Northdoor successfully completes the London Market’s largest data migration project for Markel

In 2009 Markel decided that it needed a new underwriting system. Having decided on a system, it then set about determining how best to migrate all of its legacy data from the old source system to the new target system.

An independent view
To undertake this data migration project Markel opted to partner with independent IT consultancy Northdoor, as six months previously Northdoor had successfully completed a data migration for another insurance company, Faraday. Therefore, not only did Northdoor have the domain experience, a structured methodology and a wealth of pre-written scripts, but Markel felt that Northdoor could also bring additional rigour to the process, adding independent advice on this critical project.

Upon appointment, Northdoor was tasked with implementing a series of reliable, repeatable data migration projects that would successfully migrate eight core systems split across Lloyd’s syndicate, London company, and legacy Bermudian operations.

Additionally Northdoor undertook the migration of key risk and claims data held within an internal service company system supporting Markel’s UK Retail, Dutch and Spanish operations. Les Agambar, Enterprise Architect at Markel International comments: “A project of this scale and nature is certainly not for the faint hearted. We needed to seriously think about what was involved from the outset to ensure that we didn’t underestimate the size and complexity of the task. Northdoor undertook a detailed evaluation of the legacy applications to understand as much as possible about the original historical applications and systems in order to work out the most beneficial scenario for the organisation in terms of the actual delivery.”

Thought, planning and a strong methodology
Over 40 years’ of legacy data, 12 million ledger entries and over two million inward policies had to be migrated. In addition, there was limited knowledge in the company about the legacy systems, which had been in situ for many years. This made it more challenging for Northdoor to evaluate the primary system. Les Agambar continues: “Quality of data is paramount. Migrating good quality, clean data from the old systems is critically important, otherwise the benefits will not be fully realised.”

Once this task had been completed Northdoor set about evaluating the new underwriting system. The new target system and all the applicable data fields were broken down into their relevant subject domains such as General Reference Data, Inward Risk, Inward Claims, Inward Ledger, Outward Risk, Outward Statistics and Outward Ledger. For each of these domains the project team was then required to conduct the following activities:
· High level data mapping to understand how the target screens map onto the existing source system screens. The primary aim of this exercise was to understand the granularity of data and projected volumes. Each target table was then scored so that the projected complexity and current level of certainty could be understood and analysed to assist with the process of estimating and costing the data conversion execution phase.
· Following this ETL (extract, transfer and load) implementation was undertaken
· And finally unit testing was conducted to ensure that it all worked in the target system

Throughout the various stages of the migration Northdoor constructed and ran the validation to ensure that the data had transferred correctly and to substantiate the quality and integrity of the converted data against both source and target requirements.

A successful migration
Northdoor was keen to automate as much as possible, using pre-written scripts, in order that the process was as efficient as possible and to eradicate human error. Northdoor provided real-time management information and shared dashboards so that Markel had visibility of the project. Data conversion was a lengthy process but once completed, the go live transition phase was very quick. Les Agambar continues: “It was a real achievement for Northdoor to get the project delivered with the data proving very stable at the cut-over go-live transition. I know this involved a significant amount of commitment and extended hours from the Northdoor team for a period of over two years.”

In terms of challenges, the Markel business analysis workstream had to work on understanding how to integrate the target system within their existing business processes at the same time that the data conversion team were undertaking their data mapping and initial ETL implementation. In total, nearly 18,000 source fields were reviewed as part of the mapping (planning) process and 2,000 validation checks were made to ensure the highest quality data was imported into the new system. To date this is one of the largest data conversions to take place in the London Market and alongside the conversion, one of the largest system implementations. Go live was accomplished in March 2013 and seen by all at Markel as a relatively smooth process.

Les Agambar concludes: “We knew the data migration project would be challenging from the start. We therefore looked for a partner that had in-depth knowledge of the insurance sector and understood the nuances of our system requirements for the new application. We chose Northdoor because not only did the company have a really strong track record having delivered numerous migration projects for other insurance companies, but it also had proven processes and templates that we could use straight away. The onsite Northdoor team demonstrated an exceptional level of commitment and diligence during their engagement and have been a crucial factor in the successful adoption of our new underwriting platform.”