THE CHALLENGE
Our Life and Pensions client required a new data store and the ability to process data. The data required to be automatically processed and output in several formats to feed the legacy systems and produce reports. The requirement was driven by changes imposed to produce reporting for regulation changes such as IFRS17.
Certain challenges highlighted:
- Our client was currently using “legacy” architecture hosted by a managed service provider.
- Over 15 different data sources that required analysing and extracting to provide the desired reporting.
- No Cloud footprint or readiness: Governance, Operating model nor skill sets
- Short timelines for implementation.
- Unclear requirements and organisational struggles.
- Lack of internal knowledge of legacy systems.
- Organisation’s readiness for change.
OUR SOLUTIONS
The team conducted a series of client workshops, interviewing stakeholders and users to garner the requirements and information to feed into the solution to meet the organisations objectives.
During these interviews it was clear that there were knowledge gaps in certain areas, we engaged with 3rd parties to bridge the gap and was able to seek further clarification.
We completed the discovery and analysis stage that clarified general capabilities, data integrity, data source mapping and an architectural overview. From these findings we designed a cloud hosted data warehouse incorporating best practice methodologies using the Azure Cloud technology stack, including automated data processing, archiving, and providing data in the required format for reporting.
We also performed a cloud readiness assessment and delivered a practical roadmap to facilitate the journey to cloud. This highlighted areas that needed prioritising, such factors included:
- The need for upskilling existing team to maintain the environment.
- Existing processes that can be transformed.
- Migration and reduction of on-site infrastructure.
- Integration of SAS products currently deployed in the organisation.
RESULTS
Many of our client’s processes involved manual intervention, the solution removed 90% of user interaction and leveraged the automation of pipelines and data preparation for satisfying the reporting requirements to meet the IFRS17 regulations. The solution enabled the financial and actuary teams to focus efforts on other tasks, with the platform UI handling the workload of producing these reports. As these reporting requirements were performed quarterly, the teams avoided an end of period rush to extract the data and create the reports manually – often producing errors and incorrect data.
A comprehensive business case document was presented to the client enabling an holistic view of the solution, giving a clear and precise roadmap that satisfied the clients objectives. The use cases drawn particular attention to the innovation and future proofing of the online portal leading to the Financial and Actuary teams being the beneficiaries of the proposed solution.
BENEFITS
A Cloud first approach and roadmap
Upskilled employees of our client to administrate the portal and the Cloud architecture
90% reduction of in processing reports
Reduction of data errors and inaccuracy
A streamlined platform to build future changes and migrate existing processes
Automated processing of over 200k of records
Increased employee productivity
Client, Industry and Regulatory confidence