ICICI Prudential

Digital Transformation of Self-Buy Journeys for ICICI Prudential BOL Products

Digital Products & Software

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Overview:

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance is one of India’s leading life insurance providers, formed in 2000 as a joint venture between ICICI Bank and Prudential Corporation Holdings. With over 400 branches nationwide, the company offers a diverse range of life, health, and pension products to millions of customers.Backed by global expertise from Prudential, the company ensures trust, stability, and cutting-edge services for its clients.

Executive Summary

ICICI Prudential’s BOL team manages all direct-to-consumer (D2C) self-buy journeys across insurance products. With a growing need for better user experience, faster releases, and platform compliance with AEM standards, the company initiated a year-long digital transformation project. The goal: rearchitect the platform using modern tech and best practices without compromising business continuity.

The transformation delivered a modular, scalable, and high-performing front-end integrated with AEM and optimized for SEO and faster load times. It reduced customer-facing errors, improved time to production, and restored stakeholder confidence through better processes and documentation.

The Challenge

Business Drivers

Poor user experience and performance on both AEM and non-AEM pages
Long time-to-production due to lack of standardized development and release practices
Low conversion and customer retention
High reliance on development teams for even minor content updates
Business continuity was non-negotiable — any production outage would directly impact revenue and customer trust

Core Challenges

Legacy & Knowledge Gaps: No functional or technical documentation existed. Stakeholders had only partial understanding of existing logic.
Testing Inefficiencies: QA lacked reliable test cases or coverage insights, increasing risk.
Performance & SEO: Existing implementations had load delays, poor Lighthouse scores, and heavy, inefficient integrations.
Volatile Requirements: Product teams frequently changed requirements even during active transformation.
Cross-Functional Complexity: Multiple stakeholders from diverse departments had to sign off before production.

Execution Approach

The team followed a phased rollout strategy, starting with two of the most business-critical and technically complex products. The learnings and reusable components from these two cases set the foundation for scalable transformation across the remaining journeys.

Methodology

Reverse engineering of current journeys
Setup of reusable, modular components using React JS and AEM SPA Editor
Clear documentation and sign-off framework
Strong focus on reusability, maintainability, and configuration-driven behavior
Standardized CI/CD pipeline with change management controls

Key Workstreams

Product Discovery & Wireframing
Component Development (Landing, Quote, Application Form)
API Integration & Optimization
Performance & SEO Tuning
QA/UAT with Enhanced Testing Practices
Stakeholder Sign-offs and Controlled Go-Live

Tech Stack

Frontend: React JS SPA
Backend Integration: AEM 6.5 On-Prem with SPA Editor
Others: Akamai CDN, SEO tools, Analytics & CRM Integration

Risks & Mitigation

Risk	Mitigation
No documentation of existing flows	Reverse engineering + stakeholder inputs
Risk of performance degradation	Load testing & optimization during UAT
Go-live impact on revenue-critical journeys	Parallel run with rollback strategy
Ever-changing product requirements	CR tracker + agile re-planning process

Results & Impact

Business Outcomes

Transformed all targeted journeys with zero production outages
Reduced customer support tickets due to improved stability
Achieved faster go-to-market timelines for new features
Empowered business teams via AEM Authoring
Enabled future migration to AEM Cloud

Quantitative Gains

Page Load Time: Improved drastically with no loaders or lags
Deployment Confidence: Stronger release process and rollback safety
Error Rate: Significant drop in customer-reported journey issues

Stakeholder Recognition

Project team received high praise from ICICI’s business and IT leaders
Recognized for technical depth and professionalism
Led to expansion of project scope and new business within the client organization

Lessons Learned

Invest in functional documentation from the start
Modular architecture and reusability significantly reduce future effort
Strong change management is essential when working with frequently changing business requirements
Early focus on non-functional aspects (performance, SEO, analytics) pays dividends post-launch

Conclusion

This digital transformation initiative successfully redefined ICICI Prudential’s self-buy platform — making it more agile, maintainable, and customer-focused. It not only modernized the underlying tech but also reshaped the development culture around clarity, quality, and speed.