Metropolitan is one of SA`s oldest and largest insurance groups. Celebrating 100 years of successful business operation in 1998, Metropolitan has consistently ranked within the top 100 Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE)-listed companies for five-year performance every year since 1991.
Metropolitan`s successes have traditionally been grounded in the company`s commitment to meet the rapidly changing needs of its growing customer base, and on the loyalty and trust that client base places in the company. Three years ago, with its sights set firmly on the future, Metropolitan instigated a major project to determine the future technical strategy of the company in order to capitalise on emerging technologies and retain the company`s keen differentiating values.
As Jan Cronje, managing director of Metropolitan`s Virtual Services Group explains, the investigation took into account the future needs of an increasingly sophisticated customer community. "We recognised the need to address Internet and Web-enabled solutions as well as integrating the different legacy technical environments that were coming our way as a result of our acquisitions strategy."
As Cronje points out, it is not viable to see solutions such as CRM and e-business initiatives in isolation or in pockets across different business units. "The company established an architectural framework to sit across the business units such as Life, Employee Benefits, etc. This is a core feature of the broader architectural application development environment for the future."
The investigation resulted in an Application Development Blueprint for the company`s technical architecture. The next stage was to test how different technologies could contribute to making the concept a reality. Many products were evaluated, among them BEA WebLogic Server.
Metropolitan`s chosen direction hinged on J2EE, and BEA, as the leading J2EE application server, was a natural choice. In evaluation it proved easy to install, configure and develop on, and gave the company the scalability it required for its anticipated needs.
An key additional benefit for Cronje was the knowledge and commitment of BEA`s partner in SA, Safika. "Buying BEA really gave us two `wins`," says Cronje. "We have the strengths of the BEA product, and also the strengths of their partner in Safika. They have been working alongside us throughout the length of the project - right from concept level through to implementation."
The benefits for a leading financial institution like Metropolitan Life are considerable, in one project based on the first phase of the new platform development, a system that would previously have cost R900 000 was completed for just R200 000, and subsequent applications based on the operational database for brokers could be further reduced to just R30 000 in development costs.
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