How AXA GBS Led the Modernization of AXA Germany’s Legacy Systems

Is updating IT systems absolutely necessary? The answer is yes. Modernizing IT infrastructure helps organizations achieve future growth by enabling faster innovation, enhancing agility, and ensuring alignment with evolving industry standards.

This is exactly what AXA Germany wanted to achieve – modernize their mainframe to ensure agility and operational efficiency. And to do that, they turned to AXA GBS Morocco and its dedicated team of experts.

What followed was a remarkable story of collaboration, ingenuity, and the power of self-driven learning – demonstrating how a small team with a daring spirit can deliver impactful results.

A Strategic Partnership for Digital Transformation

AXA Germany approached AXA GBS Morocco to serve as an extension of their existing teams in Cologne and Munich. The goal was clear: modernize and optimize their legacy IT systems to enable AXA Germany’s IT infrastructure to be future-ready. Over a seven-month period, this compact team took on two key initiatives:

• Decision Table Conversion: The AXA GBS team laid the foundation for future platform migrations by transformed approximately 1700 out of 7000 decision tables – complex rule sets that guide business decisions – into modern COBOL code. This paved the way for enhancing operational efficiency and decision-making agility.
• Code Modernization: To ensure ongoing system relevance and maintainability, the team modernized a large legacy COBOL codebase from an older, text-based technology into a contemporary form, supporting long-term system stability and agility.

A Team Driven by Expertise and Self-Learning

What makes this story particularly compelling is the AXA GBS team’s approach.

Composed of five professionals – including a business analyst with subject matter expertise and fluency in German, along with COBOL specialists – the team possessed one vital trait: a daring spirit fueled by self-motivation.

• Facilitating Smooth Transitions: The team prioritized comprehensive documentation and effective system management to ensure seamless transitions, maintaining the continuity and quality of services throughout the modernization process.
• Expertise and Autonomy: With over 15 years of experience in COBOL, the team has been autonomous, which greatly facilitated knowledge transfer and skill development.
• Self-Learning and Ownership: The AXA GBS team immersed themselves in self-education and hands-on practice, mastering complex technical skills through relentless self-education. Their willingness to learn independently and take ownership exemplifies AXA GBS’s values of owning, driving, and delivering by daring to find better.

The success of this initiative exceeded expectations with AXA Germany expressing high satisfaction with the project outcomes, which modernized their core systems.