Investing in a long heritage
M&G is a British company headquartered in London, operating for over 170 years in the savings, investments, and heritage industry. The combined business portfolio spans three core brands: M&G Real Estate, Infracapial, and Ascentric, encompassing 28 markets and 22 locations in Europe, Asia, and the United States. The company employs over 5,000 and holds assets worth £339bn under its administration.
Managing new compliance and expansion
Undergoing expansion of its market share, distribution network, and services portfolio, M&G aimed to digitally enhance its systems, tools, and services. After M&G demerged from the global financial service company Prudential, M&G Investments, its international asset management arm, merged with the UK and European Prudential savings and investments division.
Therefore, on the company’s wish list was creating a more connected financial ecosystem, with easier access to centralized key data and insights, flexible business models, and more seamless processes. M&G also needed to design more efficient financial and human resources allocation and operations in compliance with the new International Financial Reporting Standard 17.
Automated processes and the adoption of a lighter, cloud-based technology infrastructure were required to support M&G’s growth ambitions and keep operational costs low.
An IBM Oracle fusion
The firm needed a complete technology package that would not require any patchwork or excessive integrations. This reason, along with a strong prior business relationship, prompted M&G to choose Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for the task, along with the Oracle Cloud EPM and Oracle Integration and Migration tools.
IBM Consulting was chosen as the implementation partner, to help M&G transform its finance function using IBM’s Insurance Industry Cognitive Enterprise Business Platform.
Speed, compliance, and user experience
M&G achieved its flexibility, security and autonomy goals, increasing transaction speeds, and offering customers an enhanced overall experience. The latest IFRS 17 standards are now fully integrated with the company’s finance processes and systems. Meanwhile, employees have also embraced a more flexible, innovation-oriented working environment.
M&G’s finance team has been able to improve decision-making, maximize the value of data, and increase business performance, with a complete perspective of the company’s resources and operations.
Armed with dashboards and integrated ledgers, M&G has greater business oversight and user experience. Plus, the prebuilt connectivity from Oracle Integration accelerated the company’s modernization initiatives. Thanks to these capabilities, M&G has been able to balance market volatility, pandemic-related uncertainty, and business complexity.
“Adopting Oracle ERP has enabled less manual work, faster and better reporting, and greater insights that allow our talent to be more focused and become true partners to the business,” said Paul Cooper, deputy CFO at M&G.
“We’ve already seen in the last 12 to 18 months that the speed with which we are administering certain payments is far faster today, and that enhances customer experience.”
