How Storebrand transformed finance with a bold leap into cloud modernisation

About Storebrand

They recognised the imperative to modernise to meet evolving customer demands and secure their leading position.

The Challenge

Storebrand operated with ageing infrastructure, including outdated servers from the 1990s and 2000s, originally housed on-premise. The old, outdated hardware limited innovation and increased operational costs.

This technical debt hindered their agility and ability to offer the services their customers increasingly wanted, like real-time data access. They also faced limitations with data access and sharing. Indeed, their systems were not designed for modern API integrations or seamless connections with third parties. 

The Goal

Storebrand aimed to modernise its IT infrastructure to remain at the forefront of the financial industry. Their objective was not merely to cut costs but to unlock new opportunities. They desired to provide customers with on-demand data access, enable API integrations, and create a flexible, scalable platform for future growth.

Ultimately, Storebrand wanted to lead the digital transformation of finance, ensuring they could meet and exceed customer expectations securely and efficiently.

The Solution

Storebrand started its partnership with Devoteam in 2020 to embark on a significant modernisation journey, choosing the Microsoft platform for its cloud solutions. 

They recognised that moving to the cloud was inevitable and decided to be proactive rather than reactive. By transitioning to cloud infrastructure, they could create modern data platforms and enable API integrations, addressing the core limitations of their legacy systems. This strategic shift allowed customers to subscribe to and manipulate their data, providing a level of service previously unattainable. The process involved a strategic plan for migrating and standardising technology choices, supported by Devoteam’s methodology, to ensure a smooth transition. 

By investing in the Microsoft platform and standardising tech choices, Storebrand quickly got its cloud infrastructure online. It also retrained its people.

Technical Highlights

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) as a core shift:

This allows to provision automatically environments for new programs and functions in minutes, rather than months. This is a fundamental change in infrastructure provisioning. Infrastructure as Code enables consistent, repeatable, and version-controlled deployment of infrastructure through automated scripts. It helps reduce manual errors while improving scalability and collaboration across development teams.

Standardised Azure Solution:

The infrastructure now runs as a completely clean and standardised Azure solution, straight out of the box and without third-party providers on top.

The Methodology

Devoteam and Storebrand adopted a methodology focused on strategic planning, careful execution, and ongoing optimisation. Like eating an elephant one bite at a time, this massive digital transformation project was broken down into manageable sprints through an agile methodology that enabled close collaboration between Devoteam’s experts and Storebrand’s own employees.

• They started by assessing existing systems and identifying key areas for improvement.
• The methodology included setting up advanced dashboards, creating test environments or “sandboxes” for trialling new technologies
• Devoteam provided extensive communication and training to ensure everyone was on board.
• Regular demos, courses, and certifications to upskill staff and foster a culture of engagement and innovation.

Each sprint represented another “bite” of the elephant, allowing the teams to tackle complex challenges systematically while maintaining momentum and ensuring that no aspect of the transformation was overwhelming. This iterative approach meant that progress was visible, measurable, and sustainable throughout the entire project lifecycle.

This achievement established Storebrand as the world’s first asset management company to completely migrate its entire infrastructure to Azure, positioning it as a global trailblazer in cloud-first asset management transformation.

The modernisation project yielded substantial results for Storebrand. There was a 3-4 percent overnight increase in stock prices following the announcement. More significantly, Storebrand enabled customers to subscribe to and manipulate their data, which was previously impossible.

Thanks to cloud automation, they achieved better cost allocation for IT development, where departments were billed only for what they used. It was found that the organisation had many more systems than thought, with the real number being far greater than initially assumed. Internally, IT resources were aggregated, enabling cross-functional work and creating “full control”. The result was also better attracting tech talent using a modern tech stack. This new model is a platform for innovation, allowing Storebrand to drive business faster and reduce the time to market.

Storebrand transformed from operating an outdated IT system to having a fully automated cloud environment. Their work environment changed, and it became easier to attract talent. Financial analysts even started to write code, further enhancing their agility. Storebrand now “holds the rope at both ends”, meaning they have full control and can execute their vision quickly and efficiently.

The cloud solution’s flexibility and Devoteam’s expertise ensured that the transformation remained aligned with Storebrand’s goals. Early success indicators included positive market reactions, with stock prices rising following the announcement of the modernisation and internal feedback from staff, noting the seamless transition to the new system. Bloomberg later confirmed they were one of the most advanced users globally using their BQuant Enterprise system in the cloud.

Central to effective modernisation is robust data management; explore the capabilities of the Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform in supporting such transformations.