Data migration enables a multi-billion-dollar deal

This bank is a one of the largest banks in Australia and the region. That’s thanks in part to more than 150 years of unrivaled history and the knowledge of how to use data to help its customers prosper with their money.

In order to stay focused on improving the lives of its core banking customers, the bank agreed to a multi-billion-dollar deal to sell 80 percent of its life insurance business to a prominent life insurance company in the Asia Pacific region. But to fulfill the terms of the sale, the bank had to segregate and move data from those parts of its business that were going to the life insurance company—a monumental (some said impossible) project to pull off.

At first, the bank tried to parse the necessary data for a data warehouse by writing custom extraction scripts for each system relevant to the deal. That solution put it on track to miss its deadline by years though. Even hiring Accenture didn't help;  they found no solution.

Then the bank discovered that CONNX could do everything it wanted and more.

“The shock was significant,” says Daniel Bierman, Principal Product Manager, Software AG. “At first, the bank hardly believed it was possible any single solution even existed since every option on the market besides CONNX was a long way from having the capabilities to solve this problem, let alone so fast.”

Almost from the start, CONNX proved its value. The data migration project kicked off as a complete success, going into production and saving the deal from failure. With Software AG at its side, the bank was able to do it quickly, with low costs, and without compromising on security.

What made the requirements for the sale to the life insurance company so difficult was the diversity of the 11 legacy systems the bank had to access, the depth and complexity of the data involved and the targets for transformation.

“The bank had systems that were up to 35 years old, data reaching back further than that, and serious security compliance and customer data considerations it could not ignore,” says Bierman.

That’s why when the bank tried to write custom extraction scripts—including for everything from VSAM, QSAM, Adabas, and IMS, to Siebel and even SUPRA—failure looked inevitable.

CONNX was brought in by Accenture to save the day and was so successful that, when IBM took over the project, the bank decided to license CONNX outright to build a data warehouse to help with the data migration project and support future internal projects.

Today, CONNX touches 40 systems containing policy, client, process, and advisor information. Working with both structured and unstructured data, CONNX is used not only for access but also for extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) to the target Microsoft SQL Server.

While the bank may have been astounded that any solution existed at all, it was downright floored by how fast extraction and run times have been with CONNX. It was able to finish some of the necessary migrations in as quickly as a weekend.

Once compliance with the terms of the sale had been secured, the bank realized that CONNX added value that extended beyond the initial project. Not only did CONNX help with a data warehouse essential for segregating and migrating data to the life insurance company, but the solution could be used in other areas to open the doors to new profits, new security features, and new technologies.

One of these technologies is the cloud. While the bank has enough on-premises hardware that processing power isn’t a concern, it is interested in how cloud-based data lakes like Snowflake can future-proof its business with improved data accessibility, redundancy, and security.

This could lead to safer sharing of data with external parties, and improved layering of firewalls. But all this has only recently become a possibility thanks to the foundational data warehouse first implemented for the data migration project. And the in-built support from CONNX.

Unleashing new technologies. And unlocking new profits. That’s how Software AG and CONNX have given the bank all it needs to thrive for its next 150 years. And beyond.