«The introduction of BBTIndividual was like a heart and lung transplant»

Over the course of 15 months, BBTIndividual was introduced at the Swiss association for joint tasks of health insurers (SVK) and went live without a hitch on January 3, 2024. Although it was necessary to switch to an all-encompassing core solution, the SVK did not see it as a mere necessity, but as an opportunity to replace its long-standing and established data processing system in one step. This made it possible to implement operational organizational plans that had long been in the pipeline. BBTIndividual, our software solution for the day-to-day business of the health insurer, is ideally suited to the needs of the SVK, which operates in specialized areas.

By Ivana D’Addario, Marketing Manager at BBT

The SVK was particularly keen to acquire a solid core application that would shed light on the organically grown operational processes in order to establish uniform processes across all areas and thus achieve even more efficient handling within the individual processing steps. At the same time, the digital transformation had to be driven forward, for example with the introduction of a fully electronic billing process or by automating applications for cost approvals, which have primarily been submitted to the SVK via online forms since the beginning of the year. In general, SVK Managing Director Roger Schober was keen to adapt the standard software only to the requirements most necessary for the company. «Basically, we have adapted our operational processes to the software and not the other way around», he says. This simplifies both the maintenance and upkeep of the core solution, while also reducing costs and increasing efficiency.

Working in the background

The SVK was founded in 1953 and, as an association, provides specialized services for its affiliated health insurers and institutional customers. Largely invisible to the public, the SVK carries out tasks such as assessments and clarifications in the special areas of medication, transplants, dialysis, proton radiation, artificial nutrition at home, mechanical home ventilation and coordination with the invalidity insurance. As a service provider, the association checks incoming applications for cost approval in the name and on behalf of its customers, issues these and checks the incoming invoices from the service providers, which are then forwarded to the customers for payment. In addition, the SVK negotiates and maintains the contracts relevant to its divisions.

As with most companies, the aforementioned areas at SVK also have individual technological requirements, which is why each department worked with its own stand-alone solution until BBTIndividual was implemented. Although on the same basis from the same provider, they were individually designed. For many years, the SVK used a total of nine individually managed versions of the software to handle its diverse day-to-day business, which is now covered by BBTIndividuall as a complete solution. However, the complexity of integrating a single and completely new software was not only challenging due to the peripheral systems alone, but above all due to the migration of the data, as this is highly sensitive at SVK. The aspects of information security and data protection were therefore of particular importance.

Agile project management as the answer

The fact that BBTIndividual could be introduced into the SVK’s IT landscape largely without disruption was primarily due to the agile project management that is also common at BBT. With this flexible project management method, the development and testing of the software was divided into several sub-areas and stages. The project proceeded iteratively, i.e. step by step in so-called sprints. In the end, there were a total of ten of these, one every six weeks. This made it possible to react immediately to short-term changes and unforeseen events. One of the reasons why this approach was relevant for the SVK was that the requirements of the new Federal Act on Data Protection became known during the project and could be incorporated. Transparent communication between all those involved and clear responsibilities were also crucial, not only during the project but also beyond.

Because the agile project method meant that employees were only able to familiarize themselves with the functionality of the new system in stages and not throughout, intensive training sessions were held two months before the roll-out. These accompanied the SVK team throughout the change process, «because the introduction of BBTIndividual was like a heart and lung transplant for all of us – a major and rare operation», says Roger Schober. It also allowed SVK employees to pass on feedback to our developers. Roger Schober adds: «BBTIndividual was by far the SVK’s biggest and most critical project», but today everyone is happy to have taken this necessary development step and to be prepared for many years to come.