To gain a competitive advantage, health insurer Asepeyo needed a mobile solution that would speed multiplatform app development and radically simplify mobile lifecycle management.

The IBM Mobile solution helps developers quickly create apps for Apple iOS and Google Android operating systems and simplifies access to back-end data, quality control maintenance and mobile lifecycle management.

In Spain, every employer must sign up with a government-sanctioned association to provide occupational safety and disability insurance. Competition is fierce among the 20 such enterprises. Because the nature of the services they provide is mandated by law, the key differentiator is service quality.

In an industry dominated by people-based and paper-based processes, Asepeyo’s executives knew that digital transformation could help deliver a competitive advantage. That’s why they embarked on an innovative mobility project to streamline business processes for key stakeholders. Their first app targeted customers’ HR administrators, making it easier to manage employee health and control costs.

They began by assembling a team of internal executives, customer representatives and IT staff members, along with experts from IBM Business Partner Costaisa. After an IBM Design Thinking workshop to garner customer input, the team then mapped out the app’s business and technical requirements. It was clear that serving up real-time information from Asepeyo’s back-end systems would be essential to digitizing HR administrators’ daily business processes.

On the technical side, efficient app development and management were crucial. The ideal solution would streamline development for popular mobile operating systems while simplifying app management—the latter becoming important over time as the mobile environment became more complex. As Juan Luis Pagés, Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Asepeyo, says, “We were looking for a trusted technology partner that would give us speed of development and the capacity to grow.”

Feedback on the new app has been highly positive. By communicating important events and metrics to mobile users in real time, the app can streamline administrative processes, reduce errors, lessen bureaucracy, and allow HR administrators and managers to react as things happen. And a dashboard of real-time information helps employers reduce costs such as surcharges from late management of sick leave.

Asepeyo is reaping big benefits as well. The convenience, immediacy and creativity of the mobile app, the industry’s first, helps differentiate the company. “We are convinced that the benefits of our mobile app will cause more employers to choose Asepeyo as their insurance provider,” says Pagés. In fact, the organization’s foray into mobility has been so successful that more apps for business agents, individual workers and staff members are in the works. Asepeyo is also exploring IBM Watson cognitive computing to improve mobile apps and deliver new services to physicians.
 

Authorized by Spain’s Social Security agency, Asepeyo (link resides outside of ibm.com) is a nonprofit mutual health insurance company that provides services and benefits for work-related accidents and occupational diseases. Asepeyo protects two million workers employed by more than 270,000 companies. The organization has over 3,500 employees in 142 health centers, hospitals and administrative offices. Founded in 1915, Asepeyo is headquartered in Barcelona, Spain.