Go-to-market in just three months, ready to scale after nine: Swiss InsurTech start-up Emilian accelerates software development with OutSystems
Better to play it safe - not least because of this mentality, the insurance sector is one of the core industries in the DACH region. The situation is different in regions such as Latin America, where only around every tenth citizen has any insurance. A situation that the Swiss start-up Emilian is now trying to counteract with an innovative business idea. A digital marketplace platform is to network independent insurance brokers and insurance companies with one another and thus ensure that customer inquiries can be answered quickly and individually with suitable policy offers. The solution was developed in just three months and has since been tested and optimized. It is now ready for the first growth spurt - with the help of the platform for modern application development from OutSystems.
The idea of developing a digital trading platform for insurance policies was driven, among others, by Emilian co-founder and CEO Zulma Prieto. Because of her Colombian roots, she knows the Latin American market and the great benefits that such a solution would have for insurance brokers. At the same time, however, up to 90 percent of the insurance policies in the SME sector in the DACH region are handled by consultants, so that this market also offers great potential for the Emilian solution. Prieto and three other founders began realizing the idea in autumn 2020; the entry in the commercial register took place in February of this year.
Software for startups: It's all about speed
"The main capital of a start-up - besides its financial resources - is its speed," emphasizes Stefan Wunderlich, Emilian's Chief Technology Officer. “Anyone who does not fill the discovered market niche quickly runs the risk of being overtaken and left behind by a faster competitor in the race for potential customers. For this reason, it was crucial for us to put our project into practice immediately. Of course, this also meant developing and providing the required software foundation as quickly as possible. For this we have decided on the approach of modern application development with OutSystems. "
The intellectual impetus for this came from a technology consultant from Emilian who already knew the platform and its potential from the past. In contrast to classic software development, applications are created in the OutSystems platform using visual modeling: The required functions are compiled in a graphical user interface using prefabricated, but comprehensively configurable modules. Even complex processes such as the connection of databases can be implemented quickly and easily. In this way, the time required for the development processes can be significantly reduced. The OutSystems platform then generates real, standards-based software code, which the developers can adapt to the level of the individual code lines if necessary.
Go live in just three months
In order to convince himself of the OutSystems solution, Emilian first used the free “ Personal Environment“. The platform on which a first prototype was created. In November 2020, the switch to the Enterprise version took place, and development of the final product began in mid-January. In record time, the OutSystems developers created the backend for Emilian's multi-tenancy platform, which insurance brokers can integrate into their website as a white-label solution. Those interested are then able to enter their requirements for the insurance policies they want. The solution then searches the offers made by the insurance companies - e.g. automatically via API - for the respective criteria and enables the broker to immediately offer its customers the latest, precisely tailored contracts.
“We went live with our solution in mid-April. We were absolutely amazed by the speed and flexibility of the development processes, ”said Wunderlich. “I remember a few moments when I spoke to one of the OutSystems developers on the phone, told him a new idea for the platform and, during the conversation, he put together a preview of the functionality with just a few clicks. For us as a start-up, this flexibility is exactly what we need. Our business model is constantly evolving, requirements and conditions on the market can change at any time. We must be able to respond to this immediately if necessary. And that's exactly what OutSystems enables us to do. "
Scalability and security at the push of a button
In addition, OutSystems ensures comprehensive scalability at all times - another central aspect for the start-up. After the pilot phase, the solution is now being used by customers in Switzerland and Colombia. With the planned expansion of business activities to target markets such as Latin America or other European countries, however, it may be necessary for Emilian to quickly scale the solution at any time - which can then be easily implemented with the OutSystems solution.
"Ultimately, we also benefit from the comprehensive security functionalities that the OutSystems platform provides natively," explains the CTO. “As a solution provider in the insurance context, we process highly sensitive personal data on our platform, which we must protect with the highest possible standards. The ISO standard 27001 is particularly relevant for us. As part of the team, with Dr. Tom Sprenger, strategic technology consultant, a proven security expert, and know that developing according to standards requires a high investment of time and money. With OutSystems, however, security is made easy: With just a few clicks, the required protective functions can be activated so that our solution is automatically and comprehensively protected according to the latest state of the art. "
Equipped for the future
The solution remains state-of-the-art not only in the security context. The OutSystems solution is also constantly being expanded to include technological innovations such as artificial intelligence, making the corresponding technologies usable for customers. At Emilian, too, there are already advanced considerations regarding the future use of AI: With their help, it will be possible, for example, to tailor offers even better to customer requirements through intelligent evaluation of the existing data. For this purpose, individual factors such as the customer's residential area (such as in the country, in the mountains or by the sea) and purchasing trends from a comparable customer group can be automatically taken into account, which can be used to determine, for example in the property insurance sector, whether one or the other policy is better or less suitable. In this way, customer satisfaction can be further optimized in the medium term. In the meantime, an investor and entrepreneur from the Internet of Things (IoT) sector has also acquired a stake in Emilian, who is convinced of the great potential of this systematic data analysis in the insurance sector.
Additional information
High-resolution images can be found here.
About Emilian
Emilian AG is a SaaS InsurTech based in Switzerland that offers a comprehensive white-label solution for the digital sale of insurance products via makers and insurance companies. The target markets are emerging markets where the affordability of the latest technology is a critical factor. The founding team brings together more than 60 years of experience in the insurance, technology and legal industries.
About OutSystems
OutSystems was founded in Portugal in 2001 with the mission to use software to enable any business to innovate.
The highly productive, networked, and AI-supported tools of the OutSystems platform for modern application development help developers to develop a wide variety of applications in a short time and to make them available wherever a company needs them.
With more than 525,000 community members, around 1,700 employees, over 400 partners, and active customers in almost 90 countries, the provider of modern software development and low-code pioneer has achieved a global reach. He helps companies in over 20 industries change the way application development is done.
Further information can be found at www.outsystems.de and in the German blog at www.outsystems.de/blog.
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