Munich Re HealthTech is a division of Munich Re, one of the world’s leading providers of reinsurance, primary insurance, and insurance-related risk solutions. Munich Re HealthTech has been operating since 1995 and offers advanced digital solutions for the health insurance business. One of them is SMAART – a powerful analytical tool that helps insurance companies shape their entire pricing strategy and risk management approach. Unfortunately, the system was originally developed using Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition. It lacked editing end-user capabilities as well as the provision of a fully-fledged, complete, modern, and tailored-made application suite. Additionally, OBIEE and other technologies (BI Publisher, Web Logic) came with significant licensing costs for the clients of Munich Re HealthTech. Wanting to scale up their business, Munich Re decided to modernize the system, at the same time changing the business model to SaaS.

Munich Re HealthTech contacted Pretius in August 2018 after a careful review of Pretius’s portfolio and experience with the low-code Oracle APEX framework. Instead of starting the development from scratch, we decided that it was possible to migrate the legacy OBIEE system to the latest version of Oracle APEX. However, apart from refreshing the tech stack, we also added new features to SMAART, automating processes that were previously performed manually (using tools like Microsoft Excel). To further improve user experience, a new front-end was developed in collaboration with MunichRe HealthTech’s designers, using custom APEX plugins created by the Pretius team. Last but not least, we worked in a unique co-creation model – the Pretius team trained Munich Re HealthTech’s in-house developers in APEX technology, enabling them to independently maintain the system if necessary.

The greatest success of this project was delivering the new version of SMAART in record time – less than 4 months (exactly 400 man-days). At the same time, the new product is very reliable – Munich Re HealthTech has observed zero critical bugs since its launch in 2019. All of this was possible because of the well-chosen technology. Low-code application development leverages ready-made modules, graphical user interfaces, functions, processes, etc. The new version of SMAART also allows Munich Re HealthTech and its clients to save an enormous amount of time (and, thus, money). End-user processes that used to take days can now be completed in mere minutes. For example, creating reserves and data mapping – which used to take up to 15 days using Excel – now takes approximately 20 minutes. End-users are very satisfied with the new SaaS product, Munich Re HealthTech has an ambitious roadmap for SMAART, and the collaboration with Pretius continues.

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