HBF, Australia’s fifth biggest health insurer with more than one million members, has announced the conclusion of its five-year digital transformation program, including the full migration of its core insurance mainframe to public cloud.

Among the new platforms and services delivered through the transformation include a new core insurance platform (for policy, product and claims management), new CRM and marketing automation systems, a “single pane of glass” customer service management platform for employees, and an enhanced myHBF member portal, alongside a revamped website, completed earlier this year.

The transformation, commenced in mid-2019, sought to springboard HBF technology environment (then dominated by antiquated, mainframe-based systems) into the cloud computing age. Many of these core systems were more than 20 years old, according to HBF chief information and transformation officer Sanjeev Gupta, who has overseen the multi-year transformation program, with a significant number of its programs still coded in COBOL – a more than 60-year-old programming language.

Welcoming the completion of the multi-year transformation program, Gupta said members would see material benefits in their interactions with the health insurer, with streamlined payments and claims submissions processes, and a simplified, self-service capability to view limits and usage as well as edit personal details – across the HBF website, App, and member portal (myHBF).

“By modernising the systems that manage our member policies and claims processing, and by launching a new website and CRM, we will be able to enhance and streamline how our people interact with members and providers.

“In particular, these more intuitive systems will provide our people with greater insights to support our members’ evolving health needs and improve the resolution at the first point of contact.”

Gupta hailed his team as well delivery partners PwC, Civica (which supported the core insurance platform migration and cloud nativisation), Deloitte, Salesforce, AWS, Mantel Group and “many others who have supported in the build, delivery, testing and implementation of this significant program”.

HBF, as part of the transformation, has also noted its efforts to reshape its delivery model into agile, which it says has “[improved] the pace of delivery and alignment with the quarterly business prioritisation through a 5Q planning process”.

HBF announced earlier this year that it would close more than a third of its branch network, as its members opt for digital over in-branch servicing, it said.

“With around 80 per cent of our member interactions now via our digital channels, the new technology and systems enhance our ability to deliver on our core purpose of being there for our members in the moments that matter,” said HBF chief executive Dr Lachlan Henderson.