AG2R La Mondiale - How a French Insurer enhances IT governance

Interview with Jean-Pierre Peignier, Head of IT Repositories, AG2R LA MONDIALE

What were the main steps of your project?

We started working with MEGA in 2000 under an initiative to begin mapping our enterprise applications. Two years later, we added business process mapping, which until then had been managed using software that was part of the quality management system we implemented for our ISO 9000/2000 certification.

At the same time, we started thinking about how we could improve our database design. We selected MEGA's solutions to boost our database quality and productivity and increase the visibility of the data we manage. Before, our databases were inconsistent, and we didn't have a comprehensive view of our data.

In 2011, we started developing an Enterprise Data Model (EDM) that we used to design the pivot formats for our services platform. The EDM is based on Prima Solution's IBCS™ model, better known under the ACCOR standard. It helps us design our databases and the application-to-application data transfers (pivot formats) for our services platform (the TIBCO ESB).

That means our services are developed with pivot formats and included in mapping our services platform.

The last step with MEGA has been to migrate all we had developed to the HOPEX platform and move to the web interface.

Because MEGA's enterprise architecture solution was used exclusively to enter data, we can't discuss mapping without mentioning the CASSINI intranet we developed to display our IT system maps. Every month, the intranet gets over 2,600 visits from 530 unique visitors that view 14,500 pages.

What were the challenges you faced and the benefits of working with MEGA?

Setting up a team to independently develop and manage repositories

Since 2000, MEGA has provided us with the proper resources and advisory to build our skills and manage projects requiring specific know-how. We now have a ten-person team – including one MEGA consultant – that works autonomously to manage our IT repositories and develop and maintain our mapping processes.

Introducing IT system mapping to improve transformation projects

Enterprise Architecture plays a crucial role in our company, given the many mergers and acquisitions we have made over the years that have considerably increased the complexity of our IT systems.

Since 2008, application mapping has been a big help in our IT system transformation projects, enabling us to sketch out various functionalities on an IT city plan and identify an effective way to split applications. The EDM and services catalog allows us to structure and rationalize data transfers between existing applications through our services platform. The analysis of our application portfolio with the help of an IT master plan has enabled us to streamline our applications. We mapped some 700 applications using a shared methodology established by grouping application components at a large enough scale to manage them using maps that are not only "readable" by everyone but also give a comprehensive view without necessarily going into the details.

The next step will be to roll out the Archimate modeling standard for architecture views and make the project's initial planning phase easier.

Merging our IT repositories

MEGA's solutions allow us to describe all our architecture layers at both business and IT levels. We imported data that had been modeled on other applications during our various mergers, making MEGA our core system.

Since 2014, we have used MEGA to merge our programs and repositories based on an IT city plan incorporating our applications and technologies. This map sends formal data flows to its client repositories and receives them from its master repositories. It has become a central repository for our operations and IT governance. For instance, when we introduced activity-based costing in 2013, application mapping proved essential for managing costs in our IT department. Costs were grouped along the same lines as our applications, which were included in the mapping. The same groupings were used in our systems for tracking time and calculating infrastructure costs.

Decentralizing updates

We requested thin clients and personalized desktops to make it easier for occasional users of MEGA solutions. We decided to provide users with a web interface developed to our standards and a direct interface to MEGA's solutions through the HOPEX desktop web services.

By decentralizing updates on application mapping (based on a zero training approach), we could increase the number of employees providing information (150 people today) without growing the size of the IT team.

Most of our application portfolio is managed by our IT department. However, with the ongoing digital transformation and emergence of SaaS applications, our business-line staff are getting increasingly involved. These staffs have access to a web interface and can modify the applications they are responsible for.

The next step will be to set up a personalized desktop for staff involved in technology mapping. This is something MEGA is currently developing.

Modernize our business process maps.

When we merged with Réunica in 2015, we used the MEGA Process BPMN solution to implement the IT department's quality management system. Then, we started applying the BPMN method and tools to our corporate-level mapping process to support our new quality assurance policy.

Getting a comprehensive overview of our IT assets

As a result of the many mergers and acquisitions we have made over the years, managing our IT system and transformation has become increasingly complex. MEGA's solutions have given us a comprehensive overview of our IT assets. The solutions were incorporated into our enterprise architecture approach and merged with other repositories, helping us better manage IT infrastructure, operations, and governance.

The main reason mapping was so effective for us is probably because of the excessively complicated nature of our IT systems. But it's also due to our trust in MEGA since 2000, the superior performance of MEGA's platform, and the support from MEGA consultants.

Solutions

• HOPEX IT Architecture
• HOPEX Information Architecture
• HOPEX Business Process Analysis
• HOPEX platform
• MEGA Services Team

About AG2R LA MONDIALE

AG2R LA MONDIALE, France's number 1 social and patrimonial protection group, offers a complete range of products and services for pensions, savings, providence, and health. As a reference player in personal insurance throughout the country, the Group provides private individuals, companies, and industrial sectors with services to protect their health, estates, and incomes, insure them against life's accidents and prepare them for retirement.

A joint mutualistic governance partnership, AG2R LA MONDIALE develops a unique social protection model that closely combines profitability and solidarity, performance, and social engagement. Each year, the Group earmarks almost €100 million to help vulnerable people and support individual and collective sporting initiatives.

Learn more at: www.ag2rlamondiale.fr