company up to speed. In this hypothetical case study, Sullivan and the other top executives at Lenox must decide who should be responsible for realizing the business goals of information technology projects. Should Sullivan have gone about the project in another way? Should Fontana and Bennett be playing more active roles? Five experts weigh in with their advice for Sullivan and for Lenox's management.