An Industry at a Crossroads
The retirement & wealth management industry is at an inflection point. Legacy platforms that once delivered stability are now barriers to growth – driving up costs, slowing innovation, and limiting member engagement. At the same time, regulators demand greater transparency, employers expect efficiency, and members increasingly compare their retirement experience to the seamless digital journeys they receive from banks, insurers, and consumer apps.
One leading administrator recognized their existing technology was no longer fit for purpose. To stay competitive and deliver value in this new environment, they partnered with Hengtian to completely re-engineer their core retirement & wealth management, creating a modern, scalable foundation for growth, compliance, and digital engagement.
The Challenge
The provider faced the same pressures reshaping the entire retirement & wealth management landscape:
- Aging legacy infrastructure that made even simple service improvements complex, costly, and slow.
- Member experience gaps, with participants demanding intuitive, mobile-friendly services.
- Rising compliance complexity, with regulations requiring faster reporting and greater transparency.
- Operational inefficiencies, including manual processes, system silos, and high maintenance costs.
The task was not only to replace an outdated system, but to reimagine the platform – one that could support regulatory agility, lower cost of ownership, and deliver a superior member experience.
Hengtian’s Role & Services
1. System Development & Re-Engineering
Hengtian was commissioned to re-engineer the provider’s interactive retirement platform, used daily by both employees and employers. Over a 14-month engagement involving 60+ team members, we delivered:
- A more stable and scalable architecture
- A newly designed, customizable web interface
- Enhanced performance to support growing member volumes
The result was a platform capable of supporting new services and member experiences without the bottlenecks of the legacy system.
2. Migration & Testing
Transitioning from legacy to modern infrastructure demanded precision. Hengtian managed:
- Seamless migration of critical data and services
- Rigorous quality assurance and regression testing
- Minimal disruption to end-users during transition
This migration not only reduced maintenance costs but also positioned the platform for cloud-enabled scalability.
3. Product R&D & Efficiency Tools
To support continuous innovation, Hengtian invested in building tools and systems that enhanced efficiency and usability:
- Mockserver Tool – Integrated mainframe and front-office development, accelerating delivery cycles.
- CMS Visual System – Enabled easy content customization, reducing dependency on technical teams.
- UI Compatibility Enhancements – Optimized the platform across major browsers (IE7–11, Chrome, Firefox, Safari).
- Customization Features – Gave providers flexibility to adapt logos, fonts, and styles to employer and member needs.
4. Ongoing Support & Localization
To enable global growth, Hengtian provided localization services and ongoing support, ensuring the platform could meet regional compliance requirements and deliver a consistent user experience worldwide.
Results & Impact
The transformation delivered meaningful outcomes across cost, agility, and experience:
- Operational Efficiency – Reduced reliance on costly legacy infrastructure; streamlined processes with modern tooling.
- Member-Centric Experience – Redesigned interfaces, personalization options, and intuitive workflows created a user journey aligned with modern expectations.
- Agility & Compliance – Modular design and cloud-hosted architecture enabled faster adaptation to regulatory updates and business demands.
- Innovation at Speed – Proprietary tools like Mockserver and CMS Visual System boosted productivity and accelerated release cycles.
- Global Readiness – Localization ensured compliance and usability in multiple regions, supporting business expansion.
Client Perspective
The provider’s project manager commended Hengtian’s proactive approach:
“I’m impressed by the knowledge and professionalism of your business analysts and team in understanding complex scenarios and providing recommendations for improvement when the existing logic or business requirement doesn’t make sense. This makes your team stand out from others because you aren’t just blindly following specifications. You are thinking of the best way to implement the solution early in the development process before coding begins.”
This underscores the value of our model: not just technical delivery, but strategic thinking and ownership.
Conclusion: Building a Future-Ready Foundation
The retirement & wealth management industry is under intense pressure, from rising compliance costs and operational inefficiencies to fast-changing member expectations. Modernization is no longer optional. It is the foundation for resilience, growth, and trust.
Through this partnership, Hengtian demonstrated how specialized software expertise, project management discipline, and strategic ownership can transform legacy systems into future-ready platforms. By delivering not just technology, but also leadership and innovation, Hengtian helps clients stay ahead in an industry defined by change.
