Assuring better customer service

Challenge:

Eliminate the cost and complexity of storing and accessing 80,000 files-worth of insurance paperwork

Solution:

Outsourcing of document storage to safe and secure Iron Mountain archive centres, together with scanning and file transfer services

Value:

Strong positive effects on customer service, compliance, and cash flow, with full payback in three years

Client

Swiss Life is one of Europe’s leading providers of life insurance and pensions to both private and business customers. In Germany the company manages well over one million life insurance policies, while some 100,000 companies have Swiss Life corporate pension solutions.

Insurance companies in general have huge holdings of paper-based records, with retention periods of as much as ten years. A large number still manage the archiving process themselves. To find individual documents they require expensive management systems, while the space used for storage could be used more profitably.

"We have been able to reduce our delivery and access costs to practically zero."

Thomas Hübner
Head of Applications Management
Swiss Life

Challenge

Swiss Life decided to outsource the storage of its vast quantities of paperwork to Iron Mountain. "Firstly, as with other insurance companies, keeping files is not one of our core skills or processes," says Thomas Hübner, Head of Applications Management at Swiss Life. "However, for us it goes without saying that the documents should be stored in accordance with the requirements of the German data protection act."

To comply with the German data protection act the Swiss Life files are stored safely and securely in Iron Mountain archive centres in Markt Schwaben and Fürstenfeldbruck. Climate control ensures optimum temperature and humidity levels. Smoke detectors, fireproof walls, and steel doors guard against fires. Zone access controls and video surveillance keep unauthorised persons out. Regular independent inspections ensure the archives comply with current regulations.

Günther Wagner, Business Development Manager at Iron Mountain, notes: "We are the back up archive for the entire correspondence of Swiss Life Germany and its German subsidiaries. Even the documents that Swiss Life scans in itself are archived by Iron Mountain in paper form."