SWICA streamlines and secures insurance processes with reusable APIs

Building a centralized integration layer to share data easily across the company and beyond

SWICA is modernizing its integration platform to connect its broad system and application landscape. It plans to:

• Simplify sharing data with third parties, such as partners, medical practices, and customers.
• Improve logging and monitoring to ensure compliance and high availability.
• Secure all APIs in a robust and modern way.

Standardizing API management on one platform

SWICA chose MuleSoft as its integration platform in 2016, making it one of the earliest adopters in Switzerland. It offered an all-in-one solution from a well-known global brand. Since then, it’s become the strategic API platform and solution of choice for external applications, hyperscalers, and as-a-service offerings. Everything other than event-driven Microsoft applications – which are handled in Azure for simplicity – use MuleSoft APIs.

MuleSoft was implemented with support from codecentric , who trained the team of five dedicated developers how to run the platform in house. The team receives updated training a few times a year, and Andres is an active member of a Swiss community of MuleSoft champions known as APIForce. This community meets several times a year to share their knowledge and experiences of the platform.

The team uses Anypoint Design Center to design and build new APIs and integrate systems quickly, while the API Management Center dashboard provides central visibility of APIs and one place to manage and secure them. SWICA can also build APIs once and reuse them – for example, APIs connecting systems to employee data are reused up to eight times. Data is collected and merged from multiple systems, such as the CRM and payroll system. This unified data layer then underpins employee services, with multiple experiences built on top. The internal colleague directory takes information from this layer as well as employee applications and the B2B sales platform.

MuleSoft manages system calls and facilitates data exchange between the CRM system, databases, file shares, the ERP system, and Syrius – the standard Swiss healthcare platform that handles policyholder information, contracts, and invoices.n also build APIs once and reuse them – for example, APIs connecting systems to employee data are reused up to eight times. Data is collected and merged from multiple systems, such as the CRM and payroll system. This unified data layer then underpins employee services, with multiple experiences built on top. The internal colleague directory takes information from this layer as well as employee applications and the B2B sales platform.

This helps partners access SWICA data securely for governance purposes, while internal software developers can create apps and connect business platforms. For example, the customer-facing health insurance app connects to internal data sources and partner systems using MuleSoft APIs. Customers can log in to view their policies, and scan and upload paper invoices that are passed to Syrius for processing. Once complete, the invoice is routed to the right team to grant payment approval, and the customer receives payment for their treatment.

Making insurance more streamlined and efficient

With MuleSoft, SWICA has connected the systems and data behind many of its critical day-to-day processes – from customers making a claim to employees collaborating with colleagues and clients. In the nine years since it implemented MuleSoft, SWICA hasn’t experienced a major outage. The platform is reliable and easy to use, so SWICA doesn’t need to recruit coding experts.

Next, SWICA plans to build more dashboards in MuleSoft using Anypoint Monitoring and also in Microsoft Azure App Insights with MuleSoft logs. This will provide a better overview of its KPIs so it can use this information to optimize its environment for efficiency.

The flexibility of the Anypoint Platform will continue to streamline SWICA’s move from on-premises to the cloud. Ultimately, the team plans to use a container-based Kubernetes environment and wants to migrate from an American to a European control plane. MuleSoft isn’t just compatible with this changing environment, it has clear, predictable costs which helps the company stay on budget.