Introduction
Founded in 1945, Co-operators is a leading Canadian financial services co-operative that offers multi-line insurance and investment products, services, and advice. The company is headquartered in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
Alchemy is one of Co-operators’ System Integration (SI) partners and have, to date, undertaken work in various areas of the organization. Most recently, Alchemy successfully assisted Co-operators with their migration to the Guidewire Cloud Platform (GWCP).
The plaudits received from their C-level directors on how well the migration ran like clockwork demonstrates what Alchemy can achieve, even being fully remote due to the Covid restrictions on travel.
The challenge Co-operators were facing
Co-operators had been using the same version of Guidewire for more than 10 years and had a vast amount of data and reports. The successful migration to the Guidewire Cloud Platform (GWCP) required clear roles, controls, and processes.
Why Co-operators Chose Alchemy
Alchemy was already working on a number of projects with Co-operators when we were asked to support the existing Program team with Deployment Readiness.
Alchemy demonstrated how we would integrate with the team and our diligent approach to the upgrade and documentation is what set us apart from other SIs.
How Alchemy Responded
Alchemy demonstrated how a successful Deployment Readiness team should work by introducing governance, documenting the processes, interacting with the business and technical team, and ensuring that the migration would go to plan with the minimum amount of downtime to the business.
Key to any successful project is communication and this was executed by keeping all stakeholders well informed of progress at every step of the project from start to finish.
The Results
Any business that has ever undertaken a large migration / upgrade will appreciate the complexities that are involved with a project of this magnitude.
The following documents were created and shared to ensure the governance and scope of the project was understood by everyone:
• Deployment Strategy
• Deployment Plan
• Deployment Gantt
• Runbook / Rollout Plan
• Roll-back Plan
• Fall-Forward Plan
• Communication Plan
• Command Centre Plan (for deployment weekend)
• Warranty Command Centre (for post-live defect management)
• Dress Rehearsals
• Readiness Assessments (90d, 60d, 30d, 14d, 7d & 5d)
The project was completed over a holiday weekend and completed on-time with more than 270 stakeholders being informed of progress every three hours via an update email template.
Contact Alchemy Today
Don't miss out on the opportunity to leverage the knowledge and experience of the Alchemy team to strengthen your product and drive growth. Reach out to us at info@alchemytechs.com to discuss how we can get involved in your projects and take them to the next level. Let's collaborate towards a bright and successful future!