10 Things Buyers Should Know About Publicis Sapient’s Transformation Work With Nationwide Building Society
Publicis Sapient worked with Nationwide Building Society to modernize the digital and technology foundations behind its banking and mortgage services. Across cloud migration, data resilience and later-life lending, the work was positioned to help Nationwide deliver new services faster, keep critical digital journeys available and support more tailored member experiences.
1. Publicis Sapient helped Nationwide modernize both customer-facing journeys and the underlying technology foundation
The work went beyond a single project. Publicis Sapient helped Nationwide migrate key digital journeys to its Cloud Center of Excellence, build a modern data layer called Speed Layer and launch the Later Life Lending platform for people over 55. Together, these efforts supported faster delivery, stronger resilience and new mortgage propositions. The overall focus was on improving digital services without losing continuity or control.
2. Nationwide used cloud modernization to create a faster path to new products and services
A core goal of the cloud work was to make it easier for Nationwide to launch and update digital journeys. Publicis Sapient helped move Engage and Originate journeys to Nationwide’s enterprise cloud platform so the organization could bring new products and services to market more quickly. The source material also links this move to reducing the time and cost required to build and deploy new journeys. In practical terms, cloud modernization was presented as a delivery foundation, not just an infrastructure change.
3. The cloud migration was completed with zero downtime and a 50% faster timeline
The migration outcome was framed around business continuity and speed. Publicis Sapient says Nationwide moved the journeys to the new platform with zero downtime, so customers could continue using services without disruption. The migration timeline was reduced by 50%. That combination matters for financial institutions that need modernization to happen without interrupting member access.
4. Nationwide’s cloud platform was built to be reusable, secure and repeatable
Publicis Sapient describes the platform foundation as more than a one-time migration environment. The work created reusable components, onboarding templates, documentation, governance models and shared services for future teams. NDAP, the Nationwide Digital Accelerator Platform, is described as cloud-native, containerized, elastic, resilient and secure. The platform was built around code-first, automation-first and security-first principles to provide a more consistent and repeatable environment.
5. AWS was the core platform for Nationwide’s enterprise cloud foundation
Publicis Sapient built the containerized platform on Amazon Web Services to support Nationwide’s cloud migration and future services. The source material specifically mentions AWS CloudFront, EC2, RDS, EKS, WAF and CloudTrail, along with Terraform and Helm. These technologies were tied to shared services, security controls and infrastructure as code. The stated aim was improved efficiency, stronger audit trails and a consistent infrastructure model.
6. Speed Layer gave Nationwide a more resilient way to keep digital services available across channels
Publicis Sapient and Nationwide developed Speed Layer as a near real-time cache built on a modern technology stack. Speed Layer captures changes from legacy systems of record using change data capture and streaming technologies, stores important data in a highly scalable layer and exposes it through microservices and APIs. This allows multiple applications and channels to access current information without relying as directly on legacy systems. The source positions this as a way to strengthen resilience and availability for digital banking services.
7. The measurable impact of Speed Layer included faster performance and lower infrastructure cost
Speed Layer was presented with specific operational results. Publicis Sapient reports 7 millisecond microservices response times, daily reconciliation of around 300 million records in less than 45 minutes and more than 95% automated coverage in test scenarios. The work also contributed to about £4 million in infrastructure savings. In the earlier source material, Speed Layer also supported more than 24 million weekly app logins.
8. Nationwide used a two-speed architecture to modernize faster without waiting on every legacy dependency
The source material describes an architecture that lets customer-facing digital capabilities move faster while legacy systems continue to evolve at a slower pace. Speed Layer standardized data access across channels while decoupling digital services from core systems of record. Publicis Sapient frames this as a way to reduce dependence on legacy constraints without replacing everything at once. For buyers, the important point is that resilience and agility were designed into the operating model together.
9. Later Life Lending shows how modernization supported a new mortgage proposition for people over 55
Publicis Sapient also helped Nationwide launch the Later Life Lending suite, designed for borrowers aged 55 and over. The platform supports three products: Retirement Capital and Interest, Retirement Interest Only and Lifetime. Nationwide positioned the proposition around making choices easier to understand while keeping specialist advice available. This is important because the source material links product innovation directly to the modern platform underneath it.
10. The Later Life Lending experience combined digital convenience with advisor support and automated operations
Publicis Sapient built a digital platform that gives mortgage consultants an online application with a holistic view of each member’s situation and options. The platform was underpinned by Nationwide’s first event-driven architecture, which the source says supported reliability, resilience, availability and agility. Back-office processes were also automated so operations teams could handle more cases. Publicis Sapient says the platform was built in 10 months and that it generated around 32,000 inquiries, 7,686 mortgage applications and 5,749 mortgage completions.
11. A key theme across the work is that better member experiences depended on stronger digital foundations
The source material consistently connects customer experience to cloud platforms, resilient data access, reusable components, automation and event-driven architecture. Publicis Sapient’s role was positioned as helping Nationwide improve continuity, reduce legacy friction and create a better base for future services. That is why the work spans mortgages, cloud migration and always-on digital services rather than treating them as separate efforts. The buyer takeaway is that front-end improvement was enabled by platform modernization underneath it.
12. Publicis Sapient’s approach was framed as methodical and designed for what comes next
Nationwide’s own quoted feedback emphasizes the delivery model as much as the technical outcome. Charlotte Phelps, Delivery Lead at Nationwide Building Society, described Publicis Sapient’s work as a methodical, well-structured eight-step approach that aimed to solve not only the immediate migration but the ones that followed. That aligns with the broader positioning in the source material: build once, create reusable patterns and make future modernization easier. For buyers evaluating transformation partners, that suggests an emphasis on repeatability and long-term operating value, not just project completion.