Introduction

MN is one of the largest pension fund administrators in the Netherlands, managing assets and pension administration for several major industry-wide pension funds. With the introduction of the new Dutch Pension Act (Wet Toekomst Pensioenen — WTP), MN faced one of the most complex regulatory and technological transformations in its history: migrating its entire pension administration infrastructure to comply with new legislation, on a fixed statutory deadline.

The Challenge

The WTP reform fundamentally changes how pension schemes are structured in the Netherlands — shifting from defined benefit to defined contribution models. For MN, this meant translating far-reaching legal and business requirements into a scalable, future-proof technology roadmap, within strict deadlines set by Dutch law.

The key challenges were:

• Translating complex WTP legislation and business requirements into concrete IT deliverables across multiple systems
• Building and steering a multidisciplinary IT Delivery organization from the ground up, capable of running parallel development and release streams
• Overseeing the development of SimCorp Dimension — the core investment management platform — alongside a modern data platform built on DevOps principles
• Ensuring alignment between business requirements, compliance obligations, and technology delivery across a team of approximately 20 FTE
• Managing data management processes, data governance, and data quality across a complex, regulated data ecosystem
• Delivering a phased rollout to multiple pension fund clients within the statutory WTP deadlines

What We Delivered

In the role of Interim IT Delivery Manager, Starling Consultancy was responsible for:

• Setting up and leading a multidisciplinary IT Delivery organization, including Business Analysts, Data and Software Engineers, Data Modellers, and Testers
• Developing and managing a scalable technology roadmap that translated WTP legislation and business requirements into executable IT deliverables
• Overseeing the full development lifecycle of SimCorp Dimension and the data platform, using DevOps methodology
• Ensuring coherence and alignment between business, compliance, and technology teams throughout the program
• Implementing data management processes and data governance structures to guarantee data quality and regulatory compliance
• Managing stakeholder relationships across business, compliance, legal, and IT — including at senior management level
• Steering a phased client release approach, ensuring each pension fund client was onboarded successfully to the new infrastructure

The Result

The WTP implementation program was delivered successfully, on time, and in line with MN’s strategic objectives. The key outcomes:

• Three pension fund clients have been successfully released to the new WTP-compliant infrastructure
• A scalable, governed data platform was built that supports MN’s ongoing digital transformation and future client onboardings
• A high-performing, multidisciplinary IT Delivery organization was established, capable of managing complex regulatory programs end-to-end
• Business, compliance, and technology teams operate with shared processes and aligned ways of working — reducing risk and increasing delivery speed

Does this resonate with your challenges?

Whether you are facing a complex regulatory transformation, building a new data platform, or scaling an IT delivery organization — we would love to hear what is keeping you up at night.