Creating a flexible cloud infrastructure for Zurich Santander

Zurich Santander — an insurance company that operates in Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina with a network of 5,600 branches — has revolutionized its IT functionality with Microsoft Azure and KPMG.

With the challenges of adapting to new ways of working and new technologies, Zurich Santander needed agile IT management and flexible cloud infrastructure deployment that facilitates innovation while adhering to the regulatory complexities of a multinational organization.

Before its transformation, Zurich Santander was structured in silos, which resulted in less agile collaboration between countries and long response times when trying to deliver innovative IT solutions.

The answer: KPMG’s Cloud Transformation Services (CTS) framework to create a Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE) – a wide-ranging platform that enabled two key digital transformation solutions.

Zurich Santander engaged KPMG in Spain to help them implement the operational models and skills it needed to reap the benefits of modern cloud capabilities and transform its IT systems. As a result, Zurich Santander has been able to increase productivity, improve its internal processes and transform the customer experience.

A team of professionals from Zurich Santander and KPMG worked together to share knowledge and facilitate on-the-job learning to kickstart the CCoE. With KPMG’s help, Zurich Santander was able to stand up a secure CCoE in three months and deliver the foundational Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure needed to support business growth.

“Our approach involved understanding Zurich Santander's needs and then visualizing the right cloud model,” says Joaquin Ubeda, Director at KPMG in Spain. “We started small and adapted the model by working iteratively and tackling quick wins. The end result is an autonomous CCoE, which is managed and operated by the client.”

By using KPMG’s CTS framework, this project covered the complex data, infrastructure and processes associated with a digital transformation project of this nature. This framework is a roadmap for success that leverages KPMG’s deep digital transformation knowledge.

KPMG delivered two cloud-based solutions around shared data services and digital back-office transformation. By removing internal barriers, Zurich Santander improved several areas of the business, including:

• increased transparency surrounding internal processes (mitigating IT-associated risks)
• improved response time to deliver infrastructure (creating the capability to deploy an Azure environment in hours)
• enhanced ability to automate and reuse the infrastructure service catalogue and patterns (reducing silos and encouraging collaboration)
• strengthened knowledge management and performance (increasing productivity and overall results)
  

This project is just one example of how KPMG and Microsoft are helping businesses find digital transformation solutions that address challenges and roadblocks in an increasingly complex environment.