Use Case
IT infrastructure tangible for decision-makers and employee onboarding
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At Achmea, one of the largest insurers in the Netherlands, the IT infrastructure is as impressive as it is complex. However, this complexity brought challenges: long onboarding processes, performance issues, and high failure costs. With the development of 'Achmea Metropolis', we transformed abstract systems into a tangible, virtual world. The result? Millions in savings and an unprecedented acceleration of processes.
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Success Story
“We have achieved exactly the right result. This allows us to bring our IT architecture truly closer to our employees. That is the future!”
THE CHALLENGE
The IT infrastructure of Achmea is among the most complex in the Netherlands. The lack of integral insight into the connections between teams, software systems, and hardware created a hindrance for the organization.
New IT employees often took years to fully understand the architecture. This led to:
Slow onboarding: Valuable time was lost in familiarizing staff.
High failure costs: Uncertainty about dependencies caused issues during software releases.
Inefficiency: Implementations of IT chains proceeded slowly due to a lack of shared understanding.
The objectives were clear: shorten the onboarding process, make the architecture quicker to adopt, and accelerate the implementation of IT chains.
THE SOLUTION
C4Real developed an immersive VR solution: the virtual Metropolis. In this VR environment, the complete IT landscape of Achmea has been transformed into an interactive city, where buildings, roads, and stations symbolize the various systems and connections.
Employees can walk around with a VR headset and explore each part of the system through animations and interactive explanations. This makes a complex IT architecture visual and understandable, leading to better insight, faster adoption, and greater engagement in the digital transformation process.
THE PROCESS
The process began with the translation of Achmea's complex IT landscape into an interactive VR city: Metropolis. Just like in a real city, all buildings and roads in Metropolis are interconnected — just like the various IT systems and their dependencies.
When employees put on the VR headset, they are welcomed to Metropolis. Each IT component is represented as a recognizable building: for example, the police station symbolizes the IT fraud center, highway interchanges represent the APIs that connect systems, and the central station stands for the customer portal. In this way, the complex system becomes concrete and visually accessible.
The story of Metropolis is fully interactive and narrative. Within the city, all buildings are equipped with interactive points that explain the functioning of each IT component. Employees can move freely with the VR controllers, view animations and videos, and discover how each system contributes to the bigger picture.
RESULT
The deployment of VR technology has exceeded expectations. Achmea Metropolis has not only increased efficiency but also given a tremendous boost to motivation within the IT teams.
Onboarding revolution: The onboarding time for new IT employees has been reduced from 3 months to just 1 hour. (Saving: €150,000+).
Faster knowledge transfer: The time required to grasp the IT architecture decreased from 18 hours to 4 hours. (Saving: €150,000+).
Accelerated chain implementation: The implementation time of IT chains has been reduced by as much as 9 months. (Saving: €1.5 million+).
Business Impact: Product releases have been accelerated by months. This allowed the sale of new premiums to start earlier, resulting in €1 million extra in premium income with the first proposition after launch.
Intrinsic motivation: IT personnel are more motivated than ever to understand and improve the architecture – a value that is priceless.
The specialist in high-quality visualizations
Your visualization specialist
Reliable partner
relieving in the entire process
proven track record
sparring partner for complex challenges
award-winning agency
Do you have a complex proposition that needs to be explained clearly? Or an ambitious product or project that should make an impact on your target audience? At C4Real, we make it visually understandable and unforgettable. With over 17 years of experience, we assist you from strategy and concept to creation and implementation, ensuring that your story stands out, resonates, and delivers results.
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