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Douglas J. Coster

    Consultant, Director, Senior Business Analyst - P&C insurance consultant who partners with insurance and software companies to develop innovative and continuous business and IT solutions. Expertise encompasses: Business process improvement, IT development, project planning, organizational realignment, quality assurance testing, business intelligence.

    Work experience

    20172019-03

    Senior Business Analyst

    ONESHIELD
    Senior Business Analyst Provided leadership and direction on multiple projects to clients, stakeholders, other business analysts, and onshore/offshore system developers. Designed roadmaps, definition workbooks, user stories, use cases, and traceability matrices leveraged for new and existing projects, saving significant effort in recreating company assets. Guided all requirements and design for adding an auto product to the current suite of personal lines offerings for an insurance carrier startup. Teamed with the senior project manager and developers to significantly condense the planned delivery window by at least three months since speed to market was critical. Developed prototypes for illustrating future User Interface(UI) page design layouts and functional flows for internal and external portals, allowing the business user to visualize the end product without incurring development expenses. Involved with the project team in defining project scope, estimates, and resources.
    20052017

    Director

    CAPGEMINI
    Chicago, IL Capgemini acquired IGATE, April 2015. IGATE acquired Patni Computers, 2011. Director, Senior Solution Architect, Senior Consultant Led efforts developing requirements and designing policy and claims systems for property and casualty. This included developing new business/post new business UI workflows, system functionality for managing organizational hierarchies, and design to support broker/agency management. Oversaw testing for system integration, user acceptance, and end-to-end testing. Partnered with a software vendor to successfully replace an existing personal lines system with a new application for a Canadian client. Engaged with the client from project kick-off to the pilot. Led Agile-based teams while developing requirements for automobile and residential. Designed functional specs used for translating requirements into technical design. These improvements substantially streamlined data input time while capturing more relevant information for evaluating risk. Collaborated with business sponsors and system architects to develop solution options for the more to most complex issues. Directed all functional, integration, and end-to-end testing across the enterprise. Designed approach for compressing the testing cycle to move to production sooner, significantly reducing testing costs and shortening the schedule by at least 50%. Partnered with software vendor to migrate a personal lines policy legacy system to a new application for a large insurance client. Led customer working groups through their current business processes towards defining clear future state solutions. Developed requirements definition and use cases including user interface requirements and screen configuration, high level and detail design support, business/product rules, and workflow diagrams to support the new application. Successfully designed a model to align the internal and external hierarchies, which was critical for allocating premium and claims, managing task assignment, and organizational management. Directed end-to-end and time-based testing to ensure the enterprise solution was functioning as designed, including a solid project plan to optimize resource assignments, achieve key milestones, and complete deployment on schedule. Led the testing initiative for a new claims reporting system to replace the legacy application including development of a master test plan, resource planning, and directing the test team in conducting test preparation and execution. The
    19822005

    Director, Manager, Consultant, Supervisor

    CNA Insurance
    Director, Manager, Consultant, Supervisor Responsible for leading, managing, and providing consultative services for different operating groups in personal and commercial lines of business, ceded reinsurance operations, and claims technology and services units. Commissioned by executive management over the years to spearhead internally sensitive projects such as improving receivables in ceded reinsurance, developing a merger workforce transition plan, and financial modeling. Developed, implemented, and supported a financial modeling tool for determining benefits of a two-year restructuring project involving $13M in investment with projected savings of $45M. Designed a strategy mapping process for improving long-term shareholder value by evaluating cause-and-effect relationships between the organization's intangible assets and its financial goals. Facilitated discussion with leaders to define and align the strategic themes key to driving the operation's performance. Directed a reinsurance staff of 25 and managed a premium portfolio of $300M including department purchasing activities for CNA's corporate programs and individual operating groups. Collaborated with executive leaders of the underwriting business units to define and achieve reinsurance goals. Oversaw all accounting functions, production, budgeting, and financial reporting. Recovered over $90M in ceded reinsurance obligations. Directed both U.S. and British legal counsel in arbitration/litigation when negotiations did not achieve desired results. Chaired and collaborated ongoing commutation efforts with CNA affiliates in the U.S. and Europe, which allowed CNA better negotiations by leveraging the corporation's collective position. Analyzed need and designed workflow processes for pursuing settlement with financially troubled reinsurers. Co-managed a CEO sponsored project with Actuarial and Legal in evaluating reinsurers with environmental exposures for determining probability of recovery. Developed and implemented a transition plan for migrating the organizational structures, workflows, and systems involving 120 employees in three separate locations into one seamless entity. Managed a vendor selection process from initialization through to decision which included developing a Request for Proposal(RFP), creating a business and technical requirements baseline, and a scoring mechanism. This process allowed us to objectively baseline and evaluate the pool candidates for successfully selecting the best one. Supervised branch

    Education

    M.B.A

    University of Lowell

    B.A

    University of Massachusetts