How to inch out legacy tech without disruption

We’re in a rapidly evolving world that’s demanding ever increasing convenience, speed and personalisation. However, many insurers struggle with digital transformation, believing they must completely replace their systems – at enormous risk and cost – to gain traction.

But at Axe Group, we think an incremental approach is a realistic strategy to help insurers transform their digital capabilities. One that inches out legacy tech piece by piece, with a focus on high-value, low-risk areas to provide immediate business impact. The benefit? reduced technical debt while maintaining operational stability.

Here’s what you need to know.

 

The barriers to digital transformation

When 70% of digital transformation projects fail, how can you ensure that yours will be successful? We all know that business transformation is an incredibly difficult undertaking, requiring precise alignment of diverse business units to a common goal. Replacing existing processes disrupts operations and stresses teams, especially when there isn’t a like-for-like improvement over current processes and tangible benefits take time to materialise.

One of the greatest challenges is overcoming “analysis paralysis”; confronted by too many choices, such as when choosing between cloud providers, or deciding which legacy systems to tackle first, it can feel impossible to know whether you’re making the right decision. What’s more, people are often fundamentally resistant to change, and different teams and departments may be siloed across a large organisation—each with their own tools, systems, and processes. Employees might not have the knowledge, skills, or expertise to adopt new technologies, leading to a lack of confidence in their value. Strong leadership is critical: if the C-suite doesn’t support and empower decision-makers, it becomes difficult to execute implementation and effectively manage change.

We focus on addressing these obstacles. Our workforce is equipped with the right skills and expertise to stay ahead of the fast-paced digital landscape. As an all-in-one digital workplace, teams are provided with highly-efficient project and content management tools that facilitate collaboration and communication, breaking down siloes within the organisation. On the platform side, our Axe Flow solution is scalable and flexible in aligning with each organisation’s specific needs, integrating seamlessly with existing systems. Axe Group also implements robust security measures and protocols, collecting and storing data for easy retrieval and analysis in a way that is secure, accurate, and compliant with relevant regulations.

 

Understanding the Axe Group approach

Our strategic, incremental pathway allows insurers to systematically upgrade their tech infrastructure without the traditional “rip and replace” methodology that severely disrupts business operations. And unlike many SaaS platform providers, we offer ongoing support with a dedicated team and customised solution.

Companies starting their digital transformation often face an overwhelming number of technical options. Decision points around selecting the best technologies to perform certain business functions can lead to technical issues down the track. We remove this complexity by providing a modular end-to-end platform, complete with all the necessary technical systems to administer any insurance policy, from point of sale right through to policy administration and claims management. Leaning into this capability drastically reduces the choices that the insurer needs to make, allowing your business to focus on high value areas such as compliance, product differentiation, change management, and process mapping.

Throughout the implementation process, our specialists collaborate closely with key stakeholders, leveraging as much out-of-the-box capability as possible. This involves applying the 80/20 rule: identifying and supporting 80% of use cases while putting in place temporary manual processes for the remaining 20%. Through carefully-planned incremental feature drops, driven by business priorities and objectives, Axe Group empowers insurers to “inch forward”—modernising their technology stack without the traditional pain points of large-scale digital transformation projects.

 

Tapping into the benefits

An incremental transformation strategy promotes continuous improvement over massive system overhauls, with the following benefits:

  • Reduced risk. Small, manageable changes minimise disruption, allowing the team to prove value step-by-step and minimising the risk of failure.

  • Faster results. Getting each innovation into production earlier means realising the benefits of the investment as soon as possible.
  • Increased competitiveness. Improved agility allows for more rapid testing of market opportunities and quicker responses to changing customer needs.
  • Greater flexibility. Through customer feedback at each iteration, you can find out quickly what works and what doesn’t, making it easier to pivot and adapt.
  • Improved learning. Continuous iterations provide opportunities to test, rework and refine strategies until the desired results are met.
  • Cost efficiency. With limited upfront investment, budgets can be managed more effectively for multiple phases over a longer period, and adjusted as needed.
  • Change management. Gradual changes reduce employee resistance and build stakeholder confidence over time.
  • Up-to-date technology. Longer, larger releases with pre-fixed scope are usually outdated by the time it reaches completion, leaving you to play catch-up with the competition.

However, in order to truly capitalise on this approach, each step along the way needs to build meaningfully on the last, contributing to the overall solution and long-term vision. It’s also important to note that the complexity is likely to increase as each new increment is added, and more testing time will be required to ensure that the system remains stable and reliable.

 

The blueprint for a successful transformation

We start every transformation project by carrying out a thorough assessment to identify where the greatest value and risks lie. This assessment helps you set clear priorities: whether you need to overcome immediate business challenges such as a customer experience issue or regulatory problem, resolving complexity in a particular area, or maximising your ROI as quickly as possible. This will also help you consider the time it will take to roll out new insurance products and calculate the IT costs involved.

Remember, a successful digital transformation relies not only on having the best technologies but also on the strength of your people. It takes a passionate team with bold, digital-savvy leaders, working towards a single vision through effective communication and collaboration. This means drawing up a clear roadmap that articulates the vision for your transformation, establishes priorities, and sets measurable goals for each phase of an initiative with a timeline for achieving them. Most importantly, empower your skilled workforce to champion transformation and make the difficult decisions that uncover new ways of working.

 

What this approach requires of you

Ultimately, digital transformation thrives on strategies that limit risk, build out value early on, and prioritise speed. By taking an incremental approach, insurers can move swiftly and adapt along the way, embracing short feedback cycles to eliminate confirmation bias and deliver a first-class user experience—all while laying the foundation for sustainable success in the digital era.

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Whether you’re looking for an innovative platform to support business growth, you’re over capacity and need to outsource a project, or you’re in a jam and need a rapid solution, Axe is ready to support you.