Imagine having to centralise and organise a quarter-century of information in a data management system. Projective Group took on the task at a large corporate pension fund in the Netherlands. We assisted with the structural transformation and migration of its data and documents. The information is now centralised, accessible to its employees, and stored in a logical and secure way.
A quarter-century of documentation
A big, Dutch pension fund with a long history does not comply easily with strict laws and regulations on document retention. Our lead consultant Gerben Vries had his work cut out. His client was faced with the challenge of structuring and centralising 25 years’ worth of data. “The biggest challenge was the high level of fragmentation and the huge number of documents. Getting this into the new repository, in an updated, logical way was one of the biggest challenges,” says Gerben.
There were at least two million documents scattered across multiple locations, with many duplicates and redundant files.
Data management and people management
When faced with such a big amount of data, the first step is to thoroughly assess the existing data and document landscape. Are all documents still relevant or can some be discarded? After, we created a new structure and found a user-friendly and logical way to store everything.
“Dealing with a big amount of data is a challenge, but so was getting people on board with a new way of working”, says Gerben. “People were used to storing documents on a hard drive in a complicated tree structure, subfolder on subfolder. Now they could upload documents to an online environment and add metadata information. Getting people to accept a different way of working is always a challenge, so this took us some time.”
Fully compliant
Over the course of a year, we completely restructured the pension fund’s data management. We merged a lot of fragmented information into one central source. We also developed a SharePoint platform where staff can easily communicate and share information. It goes without saying that everything we developed complied with the information and cyber security controls mandated by DNB. We paid special attention to topics like retention periods and confidentiality labels and got the approval of the chief information security officer.
We are proud to say that we meet all the controls set by DNB.
The new pension system
With the transition to the new pension system just around the corner, pension funds across the country are facing a major challenge. “Most pension funds have a long history. They have been building up a repository of document for maybe 40 or 50 years, which they are required to store for the long term. Storing these documents in a logical way is not an easy task. As pension funds need to have their data in order before the transition to the new pension system, data management is high on the priority list of pension funds across the country. We have gathered the right knowledge and experience over the years to consult pension funds with this process.”
Data quality is a top priority under the New Pensions Act, which means modernising and centralising data for efficiency and compliance has never been more important.
About Projective Group
Established in 2006, Projective Group is a leading Financial Services change specialist.
We are recognised within the industry as a complete solutions provider, partnering with clients in Financial Services to provide resolutions that are both holistic and pragmatic. We have evolved to become a trusted partner for companies that want to thrive and prosper in an ever-changing Financial Services landscape.
