Swiss finance technology provider Inventx won its first Swiss health insurance client and is aiming for more, CEO Gregor Stuecheli said. The move translates into an attack on incumbent Swisscom.

Chur-based outsourcing and cloud specialist Inventx has already poached dozens of clients from Swisscom, Switzerland's telecommunications incumbent which is attempting to expand into technology services. Inventx landed another coup on Wednesday, winning health insurer KPT for its cloud services.

For Inventx, which will build and maintain KPT's core system as well as others, the insurance deal is uncharted territory. KPT runs on Syrius software, which Inventx hasn't yet worked with. Thus, Inventx faces considerable investment in expertise to back up the deal.

Banking vs Insurance

Further out, Inventx plans to launch an open health insurance platform in the hope that other insurers will follow KPT's lead. Inventx is largely known as a cloud and outsourcing partner for banks, but recently won EY Switzerland and Swiss life for its services.

«Banks are still at the center of our activities,» Inventx CEO Gregor Stuecheli told finews.com. «But with KPT as a new client, we're expanding our strategy to include health insurance.»

Beating Swisscom

Swisscom will be anything but happy with the decision: KPT was long an outsourcing client of the telecom firm's IT firm, which also provides services for the Syrius software used by many health insurers.

Inventx stole a march on Swisscom when it won the 25 regional banks which make up Clientis Group (they were migrated to their own cloud last year). In total, Inventx now counts more than 24 Swiss banks among its clients.

Hiring Spree

Solothurn-based Centris is another major player in IT services for health and accident insurers – an uncompetitive market Inventx wants to shape up. «Our success in banking shows that there is room for other IT providers in Switzerland,» Stuecheli said. «I'm convinced there is a place for Inventx in insurance.»

The former IBM top executive and CEO of T-Systems in Switzerland launched Inventx ten years ago, carving it out of the latter firm together with partner Hans Nagel. The firm has since grown rapidly, and Stuecheli said he aims to add up to 100 employees to the current 220 per year.