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Modernization journey with Deloitte as a foundation for sustainable digitization
Successful Mainframe Exit in 23 months: From mainframe to modern technology stack at NN Group
Nationale Nederlanden has achieved a significant milestone by successfully migrating its core business application, the central insurance application, from a mainframe platform to a Java environment. This pivotal endeavor was made possible through collaboration with the esteemed team at Deloitte’s Center of Excellence for Application Modernization & Migration. As a result of this strategic initiative, the insurance company managed to achieve substantial cost reductions of 80%. At the same time, this transition has led to notable enhancements in operational quality and flexibility, signifying a commendable advancement for the organization.
Modernization journey with Deloitte @ NN Group
The Client’s Situation
NN Group is an international financial services company with a strong presence in several European countries and Japan with a rich history that stretches back over 175 years. The IT simplification and mainframe modernization program is an important strategic pillar of its strategy. One of the largest IT legacy challenges is to decommission the mainframe, an IBM platform which NN has been using for more than 50 years. The footprint of applications on the mainframe was getting lower every year, while costs and business challenges were rising per application.
NN wanted to lower their dependency on scarce mainframe skills by leaving the mainframe and migrating to a modernized platform. Together with Deloitte, NN started with a tool-supported discovery phase to analyze the current situation and the technologies used. Based on the results, the optimal solution was defined for NN Group.
After an RFP process in the first half of 2021, Deloitte was selected to support NN with the modernization of their applications landscape, which resulted in the project starting in Q3/2021 and completing the go-lives by July 2023.
Our Approach
The Application Modernization program was built on a structured mainframe discovery using Deloitte innoWake’s tooling. The tool-generated deep data insights established the foundation for planning and executing this project, uncovering all relevant data and information to outline the scope and effort of the transformation. In this program, our Deloitte innoWake solutions were combined with innovative technologies, highly skilled people, and proven approaches.
Our Application Modernization approach is building on 100% automated refactoring and the automated translation from legacy code to Java, while the deployment to the target platform preserves 100% of the legacy functionality for users, meaning that the behavior of the migrated applications remains identical.
Key activities included
- >10M lines of Cobol and CA:Gen code automatically transformed to Java
- Database migration from DB2 and IMS DB to Oracle and MS SQL
- Interface handling (e.g., MQ)
- Replacement of third-party tools and products
- Scheduler migration (TWS to Tidal)
- Training and knowledge transfer for IT teams
- Testing, go-live management, and hypercare support
Using our own tools and products, we have leveraged our scalable approach that produces quick results, without any third-party dependencies. With one go-live per partition, NN’s three separated mainframe LPARs were decommissioned in a phased approach. The first two go-lives were conducted after 17 and 19 months, the third within 23 months after the start of the project.
Impact for NN Group
NN Group has realized substantial business value as a result of the recent initiatives undertaken. Notably, the company has now decommissioned the entire mainframe platform, resulting in significant cost savings, and has eliminated the operational risks associated with hard-to-obtain mainframe skills. Additionally, NN Group has successfully consolidated its technology stack into a streamlined and modern tech stack as a foundation for future growth and removed the risk of losing existing domain knowledge.
The discontinuation of mainframe-related license contracts has resulted in IT platform savings of over 80%, producing rapid amortization of the project in under three years.
Furthermore, the efficiency and speed of the transformation process is commendable, with the first go-live completed in just 17 months, surpassing comparable projects in the marketplace.
Overview of achieved results
- Complete removal of the dependency on mainframe technology skills and the associated risks
- 80% IT operating cost reduction
- 23 months to project completion and mainframe decommissioning, with first go-live after 17 months
- Agility – no code freeze or interruption of the business during the project lifetime
- Competitive advantage – the transformed application are the basis for future modernization and development; enhancing agility and time-to-market for new features
- Consolidation of the technology stack from a multitude of outdated technologies to a modern tech stack
Feel free to contact us anytime about our modernization journey with NN Group for sustainable digitization.
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