HUK-COBURG: Enjoys 20 Years of Business Process Automation with Stonebranch

German insurance group HUK-COBURG has more than 11 million customers and around 10,000 employees, making it Germany’s largest auto insurance company when measured by the number of policies. One out of every five cars in Germany is insured by HUK-COBURG. The company is also the second largest liability and household insurer in Germany.

IT managers at HUK-COBURG recognized that their numerous decentralized IT system processes created excess complexity for their operations. HUK-COBURG needed a permanent, future-proof solution that would simplify operations, enhance workflows and provide a robust file transfer feature that could be seamlessly integrated in SAP.

“We were really impressed when we took our first look at Universal Agent during a roadshow. Even today, 20 years later, Universal Agent remains the perfect solution for managing our decentralized IT landscape with TWS, thanks to the seamless integration, speed and scope of features. The alternative at the time based on TWS couldn’t keep pace with Stonebranch when it came to price or technology.”

BERND HOFMANN
Head of the Batch Processes Group, HUK-COBURG

HUK-COBURG found what it was looking for in Stonebranch, and has been a happy customer for more than 20 years. The Universal Agent technology from Stonebranch allowed HUK-COBURG to use its existing TWS scheduling solution and migrate without major effort.

Additionally, Universal Agent met the company’s needs for an integrated file transfer solution (or, managed file transfer), enabling both asynchronous and synchronous data transmission. Universal Agent seamlessly supports the required integration with SAP, making it possible to manage all of the company’s SAP processes via TWS.

During HUK-COBURG’s evaluation of Universal Agent, it became clear that Universal Agent was the best alternative to an implementation with TWS/OPC trackers. When it came to file transfer, Universal Agent also offered improved performance right from the start.

“We were really impressed when we took our first look at Universal Agent during a roadshow. Even today, years later, Universal Agent remains the perfect solution for managing our decentralized IT landscape with TWS, thanks to the seamless integration and speed and scope of features. The alternative at the time couldn’t keep pace with Stonebranch when it came to price or technology,” explains Bernd Hofmann, who heads up the Batch Processes Group at HUK-COBURG.

“Likewise, Stonebranch didn’t disappoint when it came to SAP integration,” says Klaus Eckstein, an SAP specialist at HUK-COBURG. “I’ve never seen SAP scheduling run more powerfully or smoothly than with Universal Agent, and I’ve been in the SAP business for a very long time. This was a true competitive advantage for us then, and remains so today.”

Furthermore, unlike the agents used to date, Universal Agent does away with installing software components on the SAP system to manage SAP tasks. Universal Agent performs SAP scheduling simply and automatically, without any additional installations.

Universal Data Mover (UDM), the managed file transfer solution from Stonebranch, delivers additional value. It is an integral part of Universal Agent and makes cross-platform data exchange simple, secure and traceable while eliminating manual intervention. “Universal Data Mover enables us to complete all of our company’s file transfers without any major effort. In contrast to our previous solution, UDM is remarkably fast and stable,” says Mr. Hofmann.

“Stonebranch convinced us in every way right from the start. I’ve never seen SAP scheduling run more powerfully or smoothly than with Universal Agent, and I’ve been in the SAP business for a very long time. This was a true competitive advantage for us then, and remains so today.”

KLAUS ECKSTEIN
SAP Specialist, HUK-COBURG

Thanks to the Stonebranch solution and its universal, vendor-agnostic approach, all processes remain transparent and fully under control, despite strong growth. More than 60 Universal Agents are in use today, helping control more than 20,000 jobs on decentralized systems using IBM TWS.

“Looking back today, working with Stonebranch has more than paid off for us. Excellent, German-speaking support, customer proximity, a flexible pricing model and a fair partnership are all things that few of today’s software companies offer,” concludes Mr. Hofmann.