Lessons from Supporting Exergy Implementations Across Southern Africa
By Mia Geringer | SolveCo Actuarial Services
After supporting insurance system implementations for more than twenty years, we’ve learnt something that applies to every major implementation: The technology is rarely the hardest part. Understanding the business is.
Insurance products evolve. Business rules change. Customer expectations grow. Long after a system has been implemented, the administration platform continues to evolve alongside the business.
Exergy has become one of the leading life insurance administration platforms across Southern Africa, supporting life insurance, funeral, savings, investment and annuity products. Over the years, SolveCo has supported organisations through new implementations, migration programmes, Exergy Cloud initiatives, investment value rebuilds, regression testing and independent implementation assurance across multiple countries.
One lesson has remained remarkably consistent:
Successful implementations depend far more on understanding insurance products than simply configuring software.
Why Exergy Is Entering a New Era
One of the biggest changes in recent years has been the evolution of Exergy Cloud.
Many insurers are now deciding whether to continue investing in existing environments, upgrade to newer versions or migrate to the cloud. These decisions affect far more than technology.
They influence:
- Product configuration
- Business processes
- Customer communications
- Integrations
- Testing
- Operational readiness
Our experience has shown that moving to Exergy Cloud is still an implementation project. The hosting model may change, but the need for business analysis, regression testing and user acceptance testing remains exactly the same.
Implementing and Living with Exergy
Implementing Exergy is about more than configuring products. Successful projects require insurers to translate complex insurance products into clearly defined business rules supported by robust testing and operational processes.
One lesson we’ve learnt repeatedly is that successful implementations happen when business users remain actively involved throughout the project. Developers understand the technology.
Business users understand the products.
The best implementations bring those two perspectives together from the very beginning.
Supporting the Full Exergy Lifecycle
One of the unique perspectives we’ve gained over the years is that we’ve supported insurers at both ends of the Exergy journey.
We’ve worked with organisations implementing Exergy for the first time—helping define products, validate business rules, test complex insurance scenarios and prepare for production.
We’ve also supported organisations that have made the strategic decision to move away from Exergy to another policy administration platform.
Experiencing both sides of that journey provides valuable insight.
Implementing a new platform teaches you how products should work. Migrating away from a platform teaches you how products have actually evolved over many years.
Those are rarely the same thing.
Historical product enhancements, policy alterations, investment rules, customer communications and business exceptions all become visible during a migration programme.
Understanding that history is often just as important as understanding the technology itself.
This experience allows us to support clients regardless of where they are in the lifecycle—whether they are implementing Exergy, modernising their existing environment, moving to Exergy Cloud or planning a migration to another administration platform.
Rebuilding Investment Values
One of the most technically demanding projects we’ve supported involved independently reconstructing and validating more than 200 000 investment policies.
The objective wasn’t simply to test software. It was to rebuild years of historical investment activity so insurers could have confidence in the values held within their administration platform before continuing with future administration and strategic change. Projects like these demonstrate that implementation expertise often extends well beyond software configuration.
They require actuarial thinking, insurance product knowledge, transaction analysis and independent validation.
SolveCo can assist insurers with:
- Investment value reconstruction
- Transaction validation
- Independent actuarial verification
- Migration assurance
- Historical value investigations
- Production readiness reviews
These specialist services help insurers gain confidence in their policy values before major migrations, cloud implementations or strategic transformation projects.
Lessons from the Field
After supporting numerous Exergy implementations, several observations continue to repeat themselves.
Cloud projects are still implementation projects.
Moving to the cloud doesn’t remove the need for business analysis, testing or operational readiness.
Migration is about preserving business knowledge.
Historical product decisions usually present greater challenges than moving the data itself.
Independent validation builds confidence.
Testing should confirm that products behave as the business intended—not simply that the software works.
Investment values deserve independent verification.
Historical policy values form the foundation for future customer outcomes.
Business understanding remains the greatest implementation asset.
Technology enables successful implementations.
Business knowledge delivers them.
Final Thoughts
Exergy continues to evolve, and with that evolution comes new opportunities for insurers to modernise their administration environments.
Whether an organisation is implementing Exergy for the first time, evaluating Exergy Cloud, preparing for a migration or validating years of historical investment values, successful implementation depends on much more than technology.
At SolveCo, we’ve supported insurers throughout the complete Exergy lifecycle—from first-time implementations and Exergy Cloud initiatives to investment value reconstruction, independent implementation assurance and migrations both onto and away from the platform.
That breadth of experience allows us to provide independent advice based on implementation experience rather than a preference for any particular technology.
Our role is to help insurers choose, implement, optimise or replace policy administration platforms with confidence, ensuring technology continues to support the business throughout its lifecycle.
Our role is to bridge the gap between business, actuarial and technology teams so that implementations deliver the outcomes the business expects—not simply software that has been configured.
Thinking About Your Next Exergy Project?
Whether you’re:
- Implementing Exergy for the first time
- Evaluating a move to Exergy Cloud
- Planning a version upgrade
- Preparing for a migration
- Looking for independent implementation assurance
SolveCo can help.
