Case study

Facing increased competition and hampered by an outdated IT platform, SOS decided to break ground and challenge the status quo of the Nordic travel assistance market, investing in an innovative case and claims platform that leapfrogs the competition.

Established in 1961, SOS International is the World’s oldest emergency assistance company, offering services within worldwide medical and travel assistance, as well as mobility assistance and healthcare solutions.

Handling more than one million cases annually, utilizing the network of more than 120,000 service providers, SOS focuses relentlessly on securing customers the optimal combination of lowest possible claims costs and a compelling customer experience.

SOS’ principal business division Travelcare was challenged by an outdated case and claims management solution. The solution was based on mainframe which was costly to operate and required weeks of intensive training just to perform simple steps. Furthermore, the platform hampered business agility as new functionality took months to deliver.

Facing increasing competition and price pressure, it was decided to replace the existing platform. Initially, standard travel insurance platforms were considered, but recognizing that they did not provide the level of innovation needed to differentiate from the competition, SOS instead entered into a close collaboration with Netcompany to design a new case and claim management platform. The result is an innovative solution that outperforms the other market options in terms of flexibility, automation and user-experience.

"Without Netcompany, SOS would not have been able to kick-start, scope and deliver a new case and claim system as quickly as it was done. Furthermore, transfer of knowledge, by executing the project with several joint development teams increased the speed of development and facilitated a smooth transfer of ownership and most importantly improved SOS’ ability to maintain and even further develop the application on our own."

- Karin Tranberg, Executive Vice President, SOS International

The solution was delivered using modern cloud technologies and a microservice architecture, futureproofing the case and claims handling while enabling SOS to deliver on new business initiatives with faster speed-to-market.

Netcompany was also responsible for transforming SOS’ IT organization from a traditional, reactive IT service organisation into an agile, proactive DevOps organization fully embedded into the business unit it supports. The resulting setup allows SOS to constantly challenge the travel insurance market and win new market shares.
 

Results

• Delivery of a modern, open-source case and claims management solution that releases SOS from its mainframe lockin, significantly lowering operational costs and bolstering competitiveness
• Better decision support that enables SOS employees to allocate the right services for the patient - which translates directly to fewer errors and lower cost
• Established a fully agile DevOps organization integrated into the business unit
• User-friendly platform that lowers the need for training from weeks to days