RE-THINKING SKANDIA’S DATA PLATFORM TO MATCH REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS

Compliance pushed Swedish financial & insurance company Skandia from on-premise data solutions to a cloud-based data platform.

Agile Data Engine set the technological foundation for the data platform, securing regulatory reporting and bringing higher data quality, as well as efficiency through modern data workflows.

Skandia is a leading financial and insurance services provider in Sweden, with a history dating back to 1855. Around 2 million customers rely on their pension, healthcare insurance, consumer loan, and mortgage solutions.

ON-PREMISE TO CLOUD

Previously, Skandia's data-intensive business ran on on-premise technology platforms, which posed challenges to data quality and security. In 2020, Skandia reached out to Agile Data Engine (back then part of Solita) for help in designing and building a foundation for their future cloud data warehouse and data architecture.

With Agile Data Engine in place, we have more confidence and trust than ever in our data accuracy, when it comes to our required regulatory reporting.

Carl Schnackenburg

Head of Data & Analytics, Skandia

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE DRIVING THE SHIFT TO CLOUD-BASED DATA PLATFORM

The main reason for this fundamental shift away from on-premise solutions was compliance with strict regulatory obligations in the finance & insurance field. Evolving requirements create a need to react and adjust quickly when new laws and governmental factors come into play.

At the same time, the move from on-premise to cloud data presented an opportunity to look further down the road and assess what kind of data architecture would serve Skandia for years to come. Other cloud advantages, like dramatic acceleration of development work, better scalability, and automation of reporting processes, were an additional incentive to start setting up and implementing a new cloud-based data platform.

BUILDING DATA CAPABILITIES
ON TOP OF A DATAOPS PLATFORM

Following an evaluation process, Skandia chose Agile Data Engine’s DataOps platform as the central component in their data architecture. They identified ADE as a solution that would provide benefits for renewing both the technological capabilities and their ways of working in data development. Agile Data Engine was also considered to support their extensive data program, eventually leading to the renewal of Skandia’s entire backend.

The implementation of ADE built the foundation for a data architecture that includes a data catalog to which all of the customer’s metadata is gathered. The aim was to automate data development and deployment pipelines with everything that goes into data warehouse solution packages.

Agile Data Engine has delivered us a completely unified approach. With the DataOps platform, we don’t need to connect various tools or implementations for data streams and processes to work together.

Carl Schnackenburg

Head of Data & Analytics, Skandia

BENEFITS ACHIEVED WITH AGILE DATA ENGINE

Agile Data Engine is the foundation that supports efficient data development and operations and at the same time brings improvements to their data quality and traceability. In addition, it helps Skandia to tap into timely data in creating new services and increasing the value of their data asset.

Increased data development efficiency and faster time-to-value.

More frequent feedback cycle with continuous, iterative deployments.

Increased value of the data asset and the opportunity to build new services on top of data.

Traceability, improved data quality, and full audit trail of all data.

Fast adoption and improved data capabilities with ADE’s training solutions, materials, and courses.

DATA QUALITY AND TRACEABILITY
SECURED REGULATORY REPORTING

Going back to the original driver of the change, ADE helped Skandia secure accurate and frictionless regulatory reporting, which is a precondition for business continuity.

“We’re able to showcase this improved data quality to auditors whenever needed, due to the increased traceability. While this is the first of many modernised implementations we are planning, for us at Skandia it’s also critical that ADE is helping us to ensure proper regulatory reporting.” - Carl Schnackenburg

ADDED VALUE FROM MODERN, EFFICIENT WAYS OF WORKING

With Agile Data Engine, Skandia got more than just the technology. The DataOps platform has played an important part in improving processes and helping Skandia’s developers build new competencies. The result is nothing short of a cultural shift, where ADE drives change that comes with a resilient architecture, allowing for agile ways of working and efficient scalability.

True agility is about creating value continuously, in small increments and iterations. With Agile Data Engine, new data content and changes to the data warehouse can be deployed continuously in small pieces. The whole data architecture is built in an evolutionary way, based on shared design rules and metadata-driven automation.

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We’re not done with the full implementation just yet, but we’re getting there. This will take our regulatory reporting to another level, ensuring the process is more efficient, secure, and traceable. That traceability is crucial for our regulatory reporting and is something we’ve been aiming for.

Carl Schnackenburg

Head of Data & Analytics, Skandia

POSITIVE IMPACT CARRYING OVER
LONG INTO THE FUTURE

This new DataOps paradigm has clarified to Skandia how a DataOps platform differs from traditional data warehouse automation solutions, and what it makes possible in terms of extracting value from the data platform.

Some of the customer’s mainframe systems date back decades, and legacy data platforms need to be regularly updated. Shifting their data and workloads to a new and modern cloud-based platform will ease these burdens in the future.

INSPIRED BY THIS SUCCESS STORY?

Do you face growing pressure from industry regulation? Looking for efficiency in your data workflows? Send us a message!

Let’s chart your course to compliance and improved data quality – without the extra headaches.