How We Implemented WisePorter at Swiss Life Select

Swiss Life Select is a leading financial advisory company in the Czech Republic, providing comprehensive financial services. It is part of the Swiss Life Group, one of Europe’s foremost providers of pension and financial solutions. Through its network of financial advisors, the company helps both private and corporate clients prepare for their financial future.

A Clear Vision and a Concrete Goal

Swiss Life is undergoing a systematic digital transformation aimed at further elevating the level of financial advisory services it provides to its clients. The goal is to build a robust software foundation with a unified architecture across all user processes. Modern approaches and tools, including AI, are gradually being integrated into this ecosystem. Swiss Life is continuously seeking opportunities to automate internal processes in order to increase user efficiency as well as data quality and reliability.

One of the strategic steps in this digital transformation was the automation of product portfolio management. The objective was to create a single source of truth for the products offered to clients, shorten the time needed to launch new products, and simplify the work of internal users. These internal users include not only the product department itself, but also all other Swiss Life departments that are directly or indirectly involved in product management, commissions, accounting, and related areas.

Choosing the Right Solution

Swiss Life first conducted an independent analysis of its company-wide needs related to product management. Only after that did it approach vendors with a request for proposals. The WisePorter product catalog met most of these requirements out of the box, without the need for custom development. This significantly reduced both the implementation time and the risk of changes or additional work. The remaining requirements could be easily addressed thanks to WisePorter’s configurability and flexibility. The final deciding factor was the fact that WisePorter is systematically developed in line with market needs, meaning Swiss Life receives new functionality every three months as part of the license, without individual change requests.

Project Scope and Delivery

How We Solved It

The collaboration began with a series of workshops covering both functional and non-functional aspects of product management. The workshops addressed the overall architecture and integration of WisePorter into the Swiss Life environment, product master data, additional product data, user roles and processes in product data management, non-functional requirements, data migration from legacy systems, and operational aspects of the new software. Representatives from all affected departments participated, defining their needs and requirements related to data, products, commissions, and reporting from their respective perspectives.

Based on the analysis, an initial catalog model was created and made available to Swiss Life users throughout the delivery phase. Further refinements were then iterated on this model and deployed as quickly as possible to allow immediate feedback. The ability to see proposed changes directly in a working system significantly simplified communication and clarification of requirements.

The implementation of the WisePorter product catalog streamlined and automated product management, commission calculations, accounting reporting, and communication with other IT services within the ecosystem. Technical aspects were not overlooked either, including robust integrations and the smooth deployment of changes across environments (CI/CD).

How the Solution Improved Efficiency Across Departments

The implemented solution enabled the following:

Back Office

A clear and centralized way to manage the product lifecycle and all related changes in a single modern system, with all relevant roles having access at any time to a shared single source of truth and high-quality auditing of all changes. This modern tool replaced shared Excel files, email-based instructions, and the constant uncertainty about which information was still valid.

Accounting

The accounting department is now fully involved in managing product information as an equal partner with a clearly defined role in the processes. Accounting settings can be managed at the level of entire product categories, significantly reducing the risk that new products will have incorrect or missing accounting data.

Product Department

The product department used the introduction of the new tool to clean up historical data. Products are now managed in a unified format, using standardized processes and a fixed structure of product information. Each user is assigned a specific role that allows them to work freely with their own products while maintaining a secure overview of products managed by colleagues in other areas.

IT

The product catalog serves as the clear and single source of truth for product data. Having such a component—one that provides quick and easy access to up-to-date and valid product information at any time—is a fundamental prerequisite for most downstream processes and scenarios. Examples include its use in further stages of Swiss Life’s digital transformation, such as sales and contract management and commission calculations, which are already underway.

What They Said About Us

(Project Manager: Jan Chotěborský)

Satisfaction with the Proposed Solution

Before implementing the selected solution, we always conduct detailed technical and business discussions and carefully consider the suitability and meaningfulness of the proposed options. What we appreciate most is the comprehensive view of the situation and the respect shown for our needs as a customer. They always look for solutions tailored specifically to our company. Based on our experience, WisePorter places customer satisfaction (our organization) above its own economic interests.

Satisfaction with the Team’s Professionalism

Whether it was the initial analyses, ongoing consultations, ad hoc support for new requirements, the implementation itself, or subsequent hot-fix solutions, we always received fast, helpful, and professional support. In both their professional work and personal interactions, everyone acts highly professionally and consistently as “one team,” regardless of their specialization (business, IT, support). In difficult situations, they remain rational and unemotional and always do their utmost to ensure customer satisfaction. Every team member I have personally worked with has convinced me that they are a valuable and meaningful building block of the project.

Personal Comment by Jan Chotěborský