Introduction 

In today’s fast-evolving insurance landscape, moving to a modern core system is not just about upgrading technology—it’s about transforming operations, boosting efficiency, and improving the overall customer experience. For Property & Casualty (P&C) insurers and Managing General Agents (MGAs), the migration of policy data is one of the most critical aspects of a core system transition. However, the process is riddled with complexities that demand careful planning, advanced tools, and robust strategies. In this article, we explore the challenges of data migration, compare different migration approaches, and examine why visibility is key to success, all while highlighting how Ogon Consulting’s unique Spitfire tool stands apart from traditional methodologies.

The Foundation of a Successful Migration: Data Integrity and Quality

When it comes to data migration, one adage holds true: “Garbage in, garbage out.” For carriers and MGAs, ensuring data integrity is paramount. Legacy systems are often a patchwork of years—if not decades—of accumulated data. This data may contain duplications, inconsistencies, and incomplete records that were acceptable in the legacy environment but could spell disaster in a modern system.

Data Quality Challenges:

• Data Mapping: Once the data is clean, it must be accurately mapped to the new system’s schema. Legacy systems might use outdated coding structures or proprietary data formats that need translation into modern, standardized data structures.
• Historical Data Issues: Over the years, data may have been entered under different standards or regulatory environments. Migrating this historical data requires a deep understanding of its context and potential discrepancies.
• Data Cleansing: A critical step in a successful migration involves cleaning the existing data. This means identifying and correcting errors, removing duplicates, and standardizing data formats.

Ensuring data quality isn’t just about technical accuracy—it’s about preserving the integrity of policy information that directly affects pricing, underwriting, and claims processing. Poor data quality can lead to misinformed decisions, financial losses, and reputational damage.

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Approaches to Migration: On-Renewal vs. Big Bang

Two primary migration strategies dominate the landscape: on-renewal (phased) and big bang migrations. Each has its advantages and drawbacks, and the choice often depends on a carrier’s specific needs, risk tolerance, and operational readiness.

On-Renewal (Phased) Migration

In an on-renewal or phased migration, policy data is gradually migrated as policies come up for renewal. This approach spreads the workload over time, which can reduce risk and allow the new system to stabilize gradually.

Advantages:

• Lower Immediate Risk: Migrating a small batch of policies at a time allows IT teams to focus on resolving issues incrementally.
• Continued Operation: Legacy and new systems can run concurrently, ensuring that there’s always a fallback option.
• Gradual Transition: A phased approach enables organizations to manage and mitigate the risks associated with large-scale migration. Each successful renewal builds confidence in the new system.
• Cleaner Migration: One of the key advantages of this approach is that it results in the cleanest migrated data. Only the specific data elements required to generate the renewal policy are migrated to the new system, which in turn triggers the billing module to create the corresponding account setup. This ensures that most aspects of the policy and account are generated natively within the new system, reducing the risk of data inconsistencies.

Disadvantages:

• Dual System Complexity: Running two systems concurrently can increase operational complexity. Integration between the old and new systems must be seamless to avoid data discrepancies.
• Extended Timelines: A complete migration might take up to 12 months if the majority of policies are not up for renewal in the short term.
• Resource Allocation: Continuous synchronization between systems may require additional resources and continuous monitoring.

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Big Bang Migration

A big bang migration involves transferring all data from the legacy system to the new platform in a single, orchestrated effort. This approach is often seen as a way to quickly cut over to a modern system.

Advantages:

• Rapid Transition: The entire organization moves to the new system at once, which can simplify long-term planning and eliminate the need to support two systems concurrently.
• Immediate Benefits: Once the migration is complete, all users are operating on the new system, allowing for full-scale adoption of new features and capabilities.

Disadvantages:

• High Risk: If something goes wrong during a big bang migration, the impact is significant. Any errors or oversights can affect the entire dataset, potentially leading to widespread operational disruptions.
• Limited Testing: With a one-off migration, there’s less opportunity for iterative testing and improvement. Any issues discovered post-migration can be challenging to address quickly.
• Change Management: Organizational change is more pronounced when everyone is forced to adapt to a new system all at once.

For many carriers, the decision between on-renewal and big bang migrations depends on their operational structure and tolerance for risk. We’ve seen more carriers choose the on-renewal migration.  A slowed adoption of the new core systems give internal teams the opportunity to learn, to compare to the old system and to ensure all aspects of the migration are running smoothly throughout the period.  In the property and casualty space, it is rare that policy terms are longer than 12 months, so this also limits the timeframe of the migration to 12 months. By the time legacy systems are ready to be “turned off” carriers can have the confidence their internal teams are well trained and ready to support their entire book of business on their new systems.  

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The Debate Over Claims Data Migration

While policy data migration is critical, the decision to migrate claims data is even more complex. Claims data, unlike policy data, often represents a vast historical archive with varying degrees of relevance to current operations.

Reasons to Migrate Claims Data:

• Unified Data Source: Migrating claims data along with policy data can offer a single, consolidated view of all operations, potentially improving analytics and customer service.
• Regulatory Compliance: For some carriers, having all historical claims data in the new system is necessary for meeting regulatory requirements or for audit purposes. The requirement to retain the historical data is also dependent on the statute of limitations.

Reasons Against Migrating Claims Data:

• Volume and Complexity: Claims data can be voluminous and complex, often including unstructured information that is difficult to convert accurately.
• Cost Implications: The cost and effort required to migrate all historical claims may not be justified if most of the data will rarely be accessed or used in daily operations.
• Performance Issues: Migrating large volumes of data can slow down the new system, affecting performance and operational efficiency.
• Reporting Challenges:  Depending on the data schema and reporting structure of the new system, it may be very difficult to report on historical claims data, limiting the value of the migration.

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Best Practice Claims Data Migrations:  

At Ogon, we’ve seen three hybrid approaches to Claim’s Data Migration.  

Active/Open Claims Migration - only open or active claims are migrated into the new system (after the policy has renewed and migrated).  This limits the complexity of migrating historical claims data and ensures only claims that may be needed in the new system are actually migrated.  

Ad Hoc Claims Migration - through Ogon’s Proprietary SpitFire Data Migration Platform, specific claims data can be migrated at the push of a button. The system can be set up to migrate only the claims data that a carrier team chooses to migrate during business activities.  This significantly limits the total amount and complexity of the claims data and only migrates the claims your team has determined need to be migrated. Any data challenges can be resolved through the visibility provided by the SpitFire platform, allowing Carriers to have deeper control and insights into the success of their migrations.  

Retaining Historical Claims in the Legacy System
A common strategy adopted by most carriers is to retain both open and historical claims data within the legacy system, while enabling the capability to initiate new claims on legacy policy terms within the new system.

This hybrid approach offers a cost-effective solution to managing claims migration, as it minimizes the need to fully migrate complex historical claims data. However, its success depends on the carrier’s ability to maintain access to, and generate reports from, the legacy system for operational and regulatory needs.

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The Importance of Visibility: Learning from Past Failures

One of the most common reasons data migrations fail is the “black box” nature of many legacy migration tools. Without full transparency, IT teams are left in the dark about the status of the migration. This lack of visibility can lead to significant delays, unresolved data discrepancies, and, in the worst cases, a complete migration failure.

Real-World Lessons:
Consider a case where a mid-sized carrier attempted a big bang migration using an external team with tools that offered little insight into the data conversion process. Detailed error logs were managed by the external team and there were no real-time dashboards for the carrier to monitor progress, leaving the IT team unaware of critical mismatches and missing data. This created an unnecessarily laborious migration that ultimately benefited the third-party because the laborious process translated to more hours which ultimately translates to more dollars for their project. The delayed “go-live” was based on multiple instances of the carrier discovering thousands of incomplete policy records at the 11th hour. These are extremely costly risks that are common without the needed visibility across all parties. This example underscores the need for a migration process where every step is transparent and issues can be identified and resolved promptly.

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Ogon Consulting vs. Traditional Approaches

When evaluating data migration partners, understanding the differences between traditional vendor models and Ogon Consulting's approach is crucial. While many traditional providers operate under models that inadvertently shift more risk and responsibility onto the client, Ogon prioritizes full accountability and clear client benefits. Below we explore how these approaches differ in key aspects:

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Traditional Vendor Approach

Staff Augmentation Model: Typically, traditional vendors employ a staff augmentation approach, billing clients on a per-associate, per-week basis. While straightforward, this arrangement can quickly lead to escalating costs if complexities arise or timelines extend. Under this model, any unforeseen challenges during migration directly translate into increased costs, placing the financial risk squarely on the client.

Client-Managed ETL Environment: Additionally, traditional vendors frequently require clients to establish and manage a separate staging environment for the Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) processes. Responsibility for maintaining this ETL environment, managing data transformations, and troubleshooting issues falls directly to the client's internal IT teams. Consequently, the client bears the operational burden and risk associated with any ETL-related problems that arise during migration.

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Ogon's Approach

Full Accountability: Ogon takes complete responsibility for managing the entire migration lifecycle—from initial planning and execution to final user acceptance testing. This comprehensive management model significantly reduces the client's operational burden. Clients only need limited engagement from their internal subject matter experts, freeing up valuable resources to focus on core business activities.

Turnkey Data Migration Management: Ogon eliminates the need for clients to maintain a separate staging environment by integrating and managing the entire migration process within its proprietary Spitfire platform. This turnkey approach reduces complexity and mitigates potential errors, providing a streamlined, reliable migration experience.

Enhanced Visibility with Spitfire: Clients benefit from real-time insights and complete transparency into each stage of the migration process through Spitfire's intuitive dashboard. This enhanced visibility allows for proactive monitoring, swift issue detection, and timely resolution—critical components of a successful data migration.

Deep Insurance Domain Expertise: Leveraging extensive experience with modern core systems such as InsuranceNow, Ogon ensures that all necessary configurations, rules, and workflows associated with migrated policies are optimized for operational efficiency. Ogon's specialized knowledge of insurance data nuances helps ensure the new system effectively meets business requirements.

Predictable Cost Structure: By assuming full accountability for migration projects, Ogon minimizes the risk of cost overruns stemming from unforeseen complications. Clients benefit from a predictable cost structure, facilitating more accurate budgeting and a smoother, more efficient migration process overall.

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Migration Visibility: Spitfire vs Black Box Approach

When evaluating migration tools, the contrast between traditional “black box” methods and Ogon Consulting’s approach becomes evident. Traditional vendors offer accelerators that, while effective in theory, leave much of the process opaque. With this approach, carriers might receive only summary reports, forcing them to trust that all data was transferred correctly without the means to verify it in real-time.

Key Advantages of Spitfire:        

• Platform Agnostic: Spitfire is designed to work across multiple systems, whether it’s transitioning from legacy systems like IMT or BriteCore and moving to a modern core system such as InsuranceNow. This flexibility is critical in an industry with a wide range of technologies.
• Real-Time Visibility: One of the standout features of Spitfire is its live dashboard that provides a granular view of the migration process. Every step—from data extraction to transformation and loading—is visible, ensuring that potential issues are flagged as they occur.
• Error Resolution: Instead of discovering errors post-migration, Spitfire allows IT teams to monitor and address issues in real-time. This proactive approach minimizes the risk of large-scale failures and ensures a smoother transition.
• User-Friendly Interface: For executives and operations teams, having a clear, easy-to-understand interface that communicates the status of the migration can build confidence in the process. Spitfire’s design ensures that even non-technical stakeholders can grasp what is happening behind the scenes.

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A Plan for Legacy Data

Another key consideration for carriers is the management of legacy data post-migration. Instead of continuing to pay for licensing fees on outdated systems, carriers can transition legacy data into a dedicated data warehouse. This approach allows organizations to retain access to historical records for the required regulatory period without incurring ongoing operational costs. A data warehouse provides a cost-effective, scalable solution that ensures compliance, supports advanced analytics, and can serve as a reliable source for audit and regulatory inquiries. Additionally, by decoupling legacy data from live systems, carriers reduce system complexity and free up resources to focus on optimizing their new core platforms.

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Strategies for a Successful Data Migration

Given the complexities involved, what steps can carriers and MGAs take to ensure a successful migration?

1. Early Data Assessment:
   Begin with a thorough audit of the existing data. Identify quality issues, redundancies, and potential challenges in data mapping. An early assessment can inform whether a phased approach or a big bang migration is more appropriate. A partner like Ogon can be leveraged to support this data assessment. 
   
   
2. Define Clear Objectives:
   Establish what success looks like. Is the goal to simply transfer data, or is it to improve data quality and operational efficiency? Having clear objectives ensures that every stakeholder is aligned.
   
   
3. Invest in Transparency Tools:
   Utilize migration tools that offer real-time visibility. A tool like Spitfire can provide the necessary oversight to detect and resolve issues quickly, reducing the risk of errors that can derail the entire process.
   
   
4. Test Rigorously:
   Before “Go Live”, conduct comprehensive testing, both by internal teams and through a preferred testing partner. Use parallel runs and pilot migrations to validate data accuracy and system performance. This testing phase is critical to uncover hidden issues.
   
   
5. Change Management and Training:
   Ensure that all teams—IT, operations, and business units—are prepared for the transition. Training sessions and clear communication plans can help mitigate resistance and ensure a smooth adoption of the new system.
   
   
6. Plan for Claims Data:
   Evaluate the necessity of migrating historical claims data. If possible, consider a hybrid approach where only active or open claims are migrated, or better yet, a real-time tool that allows the ad hoc migration of any specific claims with closed claims archived but accessible for compliance and audit purposes.
   
   
7. Select the Right Migration Partner:
   Most carriers rely on third-party experts to navigate the intricate process of data migration. Choosing the right partner is crucial. An experienced partner brings not only technical expertise but also deep industry knowledge that can anticipate potential pitfalls. Ogon Consulting offers a combination of domain expertise and cutting-edge technology through its Spitfire platform. This collaboration ensures that data migration is managed with precision—from planning through execution—while maintaining complete transparency. A strong partner can turn a challenging migration into a strategic advantage, reducing risks and ensuring a smooth transition.
   
   

Conclusion

Transitioning to a modern core system represents a significant opportunity for carriers and MGAs to transform their operations. However, the journey is complex, especially when it comes to migrating policy and claims data. Data quality, accurate mapping, and a clear strategy for either phased or big bang migrations are all critical elements. Yet, perhaps the most important factor is visibility.

Avoid traditional “black box” migrations that leave organizations in the dark, increasing the risk of undetected errors and operational failures. Instead, select a partner that can deliver real-time insight into every step of the process, enabling proactive issue resolution and building confidence among IT leadership, executives, and operations teams. Ogon would love to be that partner!  

In summary, a successful data migration is not just about moving information—it’s about transforming the way organizations operate. With the right approach and the right partner, insurers can turn a daunting challenge into a strategic advantage.