The value of IT across the Enterprise

How tech professionals move our Commercial Lines business forward

2 min read

March 2022

Arm holding pen and pointing to graph on screen

Applications Developer Consultant David loves that his business partners involve him throughout all stages of a project. Product owners approach him on everything from how our quoting platform can interface with other systems to the nuances of rolling our products to different states. “There aren’t 12 layers in between product owners and IT leaders here. The business folks have IT knowledge; they ‘get it.’” This makes it so much easier for David to move business initiatives forward with high-quality tech solutions.

Move business initiatives forward

As a tech professional, having synergy with your business partners is truly ideal when working on projects—and not always expected at every company. At Progressive, our technology team is the backbone of our business, which means our tech professionals are consulted on the regular on essential initiatives.

IT Manager Marla was once on the business side of Commercial Lines. Now in IT, she knows from experience that our technology team drives our business goals forward. “With over 4,000 employees, our IT department is not just a secondary thing for us—it’s an important part of our company. I’m not sure it’s like that at other places; IT is truly valued here.”

Currently, Marla’s team is helping sunset legacy applications as we continue to transition to an updated Commercial Lines policy servicing platform, Duck Creek. Her team is essential in ensuring our systems are up and running for policy processing and new business with 24/7 purchasing. Without Marla’s team, we’d lose a crucial piece to acquiring business.

Building high-quality solutions

IT Manager Syama oversees a Scrum Delivery team focused on the customer acquisition, experience, and product enhancement capabilities of Commercial Lines business. He also knows first-hand the critical role his team’s work plays for Progressive. “IT is the business enabler. Our business depends so heavily on IT applications, and that includes internal and consumer-facing. My team works on the enhancements and fixes that ensure ease of use and experience remains positive for our customers.”

For tech professionals who take pride in their work, Progressive is a great place to build a career. “Progressive does it right,” David says. “I’ve been at places where they take the cheap, fast route, and it’s not great. Technology people have pride of ownership of the work they do—they want to do it right, not fast.”

That does mean they work with the business daily, interacting constantly. But, for tech professionals who want to understand the experience they’re delivering and how it drives business results, it’s a great motivator. “It’s a very powerful thing for IT people to have,” says Syama, “and it leads to a very satisfying career.”

Learn more about our Progressive Careers and Technology careers.

David Darr has 35+ years of software development with over 20 years at Progressive. He's currently an IT applications developer consultant with the role of technical application owner of Commercial Lines Small Business Insurance Businessowners Policy.

Marla Metzger has over 30 years of Progressive Insurance experience with her most recent role supporting Commercial Lines business systems, focused on the ATLAS program and Duck Creek rollout. In early 2021, Marla became an IT service manager for core auto, supporting our legacy Progressive-built applications while also providing warranty support for the Duck Creek platform.

Syama Kosuri has over 11 years of experience in managing IT infrastructure and application delivery teams at Progressive. He currently manages a delivery team responsible for designing and implementing IT solutions to advance customer acquisition, experience, and product enhancement capabilities of Commercial Lines auto business.

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