Out with the old at Swiss Re

Wendy Merkley, global IT director for re-insurer Swiss Re's $4 billion (#2.42 billion) life and health division, is solving her company's year 2000 problem by scrapping legacy systems, writes Dan Sabbagh.

The #80 million project began in April 1996, when Merkley helped her previous employer, M&G Re - now a subsidiary of Swiss Re - tackle the millennium problem.

'Scrapping the old systems was a good opportunity to go to client/server,' she said. 'But there was a better option: to create a global infrastructure.'

Merkley adds that creating common standards makes it easier to share skills and data on a global scale - although for regulatory and operational reasons, systems are kept separate.

But within months, complications hit the project, as M&G's former owner, Prudential, sold the company to global giant Swiss Re. The M&G business was largely absorbed into Swiss Re's new London-based life and health division.

Following a review - which added 'up to #3 million to the overall cost' - the unit selected a Sybase/AIX-based underwriting system from Swiss Re, but remained with M&G's IBM mainframe running the Adabas database.