Legacy Migration

corporate benefits is Europe’s leading provider of employee benefits. Since 2003, the company has been helping employers to retain staff in the long term. More than 44,000 companies across eleven European countries now use the tried-and-tested platform. These include 95 per cent of DAX-listed companies. The system currently serves more than 16.7 million registered users.

In April 2020, the strategic initiative for the Benefits CMS project was launched. The growing product portfolio made a technological reorientation necessary. The company reorganised its existing structures for the future and chose adesso, its long-standing partner, to support this.

Over the years, the technical requirements and process dependencies of the platform at corporate benefits grew steadily. This resulted in a highly complex system environment. The project required the complete handover of the existing product landscape from the previous service provider. Ensuring business continuity was the top priority. The adesso team guaranteed a completely seamless transition in day-to-day operations.

At the same time, changing market conditions necessitated a comprehensive legacy migration. The project management team deliberately minimised operational risk during the transition. The initial focus was on the Content Management System (CMS) – the software used for centralised content management. This was where the greatest pain points lay in terms of performance and stability. The conversion of the legacy system resolved these long-standing bottlenecks.

Für eine erfolgreiche Realisierung wählte adesso eine moderne und zukunftssichere Systemarchitektur. Die Entwickler:innen realisierten einen klaren fachlichen Schnitt in eigenständige Microservices. Dies sind kleine, unabhängige Software-Komponenten für spezifische Aufgaben. Der neue Technologie-Stack basiert auf Java Spring Boot im Backend und Angular für die Benutzeroberfläche.

Open API definiert und dokumentiert die blitzsauberen, standardisierten Schnittstellen für den Datenaustausch. Eine containerisierte Bereitstellung über Kubernetes sichert den robusten und skalierbaren Plattform-Betrieb. adesso vollzog die eigentliche Migration der etablierten Datenstrukturen schrittweise und marktweise. Dieses Vorgehen schützte das Tagesgeschäft von corporate benefits vor möglichen Ausfällen. Seitdem implementiert das Engineering-Team fortlaufend neuen Scope auf der Plattform. Jenkins Pipelines sorgen dabei für die Automatisierung aller Build- und Deployment-Prozesse.

adesso managed the entire conversion process, drawing on its extensive expertise in software development. The first step involved a detailed business analysis of all critical business processes. The analysts systematically documented and evaluated all established workflows. The team then translated these findings into robust technical requirements.

The adesso developers designed the new solution using an agile, scaled approach based on the tried-and-tested Scrum methodology. This provides a framework for flexible project management. The stakeholders continuously validated the requirements in short development cycles. As a result, the project delivered incremental and transparent value to the client. The team was able to ensure that the migration from legacy systems proceeded smoothly and in a structured manner.

The completed legacy migration delivers robust strategic and operational benefits to the organisation. The modernisation ensures the long-term operational viability of the entire portfolio. The new system is running smoothly and delivers significantly improved performance.

The modern architecture allows for effective scaling as user numbers increase. Furthermore, clear functional boundaries significantly speed up the implementation of new customer requirements. The CMS now operates highly efficiently and noticeably optimises internal processes. The controlled, step-by-step transformation reduced project risk to virtually zero compared with a risky ‘big bang’ approach.

In the digital transformation, the technological infrastructure is crucial to market success. Outdated IT structures often stifle innovation within companies. Modern, modular architectures provide a lasting solution to these problems. They enable rapid adaptation to new market standards. This benefits employee engagement across the board. Companies can respond flexibly to trends and secure their market leadership in the long term.