Colonial First State carves out a niche for itself in the Australian superannuation industry
TCS enables accelerated separation and seamless transition in record time
Highlights
- Following its separation from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Colonial First State (CFS) teamed up with TCS to overhaul their superannuation platform, FirstChoice. The goal? To accelerate business growth, enhance member and advisor experiences, and lay the groundwork for a digital-first future.
- TCS delivered one of the fastest transitions in the industry, migrating 22 systems to a cutting-edge FirstChoice platform hosted on AWS. Within just eight months, 13 processes and 235 sub-processes were seamlessly transitioned, setting the stage for CFS’s customer-facing system, FirstNet.
- Building on a decade-long partnership, TCS helped CFS achieve operational efficiencies, boost customer trust (evidenced by record-low complaints), and drive business growth. The result? CFS’s FirstChoice Platform was again crowned the #1 platform for value for money in Australia.
CFS and TCS: an ambitious transformation win
CFS leveraged their strategic relationship with TCS to drive a seamless transition and digital transformation of their IT environment.
Colonial First State (CFS) is a leading Australian wealth management group, having helped over three million members achieve financial freedom through investment, superannuation, and retirement products.
After the separation from CBA, CFS—now majority owned by private equity firm KKR—sought to reinvent its member engagement and advisor channels to fuel growth. With TCS as a trusted partner for over a decade, CFS was well-positioned to drive this ambitious transformation.
Challenge
CFS faced a tight deadline to transition its entire IT estate, including the FirstChoice platform, to a CFS-controlled environment.
The challenges were significant:
- Over 20 critical applications, some owned by CBA, needed replacing, rebuilding, or replatforming.
- The mainframe registry platform required migration to a cloud-ready system.
- A single partner was needed to manage over 30 vendors end-to-end.
Our solution
TCS stepped up, bringing their innovation ecosystem, TCS COINTM partnerships, and proprietary solutions to craft a detailed transition roadmap.
To boost resilience, reliability, and customer experience, we integrated and migrated systems and data using our flagship products such as ignioTM, an award winning AIOps platform from Digitate.
TCS’ AI and Cloud business units worked in to build an APRA-compliant AWS Cloud Foundation from scratch, meeting CPS 234 and CIS 2.0 standards. This platform hosted all FirstChoice applications, delivering a superior digital experience for members. Over 22 systems were migrated to the new TCS-managed AWS platform.
TCS also established a robust cybersecurity framework aligned with NIST, CIS, and APRA standards. Advanced protection measures and customer identity management (via IDP) were implemented, alongside a proactive vulnerability mitigation strategy.
CFS’s customer correspondence and document management systems were transformed into AWS-native applications using TCS IP Correspondence as a Service solution and TCS Cloud Content and Information Management. TCS Cloud Exponence, with its finops capabilities, optimised AWS resources, while a dedicated cyber security operations centre (SOC) team ensured platform security.
The core registry system was migrated from mainframe to a TCS-governed Kyndryl data centre, ensuring infrastructure efficiency and scalability.
By leveraging our global innovation ecosystem—TCS Co-Innovation NetworkTM (TCS COINTM)—we brought together fintech startups, researchers, and corporate experts to deliver agile, innovative solutions.
The reimagined FirstNet system is accelerating CFS’s digital-first journey, while a rebranded and updated website is helping members make better decisions about their financial future.
When we needed to select a partner for our transformation program, we wanted to make sure obviously that we found the right capability. We selected TCS as a strategic partner for its almost perfect alignment to our culture - a culture of owning it, making a difference and being client obsessed.
Outcomes
The accelerated transformation has positioned CFS as a standout in Australia’s superannuation industry.
With a scalable, reliable, and efficient cloud-first platform built by TCS, CFS is now able to deliver exceptional advisor and member experiences while reducing the time to market for new offerings.
Key outcomes include:
- Achieved a 90% reduction in technology risk profile
- CFS maintained their position as having recorded among the lowest number of complaints with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority
- Differentiated through a rebranded website and mobile app
- FirstChoice Platform named #1 for value, technical support, ease of doing business, and adviser servicing by Wealth Insights
