Cloud agility leads to enhanced, timely insights for midsize insurer

Technology is reshaping the way insurance companies operate. Faced with growing pressure to work more efficiently, improve customer experiences and reduce costs – while still meeting data security and regulatory compliance requirements – many insurers are moving their data and reporting platforms to the cloud.

Across Europe, most insurance companies have already adopted cloud computing, often relying on third-party providers to manage these environments. A recent report on the digitalization of the European insurance sector found that 80% of respondents already outsource cloud-computing storage services to leading technology companies.[1] This approach allows insurers to benefit from the flexibility and efficiency of the cloud without placing additional strain on limited internal IT resources.

Outsourcing cloud services is especially important for midsize insurers like Stuttgarter Lebensversicherung a.G., which face the same regulatory and operational demands as larger firms but with fewer resources. Founded in 1908 and based in Stuttgart, Germany, the company serves more than 650,000 contracts across five locations with about 800 employees. For many years, Stuttgarter has relied on SAS for analytics and reporting. It recently modernized to SAS Viya 4 to improve efficiency.

Moving to the cloud for agility

The transition from the older SAS infrastructure to SAS Viya 4 also marked Stuttgarter’s migration to the cloud – specifically, a private cloud, chosen for data protection reasons. “This aligns seamlessly with our IT strategy, which also envisions a move to a private cloud for other systems in the company,” says Ulf Schäfer, Head of Sales Management at Stuttgarter. At the same time, the insurer is gradually shifting from custom-built applications to standard software solutions, like SAS Viya. “Our goal is to respond more quickly and agilely to to the demands of both the market and our business,” he adds. “For that, we need the easy scalability that a cloud environment offers.”

Performance improvements were a key outcome. Data is refreshed daily, and approximately 450 users can configure their own dashboards in SAS Viya to access up-to-date information. “We’ve become significantly faster,” Schäfer says.

Another major change was the shift from manual coding to a no-code approach for creating models via the SAS Viya interface. This makes the models more accessible to users without programming experience. “In about 90% of cases, this has simplified and accelerated processes. Only in particularly complex cases is manual coding still required,” Schäfer says.

Zero disruption, maximum efficiency

The improvements were a welcome result of the migration to SAS Viya 4 in the cloud, even though these weren’t the primary objective. “The goal was for users not to notice the migration at all – to continue working without disruption. And together with SAS, we achieved that,” Schäfer says. The transition was operationally lean, which significantly reduced the total cost of ownership.

The migration itself was completed as planned with minimal disruption. Four IT team members, closely supported by SAS system architects, managed the transition – first for the test environment, then for production. “The collaboration with the SAS team was excellent. We worked as equals, solved problems quickly and reliably and met all deadlines,” Schäfer says.

Rolling out single sign-on across all systems proved complex and required thoughtful coordination. Additionally, Stuttgarter wanted to fully leverage the capabilities of SAS Viya through detailed permission structures. Both initiatives were completed successfully and on schedule.

Schäfer and his team also used the opportunity to introduce new functionalities, adopt the latest SAS features and optimize existing processes. For example, users can now easily link reports and directly navigate related topics. “These are new capabilities that users really appreciate,” Schäfer says. “Overall, feedback on the new solution has been very positive.”

Was migrating to SAS Viya 4 in the cloud a Herculean task for a midsize company? “A major project – definitely,” Schäfer admits, but, “Our transition to SAS Viya 4 delivered immediate value – faster performance, smoother operations and a future‑ready analytics platform. The outstanding collaboration with our colleagues at SAS made the process seamless, and we would choose the same approach again without hesitation.”