Digital transformation powered by a great team and clear vision: An interview with Univé

Univé is a cooperative non-profit insurance company with over 1.6 million members that set out on a journey of digital transformation a few years back. Ellen Peper was drawn by the strong brand and Univé’s cooperative nature. “I also revelled in the challenge of implementing a digital transformation amidst an ever changing world whilst staying true to the company’s DNA, she says, and initiating a transformation without losing sight of the members’ interests.” Peper stresses that the transformation stretches beyond digitization or a fixed transformation portfolio alone: “You need a great many building blocks to change an organization.”

According to Peper, a transformation must begin with a clear vision. “What do your members expect and what do you want to achieve for them? Where are you heading? Furthermore, you also need qualified employees and a coalition of leaders willing to embrace and propagate change. With that broad scope in mind, Univé asked me to lead the transformation. When I joined the cooperative, we had a project budget and several other separate strategy and innovation budgets. The first thing I did was combine all those budgets into a single transformation portfolio. On top of that, we set up a transformation management department so as to professionalize the portfolio, adding benefit management and prioritized initiatives in line with the chosen strategy.” IT Director Frank Dijkstra joined the organization four years before Peper: “In the first four years, my team and I mainly worked hard to put our house in order after the breakup of UVIT (Univé, VGZ, IZA, Trias, ed.). From a technical point of view, we replaced almost the entire IT landscape and rebuilt it from the ground up. Once the basics were back in place, we were ready to move on to a digital transformation. Transformations like this touch on several levels of the organization and, above all, you have to convince the other board members of the necessity of taking the next step. We laid the foundation with our new vision, called ‘Playing to Univé’s original strengths’ and then set in motion the transformation with their support.”

Playing to Univé’s original strengths

Peper believes that ‘playing to Univé’s original strengths’ means harking back to the organization’s early days in 1794. “There is strength in numbers: you bear each other’s burdens and have each other’s back when times get tough. Nowadays, our motto is to ‘prevent and mitigate risks and just provide good insurance for whatever risks are left’. You cannot eliminate risks altogether, but you can minimize pain and suffering. We mainly do this by developing new services to help prevent and mitigate risk and combining them with our insurance products. We also want to set up an excellent customer chain to maximize convenience, allowing our members to easily switch between our various distribution channels. In addition to our digital channels, we have 110 physical stores across the country. The app we are currently developing will be at the core of our relationship with customers, but it also serves as a connection to our stores. We want to express our core values of ‘togetherness’, ‘closeness’, and ‘action’, both in stores and online.”

“We also want to set up an excellent customer chain to maximize convenience, allowing our members to easily switch between our various distribution channels.”

Dijkstra points out: “Four years ago, we did not have an app yet. We had a website in our digital domain, but it was fairly basic. Over the course of four years, we set out a roadmap which saw us effectively and efficiently launch new services for customers on the one hand and update the look and feel of our digital channels to harmonize them with the Univé experience on the other hand. We are making more progress every year. We only started working on data analytics, for example, two years ago. A year earlier, we had already decided that the IT department would have to grow in order to be able to cope with the change of pace. At the time, we had about 110 people working in IT, now we have 150. We thought it would be challenging to recruit 40 individuals with the right level of experience and expertise, but in the end we have found it relatively easy to find good data scientists and other professionals.”

Agility, strength and vitality

The latter is due to the essence of Univé, Dijkstra believes. “We do not have to compete with other employers. We have a profile of our own, built on core tenets such as ‘closeness’ and ‘action’. We clearly explain what makes us special and how much space we give people to develop, and we make sure to keep our promises, which is another reason that people enjoy working here. Of course, you cannot just recruit all your people externally: I believe in working with what you’ve got. The first time I transitioned employees from one role into another, I came across quite some apprehension and fear, but change is important. In fact, I expect everyone to move to a different role in my department or some other Univé department every three to four years, as this is a great way to grow as a person and to help the organization grow. This idea was new to Univé at first, but finding new opportunities for growth and inspiration throughout the organization has now become commonplace. Besides, this approach helps keep older employees, and that includes myself, sharp, fresh and challenged.”

“I expect everyone to move to a different role in my department or some other Univé department every three to four years, as this is a great way to grow as a person and to help the organization grow.”

Peper agrees: “Apart from being able to land and retain great employees, we also work with excellent partners, who are another important cornerstone of our recent development. We ask our partners to challenge us, to hold up a mirror to us. Partners who ask critical questions can be of tremendous value and prompt us to regularly benchmark our performance. We never stop exploring whether there is new knowledge to be acquired, whether we are working with the right partners and whether we are as effective as we can be. I am not under the illusion that there will come a time at which we can sit back and say: “Right, there we are. Transformation done.” Changes will keep coming at us at the same pace, or possibly even faster, and we will have to rely on the agility and vitality of our organization and our people to cope.”

Insurance enriched with services

Peper cites consumer electronics company Coolblue as a company from another sector that Univé can learn important lessons from: “Coolblue started online, but now they have brick & mortar stores as well. They’re a great example for us: perfect online services with lots of support and a physical store you can visit for advice if need be. Univé’s goal is also to have high-impact customer contact take place in physical stores, whilst relocating low-impact customer contact to digital channels.” Univé's insurance products remain important core products. “But we want to enrich our insurances with services, many of which also involve working with partners. I am particularly proud of our new Sustainable Security service, which is aimed at agricultural and commercial companies that have asbestos roofing that needs to be removed. We take care of the removal process and replace the old roofs with new ones fitted with solar panels. The renewable energy generated by these panels is then supplied to local members, embodying our motto of ‘Members for members’. This new service is now being rolled out, and we have partnered up with the province of Overijssel and other partners in the east of the Netherlands to make it happen. For another good example, you could look at our partner platform with over 200 bodyshops, with which we aim to provide our customers with good, effective services. All of this is in keeping with Univé's commitment to meaningful business. We want to be meaningful to our members and local communities, and contribute to a sustainable and social society."

“Changes will keep coming at us at the same pace, or possibly even faster, and we will have to rely on the agility and vitality of our organization and our people to cope.”

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About the interviewees

Ellen Peper joined Univé on 1 January 1 2017. As a member of the Executive Board, she was tasked with developing and implementing the change agenda, as well as improving the operational and technological effectiveness of the Univé approach. After graduating, Peper first worked at the Chamber of Commerce for the East of the Netherlands. In 1998, she joined organizational consulting firm Twynstra Gudde, where she was made director in 2007, heading the firm until mid-2016. Peper is currently also a member of the supervisory board of ROM Utrecht.

Frank Dijkstra joined Univé in January 2013. As IT Director, he is responsible for the quality, availability and manageability of Univé’s IT systems and the cooperative’s IT-driven innovation and competitiveness. After starting out as an IT developer for KLM in 1988, Dijkstra left as an IT Group manager 12 years later. Dijkstra spent the next 11 years at Aegon Netherlands, where he was the director of Income Insurance & the IT Service Centre for Non-Life Insurance.

This interview was conducted by Arjan Hoendervoogt, Director Accounts ORTEC Data Science and Consulting, and Arjan Gras, Interviewer.