CONCORDIA chooses to play it safe and be flexible with the kern 2600.
It was a migration to different enterprise software that prompted CONCORDIA to evaluate the new Kern2600 high-performance document inserting system. Modular and flexible, this is an ideal solution for the Swiss insurance company, where document processing now has capacity in reserve for the future.
Concordia
- A major health and accident insurer in Switzerland.
- 720,000 policy holders
- 1,200 employees
- 300 agencies and branched throughout Switzerland
- Premium income upward CHF 2 trillions
Contact :
Concordia
Bundesplatz 15, 6002 Lucerne, Switzerland
The new requirements first became apparent at a meeting with the customer at the end of 2008: the insurer was migrating to new enterprise software and the existing Kern 2500 configuration would no longer have sufficient processing capacity.
A system specification was drawn up in 2009, the result of much discussion and exchange of ideas. Kern put forward a variety of possible solutions to CONCORDIA, who is a longstanding and satisfied customer. One of them was the Kern 2600 inserting system, which would clearly be an ideal fit with the new enterprise software.
Along with certain performance specifications and baseline requirements for modularity, flexibility, operation and maintenance, the key things the customer wanted were DataMatrix barcode capability and integrated job processing software.
Good news arrived towards the end of 2010: CONCORDIA had reached a firm decision to go with Kern! In a final performance test their own genuine jobs at the Kern factory. Testing went so well that the new Kern 2600 was already installed on the customer’s premises by the end of the year.
Throughout 2011 the Kern 2600 has been working efficiently and reliably, processing the full workload of CONCORDIA’s transaction documents (insurance policies, for example) along with a steadily growing number of direct marketing campaigns
Concordia and Kern
- Concordia has worked with Kern products since 1998.
- The Kern 2600 has been operating since October 2010.
- Monthly processing workload : 85,000 A4 pages
62,500 envelopes - approx 20 jobs
The decision for a Kern 2600
CONCORDIA’s new enterprise software is Concifit, structured along similar lines to SAP. While the previous enterprise software could print conventional (OMR) processing codes on transaction documents, the new printing tool in Concifit is able to apply DataMatrix 2-D codes.
CONCORDIA’s choices
CONCORDIA had two options: either retrofit their existing Kern 2500 with a new Kern 2600 input module, or bring a new document inserting system on board. The insurer chose the second option: with a Kern 2600 on the premises, they would be able to take advantages of a range of benefits, including higher feed capacities, the ability to process a very wide range of envelope sizes (from C6 to B5) and, above all, a new level of certainty in document processing.
Alex Hagen, what made CONCORDIA purchase a Kern 2600?
A Kern 2500 has been providing good service at CONCORDIA since 1998. While migrating to our new Concifit enterprise software, we grew our production with the Kern 2600.
What benefits do you get from the new Kern 2600?
It is a modern, flexible and expandable document inserting system that also provides the technical interfaces to operate perfectly with Concifit. The model is the successor to the Kern 2600, adding capability in terms of processing volume – and it is of course faster, while providing even better quality.
Are you satisfied with the Kern 2600?
Our experience with the document inserting system has been really positive. From a medium-term perspective, we now have capacity to process even more jobs in-house, which also helps us to reduce costs. So yes, we are very satisfied.
What functions are most valuable to you?
As well as the hardware, we also have Kern software products that work well. With “mailFactory Validation Solo”, our production managers can monitor job processing and take control, which helps us with quality assurance. Then there is the tracking software in Kern mailFactory, which provides a neat way to keep track of the DataMatrix codes we use on customer documents.
What is your experience with the Kern 2600?
From every perspective Kern looked after us well, starting with their professional advice, trough evaluation testing right up to prompt delivery and installation. Commissioning was exemplary and the new system became operable in next to no time. Systems and software both run very reliably in production – anyway, we haven’t witnessed any outages or breakdowns.
Have you had contact with the Kern service team post –installation?
Kern is excellent in this department too. The service team is competent, dependable and always friendly. We notice how the service engineers approach the work with passion, it’s really impressive
