Information flow is top priority

A million customers, 50 company sites, constantly changing legislation – health insurer Deutsche Betriebskrankenkasse (BKK) is optimizing enterprise-wide collaboration and overcoming new legal hurdles every day – with the help of Web 2.0 applications.

The message from the CEO appears on the screen: “BKK welcomes the government’s commitment to the electronic health card.” When Achim Kolanoski, Chairman of the Board of Management at BKK, issues statements about healthcare policy, he shares them with his company’s 1400 employees via Twitter, and includes a link to the relevant BKK press release. Twitter feeds are only one of the many features staff at the health-insurance provider can use to customize their intranet interface and keep up to speed with the latest company news.
Almost every day, new legislation is passed, laws are amended, court rulings are issued. And all of them have an impact on the information that customer-service employees can provide to callers. Yesterday’s facts and figures are no longer relevant today.
“The legislation governing the healthcare system has over 300 sections and subsections and is updated constantly,” explains Lydia Krüger, Head of Communications at BKK. “It’s our job to ensure staff have fast access to all the latest changes – in a clear and easy-to-understand way. It’s what our customers expect.”

The intranet as a collaboration portal

BKK is not the only one to transform its corporate network into an enterprise-wide, interactive source of information based on Web 2.0 functionality. According to a study conducted by market researchers Berlecon Research, Web 2.0 technology such as wikis, blogs and social bookmarking is having positive effects on internal communications, knowledge management and collaboration at many companies. But Berlecon reports that around 90 percent of German businesses do not deploy these applications across whole departments or the entire enterprise.
To ensure this wasn’t the case at BKK, the health insurer tasked T-Systems with the complete re-design of its corporate portal. Today, news tickers constantly update staff on a wide range of topics, relevant to their particular role. For example, an expert on rehabilitation, care or medical aids can view all the latest facts and figures directly on his or her screen. What’s more, workers can select an online news site as a source of information for health-related issues. And a central calendar provides immediate at-a-glance insight into all relevant staff and customer meetings.

Fast, anytime collaboration

Effective collaboration is key for BKK: “If an employee is successful with a new sales model, for example, he or she can quickly and easily share this information with others via our forums. That way all co-workers find out and everyone can add their own suggestions,” explains Lydia Krüger. A highlight of the new portal for staff is the management board blog, which Kolanoski uses to inform his workforce about interesting topics – from strategic decisions, to the nationwide 10,000 steps-a-day initiative, to his recent visit to the department responsible for the management of healthcare in Hanover.
As Lydia Krüger sums up, “The new portal from T-Systems provides staff at all levels with complete visibility into company activities.”