Going to the cloud with SimCorp Dimension®.

In recent years cloud technologies have been gaining traction due to the increase in availability, on-demand scalability, and decentralized access controls.

Firms like SimCorp® have also started gaining traction on and leveraging these advantages by offering their SimCorp SaaS Platform.

Throughout recent releases of SimCorp Dimension®, SimCorp has had a focus on the cloud and has been prioritizing and investing in enhancing cloud-native solutions and services. Cloud enablement and related services were a key focus at the recent SimCorp Global Summit 2023.

Today many SimCorp clients still have SimCorp Dimension installed on-premises, but given the SimCorp Dimension Roadmap and the available cloud technologies, many of these firms have now started to consider the benefits and evaluate what it will take to move the application to the cloud.

Whether to host the application in the cloud with or without a service agreement (-as-a-Service) is typically not just a technical infrastructure evaluation carried out by the IT department, but often a complex company-wide IT strategy decision that also considers the impact on areas like business processes, organizational set-up, support coverage, data access and location, local legislation rules and regulatory requirements as well as the financial implications.

Moving SimCorp Dimension to be a cloud-based solution should therefore not just be an IT exercise but something that has a broader impact on your organization and something that may be a key differentiator for your business going forward.

In this first of three articles, we will outline the key considerations for building a business case for taking SimCorp Dimension to the cloud.

The Business Case

As mentioned above, a cloud transition should not only be seen as an isolated component of the corporate IT strategy but rather it should be viewed as a pillar contributing to futureproofing your business.  IT is often viewed as a cost center, but choosing the appropriate IT strategy can promote business operations and business development, thus creating added value for all parts of the firm. Gaining companywide agreement on corporate guidelines as to what should be managed by the organization and what doesn’t provide value to the business is key. These guidelines can be used as part of the cloud journey.

Cloud hosting thus becomes an accelerator supporting the business strategy, and the IT strategy should likewise include visions for how to incorporate further cloud platforms to provide further business value.

Deciding to make “cloud” a pillar in the corporate IT strategy, implies several necessary considerations. To properly build a business case for the cloud transition, Axxsys recommend that the following aspects be considered:

• Current state of your on-premises platform
  • Including its performance, reliability, security, and costs.
  • What does it do well, and can you retain these solutions in the cloud?
• Upcoming business critical projects
  • Will these be impacted by the cloud transition changing either the timeline, scope, or feasibility.
  • If projects depend on local applications or IT-competencies, how can we ensure compatibility with the future platform?
• Potential risks and challenges of migrating to the cloud
  • Data migration effort
  • System integrations
  • Governance, and regulatory requirements
• Initial estimation of costs and timeline of a migration project
  • How many resources need to be mobilized to facilitate cloud migration?
  • What expertise needs to be mobilized to facilitate cloud migration?
  • What functions should be decommissioned and what is the requirement for up-skilling?
• Business and IT readiness to change workflows and processes.
  • Impact to up and downstream workflows
  • Documentation of key requirements (system landscape, batch, integration analysis as well as documentation of key requirements)
• Key performance indicators (KPIs) of the cloud solution
  • Performance, stability, cost savings, customer satisfaction and risk reduction.
  • Properly defining KPI’s makes it possible to measure the impact of the platform transition and follow up on underperforming aspects
• Expected benefits of moving to a (public) cloud
  • Such as improved efficiency, agility, innovation, scalability and costs.
  • Expectations should be specified and enquired about with the vendor, to ensure an adequate fit to the future operating model

By thoroughly analyzing these aspects, it is possible to build and present a compelling, evidence-based business case for migrating SimCorp Dimension to the cloud. 

Firms should decide whether to adopt a lift-and-shift approach (rehosting), rearchitecting, or rebuilding the application as well as consider the complexity, downtime tolerance, and potential impact on end users during the migration process.

Axxsys can assist in building the business case and gathering benchmarks and best practices from other organizations that have successfully made the transition.

Ultimately, a move of SimCorp Dimension to the cloud can help future proof your operating model and enable your business to benefit from new cloud services, achieving your business goals.

In our second article of three in this series, we discuss the number of strategies for taking your investment platform to the cloud and the important factors to consider when making this decision.

At Axxsys we have extensive knowledge and experience of migrating SimCorp Dimension to the cloud and integrating cloud solutions with SimCorp Dimension across investment managers, so if you would like to know more about how we can support your cloud transition please contact us at info@axxsysconsulting.com

Blog authors:

Jakob Banning, Senior Manager, Axxsys Consulting

Morten Friis, Head of Investment Servicing Technology – UK & ME, Axxsys Consulting