Reimagining Insurance Core Systems: AXA Egypt’s Journey to a Future-Ready Life Platform

Introduction: A System Stuck in the Past

By 2023, AXA Egypt had grown into one of the country’s leading insurance providers, serving over a million customers across General, Life, Health, and Micro-insurance. But beneath the surface of this modern operation was a decades-old system quietly slowing everything down. AXA’s core Life Insurance platform—built in the 1990s—was becoming more of a liability than an asset.

The monolithic, client-server application had not aged well. Scaling was a challenge, customer-facing performance was sluggish, and the entire business was tethered to overnight batch processes that delayed access to critical data. Even small feature updates required long development cycles, and as newer talent entered the workforce, maintaining the legacy stack became increasingly difficult.

For AXA, it was clear: if they wanted to deliver seamless digital experiences and agile operations aligned with their growth strategy, their core system needed a complete transformation. But replacing a mission-critical system is never a one-step process—it demands precision, planning, and the right partner.

Why AXA Chose Sumerge

AXA wasn’t simply looking to digitize—they were looking to modernize strategically. They needed more than a vendor; they needed a partner who could deliver not only the technology but also the architecture, governance, and long-term vision to future-proof their business.

Sumerge was selected because of our comprehensive ecosystem approach: from architecture and DevOps to quality assurance and implementation, we provided dedicated experts across every function of the delivery lifecycle. This full-spectrum capability gave AXA the confidence that their transformation would be handled end-to-end—with foresight, not just code.

Challenges Surpassed: Reverse Engineering and Rebuilding

Modernizing a 30-year-old system is never as simple as lifting and shifting. The original core platform had little to no documentation—business logic, workflows, and decision rules were buried deep within the legacy codebase.

Our first step was what we internally called Phase Zero—a consulting and discovery phase focused on extracting knowledge from the system itself. Through reverse engineering, our team mapped out nearly 80% of the business workflows, working closely with AXA’s internal teams to validate assumptions and build a complete understanding of how the system operated.

Rather than pursue a big-bang replacement, we designed a phased modernization strategy, one that would allow each module to be rebuilt, integrated, and tested while the legacy system continued to function. This minimized operational risk while ensuring business continuity—a crucial consideration for a company with millions of active policies and a high customer service threshold.

Engineering a Modern Core

Once discovery was complete, we transitioned to execution. The new platform was built on a cloud-native, microservices-based architecture, enabling modular development, rapid scalability, and easier maintenance. We introduced Kafka-based event-driven processing, replacing the legacy batch jobs with real-time data handling capabilities. This shift alone brought immediate benefits to operational efficiency, customer responsiveness, and backend processing.

DevOps pipelines and test automation frameworks were embedded from day one, allowing AXA to accelerate delivery cycles and reduce manual intervention across the board. And crucially, every module was designed to run in parallel with the legacy system—ensuring smooth migration and real-world validation at each step.

Throughout the process, Sumerge worked together with AXA’s internal IT and business teams, providing enablement, upskilling, and alignment with the company’s long-term digital roadmap.

“I’m very proud of what our team accomplished. The complexity was immense, but we delivered a solid, future-ready platform.”
— Mohamed Nour, CTO, Sumerge

Overcoming the Toughest Obstacles

The complexity of the legacy system presented several core challenges. First, the sheer depth and entanglement of business rules meant that every piece of logic had to be carefully untangled and revalidated before being migrated.

Next came the challenge of coexistence. Maintaining data integrity between the old and new systems required careful synchronization mechanisms and validation layers, ensuring no customer or transaction was lost in transition.

And finally, there was the human element—change management. AXA’s teams had to adapt not only to new tools but to new ways of thinking. Our delivery approach emphasized transparency, documentation, and collaboration, ensuring everyone stayed aligned throughout the process.

Key Achievements & Outcomes

• Real-Time Operations: Kafka-based architecture eliminated batch delays and enabled live data access, improving responsiveness.
• Accelerated Delivery: DevOps practices and test automation cut release cycles significantly, allowing faster rollout of new features.
• Future-Proof Architecture: Cloud-native microservices provide the scalability and modularity required to support innovation.
• Zero Downtime Transition: Dual-system coexistence ensured business continuity during phased rollout.
• Team Enablement: AXA’s internal teams were trained and equipped to manage and extend the new platform independently.
• Customer Experience Uplift: Improved backend speed and frontend capabilities contribute to a smoother, more digital-first journey.

Looking Ahead

While the modernization journey is still ongoing, the successful completion of Phase 1 has laid a rock-solid foundation for the future. AXA Egypt is now able to scale its digital capabilities, optimize internal processes, and deliver the kind of seamless, personalized experiences customers expect.

For Sumerge, this project reflects our core belief: that even the most complex legacy systems can be transformed—with the right strategy, the right technology, and the right partnership.