Bravura’s Head of Product Management, Aaron Knowles, highlights what questions platforms need to ask partners when it comes to business-critical migrations.
There’s no doubt that leading wealth and pensions platforms – those who constantly reinvest in business-enabling capabilities and front- and back-end functionality – enable users to create a competitive edge.
The ability to quickly launch new products, create seamless digital experiences and automate long-held manual processes to reduce costs are just a few benefits that modern, digital-first platforms offer. However, one of the great hurdles to re-platforming is the data migration process and the severe reputational, operational and regulatory consequences that can arise if it goes wrong.
So how can you find a migration expert with a truly scalable, flexible and repeatable approach that won’t let you down? It’s all about asking the right questions, “How do you phase migrations to de-risk? How can you automate different stages to save time and resources? Can you offer ‘full fat’ migration capabilities, or do we need to take the reins ourselves? Or even, what experience do you have in other sectors or countries that can help us improve the onboarding experience?”
What’s the best approach to re-platforming?
Running a successful re-platforming project means taking a client-first approach. You have to offer the client as much control or flexibility as they want over the process and deciding how things get done. Then you have to derisk the project’s end-to-end process as much as possible, while also reducing the overall effort required and time it takes to return to BAU.
For more than two decades, we have successfully executed complex migrations using modern data management techniques for some of the world’s largest financial institutions. These include wealth platforms, superannuation and pension providers, insurers, transfer agents (TAs) and global custodians.
Today, we have successfully onboarded almost 10 million accounts and policies onto our industry-leading Bravura Sonata wealth platform (including more than 2 million UK-based accounts).
These include everything from SIPPs, JISAs, ISAs, UK Unit Trusts, bonds, life policies and more, not to mention migrating trillions in AUA and hundreds of fund managers onto our TA platform – which serves four of the top five global custodians.
We’re more than just a safe pair of hands. We are industry experts with tried and tested processes, which are capable of handling the most complex migrations.
But, isn’t re-platforming just moving data from one system to another?
Re-platforming isn’t just a ‘lift and shift’ – it’s about de-risking transformative projects that can constantly evolve in line with industry and regulatory demands to create positive outcomes across all areas of the business.
A crucial element of our approach is the ability to phase migrations. Rather than executing a ‘big bang’ transition, where everything moves at once, we enable clients to migrate books of business in manageable tranches. This ensures business continuity, minimises risk, and provides ample opportunity for testing and refinement before full deployment.
Our platform also features the ability to set-up migration load templates that run each step of the load in a specific and repeatable sequence. This provides certainty that every time a migration is run the exact same thing happens, through every phase from the initial build, dry runs and dress rehearsals right through to the final implementation. So, by the time you get to the live re-platforming, you’ve already run the process dozens or even hundreds of times, helping to make it much more predictable and in effect a BAU process.
What if I want greater control over the process?
No two clients are the same, and neither are their migration needs. Some institutions prefer a hands-off approach, trusting us to manage the full migration lifecycle – from data extraction to mapping, transformation, validation, and execution.
Others want to take the reins themselves or partner with a third-party specialist, with our consultancy team providing guidance along the way.
Regardless of the approach, every client benefits from the same core advantages: a structured, scalable, and fully auditable process designed to ensure a smooth transition with minimal business disruption.
How do I make sure I’m still compliant?
Above all, clients need to know that post-migration they can continue to deliver seamless service to their own customers, whilst meeting their regulatory requirements.
To ensure full visibility of the process and data flows, our approach also features an in-built reconciliation with detailed reporting and dashboards using data from all stages of the migration to give clients a clear end-to-end reconciliation picture.
Even when we do a big bang migration, our process and migration technology is highly scalable and designed to work within tight migration windows, often over weekends or bank holidays, to ensure that normal business operations resume seamlessly.
Another increasingly popular alternative for larger financial institutions is breaking migrations into smaller phases (e.g. in adviser-by-adviser tranches), which further derisks the process.
How do you ensure your approach doesn’t become dated as technology moves on?
A re-platforming partner is only as good as their track record, and we have built our reputation over the course of not just years, but decades. As the industry continues to change and evolve, however, so do we. We are continuously refining our approach based on lessons learned, changing customer requirements and the latest technology.
Migrations will always carry an inherent risk. But with the right expertise, processes, and technical know-how, those risks become manageable and, crucially, predictable.
That’s why financial institutions continue to trust our industry-leading technology and experts to handle their most mission-critical transitions, knowing that we bring not just the tools but the experience and insight to ensure long-term success.
How can I find out more?
If your firm is considering changing platforms, get in touch with us to find out how our industry-leading Bravura Sonata platform and our team of experts can de-risk every step and enable you to re-platform with confidence.
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