“What did we need? An IT partner who wasn’t afraid to call us out.”
Steve De Veirman is the E-Business & Digital Transformation Manager at Helan. Or at least that’s his official title. Unofficially, he’s a dreamer. He dreams of a paperless world—preferably without traditional offices—and of algorithms that send you a warning when a customer is at risk of churning. For now, all of that is still (partly) a pipe dream, but the first steps have been taken. “For our digital transformation, we were looking for an IT partner who would help ensure that our choices are future-proof.” Enter Alistar. They provided consulting services for the transition to Microsoft Dynamics 365.
About twenty years ago, choosing a health insurance plan was usually not a conscious decision. You simply joined your parents“ health insurance plan, and that was that. ”In 2019, things look completely different,“ explains Steve De Veirman. “Customers no longer just come to you on their own. Especially as a challenger in the market—as opposed to the traditional, siloed players— You need to think in a much more commercial way. ”What’s more, as an industry, we’re on the cusp of a digital disruption. While the banks were already working on this roughly seven years ago, we still have to do it.”
An important first step with Microsoft Dynamics 365?
The transition to a new CRM system: Microsoft Dynamics 365. To ensure that everything went smoothly, he made sure to Helan to an external IT partner. “Helan is part of a group of five independent health insurance funds, all of which fall under the Landsbond,” Steve explains. “All told, we have about three to four hundred full-time IT employees. We were looking for an external specialist to join us in this effort and help map out our growth strategy.”
Preparing for Digital Transformation with Microsoft Dynamics 365
With an abundance of IT professionals in-house, why would you still turn to Alistar for consulting services? “Simple: it’s a bit like the story of ‘the one-eyed man in the land of the blind.’ We do indeed have a vast amount of expertise and young talent, but when you’ve been working on a process for several years, you become blind to the stumbling blocks. That’s when it’s It would be wise to bring in an outside consultant as a product owner – ”as the person with final responsibility."
“That said—our expertise is primarily technical. So building applications within Microsoft Dynamics 365 isn’t a problem.”. Incorporating them into the strategy in a smart way and making the right choices—that's another story. The decision to choose Alistar as our sparring partner was an easy one. “Alistar is renowned for its expertise with Microsoft Dynamics 365. We needed someone who knew the ropes and could steer us in the right direction. In short: a partner to prepare us for the future. If you want to be a market challenger during a digital revolution, you need very specific knowledge. And your CRM system is the key to unlocking that knowledge.”
IT Partner as a Proactive Challenger
What does Steve say is the main role an IT consultant should take on? “That of a stick to the back. Someone who challenges you, who isn’t afraid to call you out. Someone who, when necessary, takes a fresh look at your dreams and says, ”No, that’s not the right approach.’”
“I like to quote Henry Ford, who invented the car at a time when everyone was still riding horses. You can feed a horse better, crack the whip a little harder, … ”But at some point, you have to say, 'No faster horse—we're going to build a car.'"
According to Steve, the greatest danger lies in a lack of foresight. “We’re not all digital natives. For us, it’s a process of continuous learning.”. We need to make sure we don't doze off. And that is exactly what we expect from our partnerships. ”Although our initial question may have centered on specialized technical knowledge for Microsoft Dynamics 365, ultimately it’s about more than that. Above all, it helps us look beyond that and ask: ‘What are you going to do with those solutions in the long term?’”
How does Steve see the long term? “A CRM system that shows us at what point in the process a prospect drops off. This allows us to implement highly targeted process optimization and abandonment strategies.”. A system that makes smart use of the data we have. ”For example, to predict when someone might need travel insurance. That allows us to send a much more targeted offer."
A CRM system that drives growth
At a later stage, Steve sees many more innovative possibilities. But he realizes that this evolution won't happen overnight. Because a health insurance plan It simply operates a little differently than a private company. And there are quite a few of those challenges connected. “We want to be a leader in the digital space; we’re investing heavily in that. However, our pace is largely determined by our legal client: the federal government. And then, of course, there’s also the medical community, which has to be on board. The e-certificate is a prime example of this. It took a very long time to get it up and running. And even now, only 35 percent of doctors are using it.”
Here's another reason why a CRM system that does what it's supposed to, is of vital importance for a challenger like Helan : “The more we grow and the more members we have, the more influence we can wield to put pressure on the government and make change possible.” In that sense, too, it is essential for Helan to have an external IT consultant contributing ideas. “Our CRM system needs to facilitate customer acquisition and retention as much as possible. Alistar has helped us tremendously with that: conversion rates, leads, churn rates, … Those are features that were originally part of a different tool, but now we also directly from Microsoft Dynamics 365 ”report."
⚠Will
The first step has now been taken, but there’s still a long way to go. “We’re sitting on a mountain of data that we need to start using more intelligently: likes, click behavior, demographic data, … Switching from one health insurance provider to another—all that paperwork—has to go. A traditional office in every Flemish village? End of story. In my view, 90 percent of current in-person appointments need to shift to video calls.”
What does he still expect from Alistar? “I’ve already received a sort of ‘will’ that alerts us to where challenges still lie, where there's a good chance we'll get stuck. For me, that will be a kind of lever to convince our CEO to take further steps. But I also expect Alistar to give us a call in six months to ask how we’re doing with the new system—so we can sit down together again to see how they can further ”help in this far-reaching but essential transition process."
We're sitting on a mountain of data that we need to start using more effectively. Switching from one health insurance plan to another—all that paperwork—needs to be eliminated.
Steve De Veirman – E-Business & Digital Transformation Manager at Helan
