Allianz Suisse

Success Story

Novell® solution integrates the core business of Allianz Suisse, dramatically improving information access and security across 250 offices

Overview

As part of the fifth-largest insurance company in the world, Allianz Suisse has been an important force in the Swiss market since it began in 2001 with the combination of Allianz (Switzerland), Berner and ELVIA. With 4,500 employees and offices in 250 locations, Allianz Suisse manages 1.7 million insurance policies for 800,000 customers.

Challenge

The merger of three large insurers to create Allianz Suisse also created a significant IT challenge—how to integrate the IT infrastructures of three separate companies in 250 offices. Allianz Suisse needed secure networking software for 250 servers and 150 database servers to manage a formidable 5 terabytes of data, as well as identity management to create secure, centralized access to a variety of applications. Many of the company's 4,500 users also work remotely and require access to nearly 50 million documents while on the go.

The challenge extended to an external network as well. In 2002, Allianz Suisse partnered with Dresdner Bank to offer personal financial services and had only four months to establish a secure external network both to work efficiently as partners, and to offer customers online financial management.

Novell solution

"Choosing Novell eDirectory was a strategic decision for Allianz Suisse. It is the simplest application-independent service on the market that allows us to integrate our applications—as well as internal and external user identities—in an intelligent way that is relevant to the business."

—Dr. Wolfgang Seiler
Director of Technology
Allianz Suisse

Allianz Suisse selected Novell Security and Identity solutions—including eDirectory™, DirXML®, as well as NetWare® and the Novell portal solution—to integrate the existing IT infrastructure of the newly merged company.

"We knew of Novell eDirectory and its leadership position in the Gartner Group reports," said Moreno Ponci, board member and head of IT for Allianz Suisse.

"Choosing Novell eDirectory was a strategic decision for Allianz Suisse," said Dr. Wolfgang Seiler, head of technology for Allianz Suisse. "It is the simplest application-independent service on the market that allows us to integrate our applications—as well as internal and external user identities—in an intelligent way that is relevant to the business."

Allianz chose NetWare to best manage its servers across its 250 offices. Novell eDirectory is at the heart of Allianz Suisse's data traffic, fed by information from the SAP Human Resources module. This index of 4,500 employee profiles from 250 company locations is the common source of data for secure identity management. DirXML taps into eDirectory to automatically synchronize user identity information across all applications including SAP*, Microsoft* Office, Lotus Notes*, and GSB, the company's internal insurance application.

"Novell eDirectory is far and away the simplest tool on the market that allows personalized access to a central data source, and that cooperates intelligently with the core data that is the basis of our staff management, the SAP Human Resources module," said Seiler.

Using Novell technology, Allianz Suisse created a portal to give all employees Web access to applications. With a single username and password, employees can access all the resources and applications that are necessary to do their jobs and be productive from any location, wired or wireless. Novell secure identity management checks digital identity each time before granting authorization, ensuring that users are able to access only what they should.

New customer needs have created new requirements for Allianz IT administrators. According to Ponci, "When capital markets were booming, customers were investing less in traditional life insurance, but considerably more in funds." To respond to this customer demand, Allianz Suisse partnered with Dresdner Bank to extend its portfolio by 20 investment funds and offer personal financial services to its customers.

"When we decided to enter the field of personal financial services, the strategic importance of a flexible, open and also protected IT platform became very clear," said Seiler. "The range of investment funds now offered by our sales team is managed by our partner company Dresdner Bank (Switzerland). We had to set up a secure external network to allow this cooperation to work efficiently, and we had only four months to do it."

Using Novell eDirectory as a base, Allianz Suisse's next step will be to provide its customers with secure access to online financial management, something that its sister company in Austria has already completed successfully.

Results

Allianz Suisse has already seen tremendous improvements in overall efficiency as a result of an integrated, secure infrastructure for its 4,500 employees in 250 offices. The company accomplished its integration goals and dramatically improved the access and security of its information—all without increasing its IT staff.

"At the staff level, the investment has already been worthwhile," said Seiler. "Although we've extended our systems and services, we can maintain our current staffing levels irrespective of any increase in the number of users."