Baloise was awarded 3rd prize in the Swiss Insurance Innovation Prize yesterday. This once again makes it one of the most innovative Swiss insurance companies this year. The prize was awarded for the electronic loss adjustment smartphone app Baloise eSI (pronounced ‘easy’). “We are delighted to have received this award and our sincere thanks go to all colleagues who contributed to the creation of this app,” says Markus Metz, the product owner responsible for the implementation of the app. He adds: “We firmly believe that the introduction of the Baloise eSI app was another crucial step towards making life easier for our customers, our employees and our partners.”

The procedure that loss adjusters follow in their day-to-day work has been the same for many years. The damage is recorded at the policyholder’s premises in writing, often with pen and paper, as the adjuster takes pictures and makes notes and sketches. Later on, the adjuster prepares a comprehensive report. When Markus Metz accompanied one of the company’s loss adjusters as he went about his daily work, he realised that there was scope for optimisation. Baloise has been offering ‘shadow for a day’ opportunities for some time in order to enable employees to gain an insight into how colleagues in other departments work and to promote the sharing of knowledge and experience. At a hackathon event organised by Baloise, claims inspector Mischa Wanger heard about Metz’s idea. Over the following months, the two continued to develop the idea. The aim was to fully digitalise the damage appraisal to make the process radically easier and more efficient for customers, loss adjusters and tradespeople.

The Baloise eSI app was developed as part of a productive collaboration with earlybyte GmbH, a start-up from Winterthur. It offers all the functionality required to facilitate a quick and efficient appraisal of a loss event. Comprehensive smartphone optimisation ensures that all the necessary data can be entered during the conversation with the customer, which means that the policyholder can be directly involved in the appraisal process. A set of guide prices stored in the app makes it possible to provide the policyholder with a quick and transparent overview of the likely costs. Tradespeople can be instructed directly through the app, keeping communication channels conveniently short. This also ensures that the customer is always up to date about the status of their claim and does not need to take any further action. “We are delighted that we have been able to use the eSi app to optimise the damage appraisal process in a way that reassures customers that they are in good hands – ‘simply safe’ so to speak,” concludes claims inspector Mischa Wanger.