Alexander Forbes Risk Services (AFRS), a division of the Alexander Forbes Group, has saved R3.4 million in IT maintenance costs alone since rolling out a single, purpose-built, core transactional application to replace the different legacy systems at three of its nine AfriNet group companies throughout Africa.
It means that AFRS, the management and finance giant, can continue the implementation of a single IT application throughout its African operations over the next two years at little or no extra cost while providing substantial competitive advantage through enhanced customer service and process efficiency.
"The implementation to date has cost less than it would have cost to keep the legacy systems in place in one country for one year," says Mish-Al Anver, Director at AFRS.
"It means that we can effectively have all nine of our group companies in Africa (excluding SA) running on a single purpose-built system for the cost of maintaining the legacy application in one country."
AFRS has partnered with Johannesburg-based software development specialist nVisionIT to help customise and implement the new system that has been developed on the Microsoft platform.
With the Namibia and Swaziland operations now live, nVisionIT and IT has been tasked with implementing the AFRS Kenya solution, which is seen as the most complex roll-out to date due to the size of the operation and the amount of customisation required to comply with local requirements.
The group`s rapid and continuing expansion into Africa has seen Alexander Forbes acquire several existing companies over the last few years. These companies use a wide variety of IT applications, ranging from basic Microsoft Word and Excel environments to Unix-based legacy architectures.
It was decided to standardise on the Microsoft environment running purpose-build integrated core application at all its AfriNet offices.
"Creating a single system that could be used by all the offices was no small challenge," says Willem Viljoen, AfriNet project manager at nVisionIT.
"Scalability, flexibility and ease of customisation are key deliverables on this project. The companies in the AfriNet network ranges from 15-man operation running on a local area network to operations with a staff complement of up to 100 connecting across a wide area network."
Complexity was heightened by the need to accommodate specific regional requirements such as currency, taxation and local legislation.
"The new system had to be scalable and flexible to cater for specific local needs, and create an integrated environment that would enable rapid deployment of new products and services," says Anver.
AFRS initially evaluated various off-the-shelf solutions, but decided that none of the solutions evaluated would meet its requirements without extensive customisation.
"We chose nVisionIT to help us because of their Microsoft expertise in architecting, developing and deploying Microsoft solutions. NVisionIT had done work within the Alexander Forbes group in the past with the development of a single sign-on solution.
"We now have a leading-edge system with intelligence built in. It`s a one-stop integrated environment running on a single database. We can manage our clients, their products and claims records on one integrated system," says Anver.
The first phase of the project will see the system rolled out to all operations and possibly offered to the AF Risk Services correspondent companies in nine other African countries. It is expected to take two years to complete the roll-out and the developed solution simplifies implementation facilitating rapid roll-out.
"Once completed, we will be the only financial services company with presences across nine different countries in Africa running on a single IT solution. It will add substantial value to our African operations going forward," says Anver.
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