Three practical insights: successful outsourcing in everyday insurance IT operations

Regulatory dynamics, rising cost pressure and the shortage of IT specialists represent a challenge for the insurance industry. But technological innovations are also opening up new opportunities – which require flexible, transparent and collaborative outsourcing. Industry experts reveal which models are key right now.

At the Swisscom Insurance Meet-up on ‘Rethinking Outsourcing in the Insurance Industry’, an expert group discussed innovative approaches and shared real-world insights into modern outsourcing models. Here are the key takeaways from the contributions from Sanitas, Helvetia and Swisscom:

1. Nearshoring: responding to the shortage of skilled workers – success with team culture

In the Swiss IT labour market, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to recruit and retain skilled developers. And there’s the high cost pressure. Swisscom is meeting these challenges with two strategic nearshoring locations in Riga and Rotterdam, where products such as blueTV are also being developed.

Cross-border collaboration brings with it unique considerations in terms of identification, cooperation and culture. Swisscom is addressing these proactively by setting clear expectations at both locations, specifically fostering employee cohesion and purposefully leveraging cultural diversity to create a strong team spirit. Regular site events – such as coding days and joint offsites – promote loyalty and support collegiality, even across long distances.

When approached in this way, nearshoring not only enables cost efficiency, but also ensures access to talent. Team spirit that transcends national borders is crucial.

2. Close collaboration and transparency in outsourcing: ‘OneTeam’ as a model for success

Outsourcing approaches range from full in-house services to complete external management. With its ‘OneTeam’ model, Sanitas has successfully struck a balance: mixed teams of internal specialists and external partners work together with shared responsibility and maximum transparency.

The key to success lies in openness, mutual trust and a clear understanding of the objectives. Project teams are staffed from different departments and work across locations with daily stand-ups and open exchange. This results in high flexibility, rapid implementation and stable teams – both sides benefit from a long-term partnership on equal terms.

3. More than hype: efficiency gains with cloud-native & SaaS

Many insurers have started migrating to the cloud – but the pure lift-and-shift approach rarely saves money or brings the desired added value. Real benefits can only be realised by modernising existing applications for the cloud.

Helvetia is committed to a zero data centre strategy: hardware and in-house data centres are being completely replaced, and application management is being systematically modernised – for example, through refactoring, containerisation and the consistent use of cloud-native services. In addition, FinOps has been established as a central management instrument within the company. The selection of the optimum cloud region in each case, regular analysis of capacity utilisation and adjustments to resources ensure continuous efficiency gains and long-term cost savings.

Conclusion

Now more than ever, the sourcing transformation in the insurance industry requires investment in an integrative team culture, true partnership-based collaboration and continuous technological modernisation. Nearshoring provides access to much-needed talent, the ‘OneTeam’ approach enables stable partnerships on an equal footing, and cloud-native solutions lay the foundation for powerful, future-proof IT. These developments are not short-term trends, but decisive levers for ensuring long-term competitiveness and agility in the insurance market.

‘The insurance industry needs to take courageous action now: those who commit to modern sourcing models will not only ensure efficiency and innovation, but also long-term competitiveness.’

Daniel Kaiser, Head of Insurance, Swisscom