Menzis introduces Oracle Health Insurance Back-office
(Computable 30/05/2011)
Health insurer Menzis has just completed a major renewal of its primary back-office system. This is one of the larger ICT projects that have been carried out in the Netherlands in recent years, with a budget of 55 million EUR. The company has introduced Oracle Health Insurance Back-office with the help of a consortium of smaller service providers. They have put the customer/service-provider relationship on a new footing under the motto ‘the new partnership’.
ICT projects can be a nightmare. They generally overrun, exceed their budget and provide disappointing results. However, as demonstrated by Menzis, it doesn’t always have to follow this pattern. The new partnership between customer and ICT suppliers produced great results.
AWBZ (Exceptional Medical Expenses Act)
In 2006, when introducing Basic Insurance, Menzis made considerable efforts in the area of ICT to make the Basic policy possible. “We then needed two years to balance things out. In 2008 it was time to look further into what would confront us over the next few years such as the further liberalization of hospital care and developments in the AWBZ,” explains Ruben Wenselaar, as Vice-Chairman of Menzis’ Board of Directors, initiator of the primary system renewal.
Mid 2009 Menzis decided to introduce Oracle Health Insurance as the basic application for primary processes. In 2008 Menzis 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.” At the same time an infrastructure was created in which everything is processed twice to ensure the reliability of company processes. Company processes must also 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: change management had to be implemented to ‘familiarise’ 1,800 Menzis employees with the new environment.
Consortium
Menzis’ effective illustrated approach has two distinguishing features: the first is that the project was managed at the highest level, by the Board of Directors. The second is that Menzis opted for a consortium of smaller specialists. The consortium comprised Truston, Luconplus and Valori. Truston acted as the general contractor and was responsible for the technical ICT side of things. 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. They have a good network, work with direct lines of communication and showed great commitment from the very beginning because they had a strategic interest in the project’s success. And they maintained a high degree of commitment throughout the course of the project.” Looking back Wenselaar concludes that everything went extremely well. “The project was completed on time and within budget to our complete satisfaction. We have constructed the house and now it’s time for us to finish it off. With regards to output, producing documents we still have a number of things to achieve.”
Truston, Luconplus and Valori
The Menzis job was completed by a consortium of medium-sized service providers with complementary expertise and an equal, businesslike approach to large-scale change projects involving ICT.
Truston
Truston acted as the general contractor. In 2008 the company was responsible for successfully implementing Oracle Health Insurance in Menzis’ subsidiary Azivo. The Menzis project was somewhat large for Truston to undertake alone so the company recruited specialist partners. Truston has been involved in the development and implementation of ICT solutions for health insurers for more than ten years. Furthermore Truston has contributed to the development of the Oracle Health Insurance application OHI Back Office: an Oracle application to support administrative processes for health insurers. Truston's added value is illustrated by its technical know-how of Oracle and Oracle Health Insurance Applications, linked to expertise in the Dutch health insurance market.
Luconplus
Luconplus was responsible for project management. The company specialises in programme and project management for large-scale and complex change projects. Luconplus has an impressive track record in successful change projects for health insurers. Each change in business and/or ICT requires a different type of management approach. One of its core competencies is therefore to assist various management roles on a programme and project management level. Luconplus bridges the gap between ‘must’ and ‘can’, connecting people in the process.
Valori
Valori provided expertise in quality assurance and testing. Valori has been an independent service provider for over twenty years at the interface of business and technology, whose mission involves helping organisations to optimize their business ICT value chain. With over 140 professionals, Valori provides services in the field of business architecture, testing and quality care, business information management and value chain improvement. The result is that ICT investments provide a better return and make an essential contribution to improved company results. Valori also has a proven track record in the insurance sector.
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