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Swiss Re accelerates global account intelligence through a smart, interconnected one-stop solution

Executive Summary

Accelerating a global account strategy for a few hundred accounts was the most critical objective for Swiss Re’s Corporate Partnership (CP) Business Development team. However, getting access to real-time insights and a 360 view of managed accounts using existing research tools was a daunting task. Most research tools often provide data at descriptive levels, but this information is limiting, to say the least. Swiss Re’s CP Business Development team wanted more—not just facts and lists but the essential context that connects the dots, with the ultimate goal of actioning these insights. 

The team was spending a big portion of their time just updating their research semi-annually using 12+ tools, which was a human-intensive process. The SPEEDA Edge team was quick to orient themselves to Swiss Re’s nuanced needs, delivering beyond a data platform to provide custom-fit tools and specialized reports for business development and corporate strategy—closing in their search for a smart and interconnected one-stop research solution. 

Background

Over a year ago, Swiss Re’s CP Business Development team heard about SPEEDA Edge through a casual colleague conversation. Back then, the business intelligence platform was in its formative phase, so the Swiss Re team was not fully convinced it could meet all their research needs. But SPEEDA Edge developed rapidly and kept Swiss Re looped in on its progress; in the second half of 2022, the two partnered aiming to automate the CP Business Development team’s research and opportunity-discovery process.

Swiss Re’s CP Business Development Team focuses on helping global clients mitigate their risk exposure—both current as well as potential—by developing innovative risk solutions. 

In order to do this, the team needs to:

data infra

The Challenges

The goal is to create innovative solutions for potential risks through deep data analysis and insights, but the team found that

  • Gathering and structuring data was extremely time-consuming and human-intensive (Several days per account! Using 12+ data sources), leaving little room for analysis.
  • There was no single tool in the market that helped identify critical industry and company trends in “near real-time” and keep up with these developments. This meant, updates were only done on a semi-annual basis.

Without a one-stop solution that tracked and updated both industry and company events near real-time, facilitated company benchmarking and analysis and deep-dive research, the CP Business Development team’s decision-making lead time and speed to market was longer than ideal.

 The SPEEDA Edge Solution

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With SPEEDA Edge, we found a provider who listens AND executes what matters most to us.

Evangelos Avramakis
Head of Digital Ecosystem, Swiss Re
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evangelos

SPEEDA Edge helped develop a one-stop solution that offers 1) detailed analytical profiles for an incumbent with news-driven updates 2) customized research for any specific areas Swiss Re wanted to further deep-dive into.

1. Incumbent Hub
The incumbent hub distills vast amounts of data and connects it in a way the insights are extractable at a glance. This tool offers a 360 view of not just incumbent financial metrics but also innovation interest and activities, company growth story and strategies, and products and business models. 

  1. Overview: Includes a detailed synopsis of the company’s operational history, products, business models and revenue sources, operational presence, and more.
alphabet
  1. Strategy: Dives into the company’s product and growth strategy, key business initiatives to achieve topline and profitability targets, and highlights the company’s main business risks. Presented in a standardized and concise framework, it allows for comparisons between peers.
alphabet strategy
  1. Product Mapping: Lists the company’s product portfolio, mapping each of its products into SPEEDA Edge’s coverage and allows for comparisons between peers.
product mapping
  1. Financials: Provides detailed quarterly and annual financial statements, along with an analysis of the key financial metrics and facilitating peer comparisons; allows the Swiss Re team to download into excel for deeper analysis, and to use charts directly in their own presentations.
GM collage
  1. Activities: Presents the company’s exposure to emerging industries covered by SPEEDA Edge and the option to compare the portfolio with peers, dig into highly active areas, as well as identify other areas deemed high-potential where exposure is limited.
Google activity
google portfolio

2. Customized Research

As a value-addition, SPEEDA Edge’s Customized Research offering produces exhaustive company reports; drilled into granular details like a player’s product mix and value chains, growth patterns, sustainability commitments, and also management's profiles—so that the Swiss Re CP Business Development team could access relevant, curated data in a ready-to-use form.

Nio GM
sebastian
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We really like the strategy section—a first of its kind functionality that can be very powerful if replicated across all the companies under coverage. A benchmarking functionality amongst companies can be a game changer.

Sebastiaan Nobs
Head of Business Development and Sales Excellence, Swiss Re
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Outcome

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SPEEDA Edge responded with speed-to-market and client-centricity

Evangelos Avramakis
Head of Digital Ecosystem, Swiss Re
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evangelos

The Swiss Re’s CP Business Development team can now spend valuable time and energy to quickly grasp incumbent business dynamics and strategy while also being updated on news and developments and spend more time on actionable decision-making and identifying business solutions—the work they’re meant to do!

  • Reduced research time: From 12+ sources to one key source of intelligence meant saving hundreds of days per year in gathering and structuring data
integration
  • Faster decision-making: Near-real-time updates (from semi-annually) meant faster insights on key industry and company development
SR Edge
  • Access to industry experts: Having access to 40+ experts across focus industries meant better quality research and insights

Looking into the future

Together with SPEEDA Edge, Swiss Re’s CP Business Development team hopes to integrate the information presented in the platform into the Group CMS to be used by the entire Group for customer innovation intelligence, new business development, and corporate strategy.

sebastian
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“In a perfect world, SPEEDA Edge gets totally embedded into our tools and colleagues can get some standard reports at the click of a button or through API”

Sebastiaan Nobs
Head of Business Development and Sales Excellence, Swiss Re
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Curious to know more about SPEEDA Edge?

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Biographies

evangelos

Evangelos Avramakis

Head of Digital Ecosystem, Swiss Re

Mr. Avramakis has extensive experience in consulting and the insurance industry and is an advisor and thought leader. His main focus lies on forward-looking market developments, trends analysis, foresight, and business development within the Swiss Re Corporate Solutions. Evangelos is co-author of several publications and is a regular keynote speaker.

sebastian

Sebastiaan Nobs

Head of Business Development and Sales Excellence, Swiss Re

Mr. Nobs has more than 15 years' experience in (Re)insurance strategy, operations and more recently Business Development. Having worked in many departments' within Swiss Re, he has developed a strong network. His current team is working on developing insights on corporates from various industries and support the Swiss Re Corporate Solutions sales team.