Change the system without losing the obligation

In 2019 I endorsed retirement of an old application because its current transactions had moved to a replacement. We had not established the same position for the historical reporting work. Of thirty-six required report types reviewed with business owners, twenty-seven were supported by the replacement and nine still depended on the old environment. I paused the retirement recommendation and funded a retrieval programme. Six of the nine later passed the defined review; three remained unfinished. The old environment therefore retained a controlled purpose. A migration milestone had not earned us permission to make the remaining records unusable.

I now lead information systems at Merqlavi Health Assurance in Amritsar. Sixty-eight employees work through five technology heads, with twelve contractors reported separately. My annual remit includes ₹17.8 crore operating expense and ₹5.9 crore approved change investment, with finance deciding the accounting treatment. The insurer has 625 employees and twenty-one branches. I work with CEO Nisha Delvrani and COO Rakesh Qezrlavi to connect technical recommendations with operating responsibilities. I do not decide coverage, clinical questions or legal retention requirements. Presenting technology papers to directors is part of my executive role; it has not given me a statutory appointment or completed my preparation for one.

My later decisions concerned information that should not be copied into diagnostics and a maintenance window chosen for the IT team’s convenience. A selected pre-release logging review found unnecessary identity fields in forty-three of 180 synthetic scenarios. We corrected thirty-nine and withheld four unfinished connectors rather than describe the whole set as ready. A proposed overnight maintenance period also overlapped meaningful hospital-service traffic; the branch office being closed did not make the supported service quiet. I would consider a CIO mandate where these qualifications can change a programme’s timing and cost. For a future outside contribution, I would bring experience of asking what a technology milestone leaves behind, while completing the required preparation and relationships assessment. My preferred account of progress includes the record still needed, data deliberately excluded and the service responsibility that continues while the systems team is making a change.

Current focus

Technology transitions that preserve required access, proportionate diagnostics and continuing service.

Conversations I welcome

A health-insurance CIO mandate and a first outside contribution after preparation and assessment.