Switzerland’s disability insurance IT services provider secures citizen data through strong identity governance

It can happen to anyone at any time: become disabled by an illness or accident and find oneself unable to work for an extended period of time. Within Switzerland, disability insurance is provided through the 20 Swiss cantons and Liechtenstein. Each regional authority operates autonomously, collects and manages the information about their insured citizens, and each is bound by a complex set of security and data privacy regulations. 

To ensure that each of those regional authorities can efficiently provide their services to the insured people, the Swiss services provider GILAI provides them centralized IT support and consulting, including the deployment and management of a shared hybrid cloud infrastructure, the development and management of the disability insurance management system known as Web@AI, enterprise content management, cybersecurity, business intelligence, and identity and access management. All of that for 2500 end-users in three languages within all Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

GILAI runs a tight organization. “While there are only 17 people, and we provide technology and consulting services throughout the 20 Swiss cantons and Liechtenstein,” says Sandro Lensi, CIO at GILAI.

One of the primary challenges for that team is the implementation and management of their identity management program and making certain that only the right people have access to the appropriate information and resources. And when it came to onboarding staff onto the insurance system, each state was performing its own manual processes. That was proving inefficient. “We needed to find and implement a way to standardize how we managed identities,” says Sandro.

The switch from manual to automated identity management

To more efficiently manage user identities within the disability insurance system, GILAI decided to move from manual to automated tools and processes. “We manage data for people across Switzerland, so we require sensible and effective security,” he adds. In addition, the regional authorities must undergo numerous regulatory audits and are expected to maintain very high-security levels.

One of the primary objectives, Sandro says, is making sure that the regional authorities can manage their own identities in their human resources department, and not depend on others.

Sandro and his team at GILAI conducted a thorough market analysis in order to find the ideal identity management system for GILAI and the regional authorities. After they completed their research, they selected SailPoint. “We decided to work with SailPoint because it is not only a perfect solution for our identity management needs, but it is also an opportunity for us to create new value for our customers,” he says.

With SailPoint, GILAI and the regional authorities now have a clear overview of who has access to applications, services, and files. In addition, they know how that access is being used and they can determine if the access complies with their security policy. SailPoint also provides streamlined self-service implementation, automated policy management, and AI recommendations that help provide intelligent access decisions.

“SailPoint not only enabled us to improve our identity management workflow but also made it incredibly easy to do so,” says Sandro.

Today, thanks to SailPoint, GILAI is able to automate the processes for identity management and creation. “Optimization has been the major advantage for us,” says Sandro. “Today, we can create an identity in no time. Before, it would have taken much longer. Now, the people in the offices can create their own identities while working directly with their human resources department. They do not need to rely on IT anymore,” he says.

“This has been a very successful initiative,” concludes Sandro. “We needed to centralize our data and our process for identity, while also enabling our users to manage the identities for their organizations. SailPoint has enabled us to do exactly that,” he says.