The
Healthcare Partner
Project Partner
B U S I N E S S I N T E RV I E W
Written by Anna McMahon • Produced by Tom Barnes
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Ian Brennan, Director at Laya Healthcare with Responsibility for IT and Cyber Security, discusses women in STEM, digital transformation, IT security, the company’s key partners, and Laya’s tech future. 3
Ian Brennan manages all aspects of including cybersecurity, at Laya Hea better business value and driving cu functionally-rich IT solutions across sales, customer service and claims.
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s is the case for any business leader, Ian faces a number of challenges in his role as IT lead. He explained, “Everyone is transforming digitally at a very quick pace. To move as quick as – or quicker than – the market is a real challenge. But, if you were to ask me what my biggest challenge is, I would say it is to do with finding and retaining the right calibre of people within the organisation, as, here in Ireland, it is extremely dynamic.”
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the IT function, althcare, delivering ustomer-centric, s the company, for From a gender perspective, Laya benefits from having a good number of male and female employees in most departments. However, when it comes to IT, females are in the minority. Ian said, “I see women in leadership positions in IT, but there are never as many as I would want. It is difficult to get women to consider roles in STEM. Early on, are they thinking that science, engineering, IT, construction or architecture
Essentially, what we have done is pushed the ability for our members to be able to interact with us in any way, and on any device 5
could be interesting for them? At Laya, our directors are three women and three men. It is the ideal match as far as I am concerned because we all bring something different to the table. We really need to encourage young women to look at STEM careers.” Ian’s IT team is currently six years into the organisation’s digital transformation, having made it a priority to use technology to make life
Protecting organisations in an increasingly complex threat landscape. WWW.WARD.IE
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We set up portals corporate clients our penetration te Ward Solutions, to This ensures our s high as possible easier for Laya’s members. Ian explained, “Essentially, what we have done is pushed the ability for our members to be able to interact with us in any way, and on any device. In the last six years, we have made it possible for our members to self-service if they wish. There’s a members’ area where you can go in to amend your address or your policy, and we have built an app so you can claim your day-to-day expenses more easily. If you go in to see your consultant who charges you 150 euros, you take a picture of the amount on your phone, you key in the details, you submit the claim, and that goes straight into our claim handling system. The old-fashioned way of filling in a claims form, and then after it has all been sorted out, receiving a cheque, is so slow. Nowadays, if you go in to see your GP at 8am and send in
s for specific and then get est partner, o test them. security is as
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We want to be that trusted member for our partners, offering a really good experience in terms of managing their own health and wellbeing Ian Brennan, Director at Laya Healthcare
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your claim as you are walking out, the money could be back in your account by the afternoon, having gone through all our checks. It’s a really good members’ service, while, at the same time, it’s a really efficient service, without the need for teams and teams of people.” Ian has been asked to speak at numerous CIO and cybersecurity events in Ireland and overseas. Opening Zerodaycon in Dublin last year, he emphasised the
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importance of CSOs addressing cybersecurity basics again and again, as well as the importance of relating it in business terms as a process rather than a project. Ian said, “We have millions of people’s healthcare records, and that’s unfortunately a very attractive target. We take our responsibility seriously, with really strict regulations from the Central Bank of Ireland, and GDPR, which has been transformative, in my mind, in a very positive way. “It makes every business have to answer why they are capturing the data, why they are processing it, and why they are keeping it so long. They are all very fair questions. It all comes down to going back to basics, which I get my team to focus on day in, day out. For example, are you keeping your systems patched? Are you aware of all the vulnerabilities? Do you know all the equipment that’s being added to your network? Are you controlling what’s accessing your core network? Are you making sure that the people who have privileged access to your systems only have the right access? This is IT security in a nutshell. When you look at the breaches, it’s not rocket science – it’s just a case of missing these ‘cyber-hygiene’ factors. Very often, the simple things get missed.”
We work with Smarttech to make sure we have really strong governance and understand everything that’s going on. They are treated like an employee of this company, not like an outsource supplier. That is the key difference for us
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Maximising the benefit of products is paramount, and RPA is one such product which has been a huge success for the organisation, having invested a lot of time and effort in the last two years. Ian added, “RPA has produced fantastic results for us. Having a digital
dealing with those complex cases that really need a person to make a judgement.” Laya works in partnership with a number of trusted partners, having developed a relationship with them and striving to challenge them on a daily basis. One such partner is Smarttech247, which runs Laya’s security operation centre. Ian said, “We
Blue Prism software mirrors the activities of a person on a particular system, interacting with as many applications as you require. It does a huge amount of our mundane, hard processing, back office stuff, and it’s extremely powerful worker that can work alongside your team, which automates 95 per cent of the tasks, means employees can concentrate on the 5 per cent exception cases. It is hugely efficient and extremely accurate. A digital worker works three times faster than a human because they are unrelenting. They can do the boring or mundane tasks, allowing people to do what they should be doing, whether interacting with others or 12
work with Smarttech to make sure we have really strong governance and understand everything that’s going on. We look at the alerts and make sure they understand any changes we are making to the networks. They are treated like an employee of this company, not like an outsource supplier. That is the key difference for us.” In addition, Laya Healthcare partners with Blue Prism,
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which provides robotic process automatic software, as well as Ward Solutions, which are responsible for most of Laya’s penetration tests. Ian added, “Blue Prism software mirrors the activities of a person on a particular system, interacting with as many applications as you require. It does a huge amount of our mundane, hard processing, back office stuff, and it’s extremely powerful. We also have corporate customers who need access to a range of courses to improve
their employees’ wellbeing, for example. We set up portals for specific corporate clients and then get our penetration test partner, Ward Solutions, to test them. This ensures our security is as high as possible.” So, what does the future hold for tech at Laya? Ian answered, “We have a huge amount of data, and what we want to do is to use that data to help our members live healthier lives. If we can say, based on what we
We have a huge amount of data, and what we want to do is to use that data to help our members live healthier lives Ian Brennan, Director at Laya Healthcare
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are seeing, there’s a reasonable chance that you’re going to go down a certain road, we can help them to improve their lifestyles. We have various services such as cardiac screenings and health coaches to educate and inform our members to make better choices for themselves. That is 100 per cent down to technology – wearables, apps, and information on our website. There’s a whole raft of things we can use to give our members the information they want. And that information is specific to our members – it’s not
one-size-fits-all. It has to be tailored, and we want to be that trusted member for our partners, offering a really good experience in terms of managing their own health and wellbeing.” For further information on Laya Healthcare, visit www.layahealthcare.ie
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021 202 2000
www.layahealthcare.ie Laya Healthcare Eastgate Road, Eastgate Business Park, Little Island, Co Cork, T45 E181, Ireland 16