This level of international presence and market share is proof that over the years, Old Mutual has continually responded to changes in its areas of core business. It is also a reflection of the company's ability to respond to change at an operational level in order to retain market leadership. Without a solid operating infrastructure, any financial services expertise would almost certainly have fallen by the wayside. Indeed, with the speed of change in computing generally, and the climbing costs of the IT department, the corporate IT function has moved out of the back office and firmly onto the boardroom table. The reasons for the escalation in the importance of IT are multifold.
Users are more IT literate and are therefore demanding more from their systems.
The Internet has opened up unforeseen avenues of communication on a local and global level - and it's nowhere near its potential yet. Processor power, networking systems and software functionality are delivering more than expected and show no signs of slowing down. In short, IT is moving at such a pace that it is becoming almost impossible to keep up. At Old Mutual, this is exactly the question that was raised three years ago when the company found itself with what is becoming a familiar problem among large enterprises - a fragmented and outdated set of IT systems unable to leverage the latest technologies or communicate with each other effectively. Again, change was rearing its head and demanding a response.