AOK Niedersachsen significantly improves policyholder service

Real-time insight into management and controlling processes with state-of-the-art business analytics

Smart is…

improving service for approximately 2.4 million insured members using a business analytics solution.

German health insurer AOK Niedersachsen was looking for a solution that can provide dashboards, standard reports and analysis tools to improve business decisions and corporate management. Supported by IBM Business Partner valantic the company implemented a comprehensive database and a flexible BI system that significantly improves policyholder services by supporting planning, reporting, analysis and forecasting.

About AOK Niedersachsen

AOK Niedersachsen is the tenth-largest health insurance company in Germany. It works with more than 40,000 professional healthcare partners such as doctors, dentists, hospitals and pharmacies. In 2013, the company managed more than 2.4 million members, a total budget of approximately €8.6 billion, and around 120 service centers across
Lower Saxony.

In Germany, companies that provide statutory health insurance are subject to a high degree of state regulation, and over the years competition in the industry has become more intense as patients gain more comprehensive rights, barriers preventing people switching to new health insurers are lowered, and the market becomes more transparent. For this reason, it is crucial for AOK Niedersachsen to stay agile and continuously boost overall corporate performance in
order to offer excellent health insurance services and provide optimized healthcare for its 2.4 million members.

Proactive approach requires accurate information

To facilitate corporate management, the company relies on IBM^® Cognos^®Business Intelligence (BI) software. The solution supports decision-making on issues that have a significant economic impact on the business by providing reliable data on business processes.

The company realigned its IT infrastructure, migrating its important business applications to a solution known as “oscare”. This health insurance solution, which is based on SAP, now manages around 70 percent of AOK Niedersachsen’s business processes.

“In order to efficiently manage the entire company, we needed a single source of data for all business processes,” explains Elke Stump, Head of the Controlling Department in the Corporate Governance Division at AOK Niedersachsen. “We also wanted to allow decision-makers to mtake advantage of the existing performance measurement system by providing graphical overviews, standard reports and analytics tools.”

700 decision-makers with current data at their fingertips

As part of this ambitious business intelligence project, AOK Niedersachsen created a standardized database of all business
processes for its various departments.

In parallel, AOK Niedersachsen implemented a BI system based on IBM Cognos technology. The new system was designed to support all management processes, including planning, reporting, analysis and forecasting. IBM Business Partner novem supported the company throughout the development and deployment of the new solution.

The new BI database contains over 11,000 data fields, over 500 tables and more than 3.5 billion records. It integrates data supplied by the company’s business applications as well as additional external data sources. Around 750 users, ranging from the CEO to the administrative staff, use the IBM Cognos software to view relevant performance figures, which are displayed in graphical dashboards. For example, the solution allows them to view and compare current and cumulative inputs and outputs, or forecasted and actual earnings.

From the high-level dashboards, employees can drill down to the details. In addition, staff can use predefined reports to generate overviews of the figures that they need to monitor most frequently.

Additional tools help staff perform targeted or spontaneous analyses of specific areas. Some employees are also using IBM Cognos Mobile on their Apple iPads as part of a pilot project.

Data from business applications is continuously collated and processed in real time in a single database, then combined with data from specialist applications.

Around 750 employees based across Niedersachsen access graphical dashboards and comprehensive analysis tools, enabling them to analyze up-to-date, relevant performance data from any location.

Detailed, up-to-the-minute information offers new insights and enables decision-makers to manage the company more effectively Simulations help managers see the likely effects of business decisions before they are made.

Business benefits

Enables rapid, informed decision-making through easy access to accurate, up-to-date figures.
Accelerates queries by a factor of 100 using extensive parallel processing capabilities, encouraging high user
acceptance.
Decreases costs by reducing storage requirements by approximately 66 percent and cutting the time spent on administration and development tasks.

Elke Stump

Head of the Controlling, Department in the Corporate Governance Division, AOK Niedersachsen

”We now have access to accurate, up-to-the-minute data, helping us answer common queries quickly and directly. In the past, we had to go through a lengthy process of compiling the necessary information. This has completely revolutionized management decision-making across the entire company.“

Dr. Peer Schwieren

Managing Director
valantic Business Analytics