MLC Life Insurance, with support from its new parent Nippon Life, is rebuilding its entire technology ecosystem
from the ground up, replacing all the legacy solutions managed by its previous parent, National Australia Bank
(NAB), which remains a 20 percent shareholder.
The transition program to independence has been dubbed sanagi, Japanese for “chrysalis,” the stage between
caterpillar and butterfly.
The new ecosystem will span everything from base-level infrastructure for data, networks, and security; business
systems for managing human capital, general accounting, payroll, and tax; and insurance-focused solutions for
legacy Policy Administration Systems (PAS), inbound/outbound communications, and records management.
“This is an exciting time, and a landmark for us as a company,” says Sean McCormack, Chief Operating Officer of
MLC Life Insurance. “Nippon Life is committed to making sure that we’re able to support our customers efficiently
with digital solutions, and so they are setting us up almost as a greenfield company.”
In late 2016, MLC Life Insurance began a comprehensive and rigorous Request For Proposal (RFP) sourcing
process that included technology providers worldwide. The shortlisted vendors were asked to participate in a
proof-of-concept phase to evaluate the products as well as the subject-matter experts to be assigned to the project.
Next, a contingent of MLC Life Insurance executives visited the customer sites of the shortlisted vendors to learn
about their experiences. “The customer references gave us a strong sense that TCS knows what it takes to deliver a
data migration at the scale we require,” says Sean.
“We also felt encouraged by the partnership approach that TCS demonstrated when working with its customers,”
adds Sean. “We want to work in a partnership where we understand what’s important to each other and are
committed to each other’s mutual success.”
In May 2017, MLC Life Insurance awarded a nine-year, $65m+ AUD contract to TCS, for the implementation,
migration, and support of TCS BaNCS as the insurer’s primary PAS.
“This will be the biggest life insurance transition program in Australian history, and TCS’ wealth of experience in
large-scale migrations and the modern, flexible application TCS BaNCS gave us confidence that they would be the
best partner for MLC Life Insurance,” says Fiona Guscott, Head of Policy Administration Systems, MLC Life Insurance.
“The expertise and knowledge of the individuals we have worked with, both in Melbourne and offshore, has been
extremely impressive, and we are very confident that together we will successfully deliver this program which will
see MLC Life Insurance leading our industry in Australia.”
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