Vanbreda Risk Benefits aims to make a difference in the market with a self-developed, custom application landscape. Maintaining this is just one of Sarah Dillen’s tasks as Director ICT. How does her IT organization combine innovation, security, and efficiency?
Vanbreda Risk Benefits is the largest independent insurance broker and risk consultant in Belgium. The firm, headquartered in Antwerp, advises entrepreneurs, companies, and public institutions on all matters related to insurance, risk management, and employee benefits.
Vanbreda prides itself on its 85 years of experience in the sector, as well as the digital tools that support its business operations. As Director ICT, Sarah Dillen is responsible for maintaining and further developing these tools, as well as the general digital support for the entire company.
ITdaily: “What does the IT environment you’re responsible for look like?”
Sarah Dillen: “I’m responsible for the entire IT landscape. This includes infrastructure, application development, and process and change management. It’s the job of the IT department to provide the most efficient, stable, and secure workplace possible, while supporting our employees on a daily basis.”
“Furthermore, we build and maintain a very large custom application landscape. This is one of the ways we make a commercial difference in our sector. We build portals for business customers, insured individuals and their employees, apps for staff, and tools for our clients’ HR departments. For example, customers can track their claims in real-time. The app landscape is very extensive, perhaps much more extensive than you might expect from an insurance broker.”
“Our landscape has become quite extensive, with our own infrastructure and applications in the cloud. Internally, we are very Microsoft-oriented, both in terms of development and applications, as well as in our choice for the Azure cloud.”
What are your main priorities at the moment?
Dillen: “The main priority is and always remains safeguarding the continuity and security of our services. In addition, we actively support commercial growth and want to be able to respond quickly to a changing market.”
“For example, a major commercial opportunity has emerged a few weeks ago. We try to support that as much as possible by freeing up resources, shifting, and scaling where necessary. We do make plans in advance, but we’re always ready to quickly adjust them when we can support the company by doing so. In such cases, we think Vanbreda-wide.”
Does the rest of Vanbreda sufficiently understand these priorities? Is everyone on the same page?
Dillen: “Understanding is not self-evident and can be a challenge. It requires a lot of attention and communication. We focus on this at different levels. We work agile with a strong emphasis on consultation with the business. We also still work with more traditional steering committees. This way, we combine the best of both worlds.”
“When we need to implement updates or replace components, we always explain why. We will never just say that something has to be done. This way, the business side understands IT, but the reverse is equally important. We need to understand where the business challenges lie and solve them in a cost-effective manner. We have various systems to keep everything on track.”
“Furthermore, it’s important that I, as IT director, am part of the management committee. There, we annually look at the needs of IT and the business, and decide on priorities within a feasible budget. We want to both make a plan and remain flexible to respond to opportunities.”
By explaining what you do, but also why, you involve and motivate people.
Sarah Dillen, Director ICT Vanbreda Risk & Benefits
“In recent years, we’ve become much more transparent internally, and in my opinion, mutual understanding has grown significantly. By explaining what you do, but also why, you involve and motivate people.”
Does the IT department have access to sufficient people and resources to successfully meet the challenges?
Dillen: “Actually, yes (laughs). I have a strong team of 76 employees, with good retention. People enjoy working for us and we want to keep it that way. In recent years, we’ve also been able to hire effectively. The market is changing quite a bit in that respect.”
“When we want to scale up quickly, we work together with external partners. Sometimes we might initially build something with external parties to gain speed, but then take over the project internally.”
“Vanbreda continues to invest heavily in IT, but that doesn’t mean the budget is endless, of course. We always have to look for a good balance between continuity, security, efficiency, and innovation to keep the increase in IT costs under control. What we do must contribute to commercial success. I’m satisfied with the people and resources I have at my disposal for that.”
Is the future of Vanbreda’s IT environment in the cloud, on-premises, or a combination of both?
Dillen: “We adopt a cloud-first strategy, but we’ve come to the conclusion that in practice, it will be a combination of cloud and on-premises for the first few years. For new applications and purchased software, we immediately opt for the cloud, but our existing custom application system will continue to run on-premises for now.”
“If everything were in the cloud, it would be simpler. Scalability is relevant, and it would lead to easier integration between applications. We are increasingly integrating our applications with external solutions. However, these custom applications are not yet adapted to run efficiently in the cloud. So there’s no business case for migrating the custom work.”
“Sustainability is also important to us. When moving the data center from our own site to an external location, we choose a colocation partner with an EvoVadis Platinum label.”
What impact do regulations like NIS2 and DORA have on IT policy?
Dillen: “We’re not subject to NIS2, but we are to DORA. We’re part of the financial sector. In the context of DORA, we have strengthened and formalized IT processes. We did this in close collaboration with our security and compliance colleagues.”
“The CISO and Compliance Risk Manager report to the CEO, not to me. It’s a good thing that IT and security are separate, so there’s an external view on IT. This way, I can also be challenged.”
“The biggest challenge with regulations is interpreting what is expected. Once that’s sorted out, everything runs smoothly. DORA hasn’t changed much for us because security was already strongly integrated. The legislation does make us a bit sharper, and therefore also gives more confidence. I find that a positive evolution.”
Legislation makes us a bit sharper, and therefore also gives more confidence.
Sarah Dillen, Director ICT Vanbreda Risk & Benefits
“IT legislation certainly has added value in that respect. There are always deadlines and the impact is always noticeable, but the rules confirm to some extent what we were already doing and give us insight into what can be improved. That’s a good thing. Interpreting rules and getting enough time to implement them remains a pain point.”
How does Vanbreda Risk Benefits deal with the AI hype?
Dillen: “Our basic strategy is to be an intelligent follower. We stick to that, even with AI. We are investing in it on different fronts. For example, we have an AI For Everyone initiative where we strengthen awareness and knowledge, and there’s an AI café where ambassadors can meet at noon to talk about AI.”
“We’re also experimenting with the technology and, for example, creating a prompt library. Within IT, we’ve started with AI for IT, where we integrate Copilot for developers. We’re investigating what efficiency gains we can achieve with our teams. Everyone has to share experiences monthly, to arrive at something that becomes common for use.”
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“We’re also experimenting with LLMs and looking at whether we can use AI in our contact center to answer questions faster. In the context of the AI Act, it’s not allowed to make certain decisions with AI, but the technology can help employees retrieve information from systems faster and prepare answers.”
“Are we really followers then? I compare us to the entire market. Specifically in the insurance market, we might actually be pioneers (laughs).”
Which important trends are you following with an eye on the next three years?
Dillen: “I’m still sticking with AI for that. The question is whether AI will remain a hype or become a real game changer. We’re genuinely asking ourselves that question, because there are quite a few challenges to overcome. Things like ecological impact, but also biases in models, or hallucinations, are something we can really do without in our sector. We’re going to keep monitoring the world, to predict the evolutions as best as possible for each business domain and align our investments accordingly.”
“Vanbreda is currently the market leader in Belgium as a broker, and that needs to remain so. I’m convinced that investments in AI can contribute to that, but we need to monitor whether that’s really the case.”