A new data platform based on Microsoft Azure is helping Belfius boost operational efficiency, while also enabling faster decision-making and greater innovation. LACO supported the initiative by guiding the process analysis, coaching employees, and leveraging its in-depth knowledge of the Belgian financial sector to facilitate the migration as a local partner.

Belfius is a Belgian banking and insurance group with approximately 3.8 million customers across Belgian society and its economy. Over the years, the group has built a long history with on-premises technology. However, evolving business and technological demands prompted Belfius to reassess its existing environment.

The platform was gradually reaching its limits and could no longer support the demands of their future data ambitions.

This came at a time when the Belfius group was already embarking on a broader transition of their actual technological infrastructure. The IT architecture team was working on strategy with Microsoft Azure cloud as one of the central platforms. “It made sense to include the data platform in that exercise,” says Tom Bisschop, Program Manager ICT Data & Reporting at Belfius Insurance. “After all, the ultimate goal was to develop a future-proof data platform for both the bank and the insurance division.”

After reviewing its options, Belfius concluded that on-premise was not the best solution any more for their needs. “Partly because we are currently seeing a rapid evolution in data usage,” continues Tom, “it quickly became clear that, given our plans, Microsoft Azure would offer us many more possibilities.”

This decision also repositioned LACO within Belfius. While LACO had long been responsible for implementation and support the on-premise data platform, the company has also built strong expertise in Azure in recent years. “LACO made it clear that we were far from the only company considering the move to Azure,” says Tom. “That gave us confidence that we could continue to rely on LACO for this new chapter in our technological journey.”

The first challenge was to establish a solid foundation in Azure for both the banking and insurance businesses. “We began by drawing up a comprehensive business case and defining a clear Cloud Adoption Strategy,” explains Tom. From there, LACO and Belfius developed a phased roadmap for migrating the on-premise data platform to Azure. This included designing a robust architecture and setting up a scalable data platform framework, supported by a thorough security assessment and an accompanying approach.

Next, Belfius and LACO launched a pilot with a small selection of applications. “By migrating those applications to Azure Synapse, we were able to gain valuable hands-on experience.” And through hands-on coaching and training, LACO familiarized Belfius with Spark and Python so that they could continue building on the new platform themselves.

The pilot took some of the pressure off the overall project. “We didn’t have to rush things,” says Tom. Once the pilot proved successful, Belfius accelerated the migration of the entire environment. “LACO’s specific experience with our insurance business was a major added value. We rewrote outdated components for the new Azure environment, which relies on Spark and Python. LACO played an important role in the associated analysis.”

LACO closely monitored the new framework’s performance. This proved to be a key consideration, and it was also a major departure from the old on-premises setup. When working on-premises, the amount of computing power is inherently limited by the available hardware. In the cloud, computing power is unlimited, but of course it comes at a price. LACO succeeded in striking the right balance between performance and cost. The solution on Azure Synapse is now faster than the previous on-premises environment, illustrating how LACO succeeded in elevating Belfius’s cloud maturity while keeping costs under control.

Employee coaching also proved critical to the project’s success. Migrating to a completely new platform brings significant change. “It’s never easy to let go of a familiar environment,” says Tom. “LACO addressed employees’ questions with targeted coaching and acted as a bridge between departments. That approach made it clear that ultimately everyone benefits from the shift to Azure.”

With the migration, LACO played an important role in a key objective for Belfius: a future-proof data platform. “Self-service capabilities will increase significantly,” Tom notes. “The business now has more flexibility without having to call in the IT department at every turn.” This eliminates a significant amount of grunt work for the IT department.

In addition, insurance and banking now share a single data platform. “This means greater efficiency and allows us to roll out new data capabilities more easily to all data users, while also complying with all legal and regulatory requirements.” With the new data platform, Belfius is now in a strong position to fully – and rapidly – dedicate itself to innovation, including AI.