How could EGK-Gesundheitskasse ensure smooth IT operations while also answering calls for quick, safe file-sharing services?
Few things in life are as important as your health, which is why approximately 90,000 people across Switzerland turn to EGK-Gesundheitskasse for comprehensive health insurance cover. Customers expect to interact with the company via innovative, digital channels. To enable employees, particularly sales staff, to work flexibly and on-the-go, EGK-Gesundheitskasse must have efficient IT management workflows in place.
At the same time, managing a huge range of documents effectively and securely is a key concern for a company operating in the highly regulated health insurance industry with an increasingly mobile workforce.
Thomas Kaufmann, Head of IT Operations at EGK-Gesundheitskasse, elaborates: “All health insurers in Switzerland are government-regulated. Like customer and staff expectations, regulatory requirements are always changing as well. Everything is becoming more complex. Ensuring that our business complies with all these demands is a constant challenge for our small IT team.”
To deliver the best service to customers, employees require rapid, reliable and secure access to business data.
Thomas Kaufmann adds: “Being able to share documents quickly and easily is essential for employees to be able to get on with their jobs. Many employees today expect the corporate environment to offer the same speed and ease of use they know from public cloud solutions. Our goal was to deliver effective workflows while keeping data secure.”
EGK-Gesundheitskasse is one of the leading health insurance providers that promotes equal opportunities for conventional and complementary medicine in Switzerland. The company offers a wide range of services, from mandatory basic insurance to supplementary cover for those who chose to take it out. Headquartered in Laufen, Switzerland, EGK-Gesundheitskasse employs around 200 people.
To streamline its IT processes, EGK-Gesundheitskasse standardized its desktop environment, and now manages 250 virtual desktops with the Micro Focus ZENworks Suite, including ZENworks Configuration Management and ZENworks Patch Management. In addition, the company deployed the ZENworks Suite to keep 30 Microsoft Windows servers up to date with patches.
Addressing growing needs for flexible file sharing, EGK-Gesundheitskasse implemented Micro Focus Filr. Thomas Kaufmann explains: “We wanted to give users the ability to share files quickly, safely and easily.”
Thomas Kaufmann – HEAD OF IT OPERATIONS
EGK-Gesundheitskasse
EGK-Gesundheitskasse integrated Filr with its existing file servers to deliver a seamless user experience. “We were very impressed by how easy it was to get up and running,” recalls Thomas Kaufmann. “This helped us to roll out the file-sharing service quickly. And because Filr is so simple to use and intuitive, users could get started right away.”
Supporting a “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) policy and an increasing number of smartphones and tablets used by staff, EGKGesundheitskasse implemented Micro Focus Mobile Management to boost security across mobile platforms.
Partnering with IT service provider Nexpert, EGK-Gesundheitskasse plans to improve the user experience further over the coming months with single sign-on based on NetIQ Access Manager.
Thanks to advanced automation with the ZENworks Suite, EGK-Gesundheitskasse has cut administration and maintenance workload by 50 percent. Thomas Kaufmann confirms: “Many businesses were affected by recent ransomware attacks – because we rolled out patches quickly, by the time our staff received infected emails, the security issue had already been fixed. The ability to schedule updates makes my life much easier and we can be confident that the business is protected.”
The company also values the sophisticated screen sharing functionality built into ZENworks. The solution helps the IT team solve common issues remotely, streamlining user support and accelerating problem resolution.
Using Micro Focus Filr, staff gained a convenient and cost-efficient way to share files while the company retains full control over data – ensuring that sensitive business information stays secure. Thomas Kaufmann remarks:
Thomas Kaufmann – HEAD OF IT OPERATIONS
EGK-Gesundheitskasse
He concludes: “We have been using Micro Focus solutions for many years – the support is outstanding and the products have evolved with us over time, always delivering the functionality we need. Micro Focus solutions have enabled us to optimize IT processes and keep data and devices protected. We’re now considering introducing multi-factor authentication to boost our security credentials even further.”
