Context & Challenge
DELA’s cooperative structure reinforces a mission‑driven culture focused on solidarity, reliability, and continuity, ensuring that members and their families receive guidance and emotional support throughout every step of the farewell process.
Their steady growth past one million customers in Belgium brings the challenge of scaling its services while preserving the personal, caring support that defines its brand. To continuously increase efficiency, DELA needs deeper automation and smarter digital processes, reducing manual work and improving customer experience. At the same time, operating in different countries makes it essential to find synergies in the application landscape, harmonizing platforms and processes without disrupting local needs. Balancing growth, digital transformation, and realizing synergies is now at the heart of DELA’s strategic agenda.
DELA selected a consultant from Pencil42 to strengthen its existing architecture team, consisting of both internal and other external architects. Goal: setting up pragmatic and actionable domain and solution architectures inside the finance domain, delivering real value and tangible results in practice.
Key aspects of the delivered architecture
Listen Before We Speak
We aim to try to understand what matters most to the customer at a particular moment. Rather than beginning with broad strategic exercises, our first assignment focused on something highly concrete: designing a target solution architecture for an urgent business issue for Finance. This immediately demonstrated the practical value of architecture and helped building trust from the start. Active listening, thoughtful collaboration, and sensing what is truly needed at the right time are essential to delivering that value.
Think Before We Act
When change is needed it is very important to know where you stand today and where you want to land. That is where the AS-IS and TO-BE domain architectures come in. It helps in understanding the current way of working (AS-IS), and the areas in need for change inclusive the priorities.
Draw Before We Deliver
This is where solution architecture fits in. We were involved in the digital transformation program where DELA migrated towards a uniform accounting platform for the group. Through well-defined models the Finance Digital program has streamlined financial operations, resulting in increased efficiency and accuracy. In parallel we also focus on quick win initiatives. These quick wins have delivered early value to the Business, building trust and confidence in DELA’s long-term vision.
Role of Pencil42
Our role spans across the Finance domain for the DELA group, collaborating closely with DELA’s experts, the colleague architects in the other domain and management. Together we established architecture principles and mapped out the as-is and to-be application landscapes and solution architectures for all key projects in Finance. Leading by example and inspiring DELA’s team is, amongst the more IT related successes, one of our key deliverables.
We operate of course in a defined role for our clients — in this case as enterprise and domain architect — but we are equally capable of stepping beyond the role whenever needed and always in close alignment with the customer. Our work extended beyond designing the domain architecture; we also delivered solution architectures to address concrete challenges.
In addition, we facilitated workshops to refine the finance strategy and developed dashboards with heat maps to track the execution of that strategy.
And last but not least, wherever possible, we take the opportunity to coach and inspire the people around us. When we notice a need for guidance — whether with business analysts, functional analysts, project managers, or others — we are always ready to offer a helping hand. It is energizing to see how colleagues grow in their personal development and evolve in their roles.
In conclusion, our collaboration with DELA demonstrates how architecture delivers its greatest impact when it is grounded in real needs, shaped by clear insight, and executed with both precision and empathy. By listening first, we built trust through immediate, tangible value; by thinking before acting, we created clarity through well‑founded AS‑IS and TO‑BE architectures; and by drawing before delivering, we supported DELA’s digital transformation with robust solution designs and meaningful quick wins.
Throughout this journey, we worked as true partners — aligning with experts, guiding strategy, enabling execution, and inspiring growth in the people around us. This combination of strategic structure, practical delivery, and human connection is what ultimately strengthens DELA’s long‑term vision and ensures sustainable progress across the Finance domain and beyond.
I would like to end with the following quote: “Architecture is the art of bringing structure with intention. I thank you for having read this article and feel free to add your comments.”
Have a nice day !
Stefaan Bergmans
Principal Architect
