The Swiss Life Network’s journey to becoming a ‘digitalised network’

Definitely not! We see the involvement of all stakeholders at a very early stage as key to the platform’s success. Internal and external discussions allowed us to evaluate the various needs for information, as well as look critically at existing processes, see how we cooperate and interact within the Swiss Life Network, and work to improve and streamline these. So the ultimate goal of setting up this digital platform is not just to provide each group of stakeholders with access to information, but also to facilitate interaction and communication between all parts of the Network.

Make no mistake, despite advances in digitalisation, we believe that personal contacts and discussions are still, and always will be, the most important methods of communication within the Swiss Life Network. The process of digitalisation is not intended to replace personal contacts via phone calls, emails and visits. On the contrary, access to the digital platform will support personal contacts and tighten relationships by freeing up the resources and time to follow up more complex and challenging topics and cases. 

Ana Delgado, Sales Development Manager at VidaCaixa, has had the most interactions within Sales Live since its go-live. She was invited to visit the Swiss Life Network’s new hub in Luxembourg, where she spent two exciting and busy days.

How does Sales Live directly impact your daily business life?

AD: Instead of reaching out for the various relationship managers in the Swiss Life Network via phone or email, I can now search at any time in a convenient and easy way for the company profile of a specific multinational company. In the majority of cases I find the information that I am looking for. Sales Live allows me to react more quickly to requests from our local market, and to immediately set up a sound strategy for following up my local cases involved in the Swiss Life Network.

Where do you see the advantages of Sales Live for VidaCaixa?

AD: I expect the interactions between our two organisations to become more efficient in relation to standardised and recurring processes, as well as the exchange of basic information. This will allow us to concentrate our personal discussions on the more tricky and complex business cases. Sales Live, and in particular the Dashboard, give VidaCaixa an easy, at-a-glance overview and way to follow current mutual sales activities. This helps VidaCaixa actively steer our opportunity management and sales pipelines.

What is your personal attitude towards ongoing digitalisation within our industry?

AD: I think digitalisation is a general trend our industry cannot escape. However, my personal opinion is that good performance – in particular in our segment – is, in the final analysis, the result of personal contacts and the skills of the people involved, rather than investments in portals and IT systems. But as long as digitalisation helps to make processes leaner, and the touchpoints for users are set up in a convenient way, it will help to reduce costs and ultimately benefit everybody.