Hitachi, Ltd. (hereafter, Hitachi) has migrated the core system of Secom General Insurance Co., Ltd. (hereafter, Secom General Insurance) from its current mainframe to a private cloud*1, and has now completed the construction of a new environment.
In this migration project, Hitachi, which has many years of experience and knowledge of financial systems, has taken stock of current mainframe programs by utilizing the migration service*2, which has supported platform migration for many customers until now, and has slimmed down the programs to be migrated. As a result, efficient, safe, and reliable migration has been realized.
After that, Hitachi carried out 24-hour system operation monitoring in the new environment over a fixed period of time, and implemented immediate response while determining the business impact along with SECOM General Insurance. As a result, stable operation was achieved without affecting operations, and the long-term migration project, which began in October 2021, was completed as originally planned.
Going forward, in addition to many years of experience, Hitachi will utilize the knowledge and know-how gained through this migration project to support the migration, modernization, and even DX promotion of customers working on mission-critical system migration projects, starting with financial institutions.

backgrounds

In recent years, many domestic companies have faced issues such as increasing the cost and lengthening of system development due to program bloating/blackboxing on existing mainframes, restrictions on data utilization due to digital transformation (DX), and aging mainframe engineers.
Secom Assurance also faced similar issues because the current core system for managing policyholders' contract information etc. has been operating on the mainframe for over 30 years. Therefore, SECOM Sompo Insurance is considering the next system concept in order to radically resolve these issues and promote DX. As a first step, Hitachi began a migration project to a private cloud in October 2021 with the aim of solving issues faced by SECOM Sompo Insurance.

Features of this project

(1) Efficient, safe, and reliable migration using Hitachi migration services

In this migration, we have realized an efficient, safe, and reliable migration by utilizing the two main functions of Hitachi's migration service, which has many years of experience in platform migration support.
First, program calls/job flow/screen transition information that was conventionally blackboxed on mainframes was analyzed using a program specification visualization service*3 that integrates Hitachi's know-how, and carried out an inventory of programs on existing mainframes. As a result, it became possible to identify non-working programs, etc., and the scale of programs subject to migration was reduced by about half.
Second, through migrability analysis, the characteristics of the program in the core system of SECOM General Insurance were taken into account, the accuracy of migration methods and tools was improved, and optimal migration work was carried out.

(2) Stable operation in Hitachi's private cloud environment

Even after the above migration, over a certain period of time, Hitachi achieved stable operation for approximately half a year without affecting operations by providing 24-hour system operation monitoring in the new environment and immediate response while determining business impact along with SECOM General Insurance.
With these stable operations, Secom Assurance has made it possible to enjoy advantages such as utilizing the latest technology assuming a cloud environment and improving system expandability in addition to solving issues related to securing mainframe engineers. As a result of these, it is now possible to advance the next system concept currently being examined to the next step in order to resolve issues such as maintainability and promptness during insurance product development and restrictions on DX conversion.

Future Initiatives

Hitachi will continue to support the implementation of SECOM Sompo Insurance's next system concept and resolution of issues. Furthermore, the knowledge and know-how obtained by realizing stable operation in SECOM Sompo Insurance's migration projects and the experience we have cultivated over many years will be deployed horizontally to customers in a wide range of industries, starting with financial institutions, and will contribute to customer value creation through modernization and DX promotion.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi is promoting social innovation projects that realize a sustainable society through data and technology. We solve customer and social issues through Lumada solutions that utilize IT, OT (control/operation technology), and products under a three-sector business system: “digital systems & services” that support customer DX; “green energy & mobility” that contributes to the realization of a decarbonized society through energy and railways; and “Connected Industries,” which digitally connects products in a wide range of industries and provides solutions . Driven by digital, green, and innovation, we aim for growth through co-creation with customers. Sales revenue for the three sectors for fiscal year 2023 (fiscal year ending 2024/3) was 8,564.3 billion yen, and as of the end of March 2024, there are 573 consolidated subsidiaries and approximately 270,000 employees worldwide.

Contact information

Hitachi, Ltd. Financial Systems Sales Management Division [Person in Charge: Chiba/Takashima]
1-6-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8220