Menzis
Spring 2011, health insurer Menzis completed a major renewal of its primary back-office system. With a budget of € 55 million, they finished one of the larger ICT projects that have been carried out in The Netherlands in recent years. The company introduced Oracle Health Insurance Back-office with the help of a consortium of medium sized service providers. Labeling it ‘the new partnership’, Menzis have put the customer/service-provider relationship on a new footing.
A new partnership
For health insurers ICT projects can be a nightmare. They generally overrun, exceed their budget and provide disappointing results. Not necessarily so, as demonstrated by Menzis. The new partnership between Menzis and ICT suppliers produced great results.
With the introduction of Basic Insurance in 2006, Menzis made considerable efforts to align its ICT to the new requirements. Ruben Wenselaar, Vice-Chairman of Menzis’ Board of Directors and initiator of the primary system renewal explains: “We then needed two years to balance things out. In 2008 it was time to look further into what we were facing over the next few years. Such as the further liberalization of hospital care and developments in the AWBZ”.
2.1 Million insured individuals
Mid 2009 Menzis decided to introduce Oracle Health Insurance as the basic application for their primary processes. The year before, Menzis had merged with Azivo who were already using Oracle Health Insurance applications. The basic application supports primary company processes, such as policy management, accounts receivable management, claims processing and contract management. “Five billion EUR pass through the system every year. It includes millions of claim line items with an incredible amount of messaging traffic”, says Wenselaar. At the same time an infrastructure was created in which everything is processed twice to ensure the reliability of company processes. These processes also had to be adapted for integration into the package. At some point the data for 2.1 million insured individuals had to be converted. And last but not least: the implementation of change management to ‘familiarise’ 1,800 Menzis employees with the new environment.
Collaboration 2.0
Menzis’ proven approach is characterized by two distinguishing features. First of all, the project was managed at Board of Directors level. Secondly, Menzis opted for a consortium of medium sized specialized companies. The group included Truston, Luconplus and Valori. Truston acted as the general contractor and assumed responsibility for all ICT efforts. Luconplus handled project and change management and Valori took charge of quality assurance and testing.
“We opted for this format because members of the consortium possess demonstrable, specific in-house knowledge. They were able to free up enough people and to effectively demonstrate who would work on the project," comments Wenselaar. "They have a good network and use direct lines of communication. They showed a high level of commitment from the very beginning because they had a strategic interest in the project’s success.”
Looking back, Wenselaar concludes that the project ran smoothly. “It was completed on time and within budget to our complete satisfaction. We have constructed the house and now it is time for us to finish it.”
The consortium will continue their joint approach under the title “Collaboration 2.0”.
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