A visit with Daniel Gyr, Head of IT at Aargauische Gebäudeversicherung (Aargau Building Insurance) 

We’re at the headquarters of the building insurance of the canton of Aargau, less than five minutes from Aarau train station. The meeting room is high but small – it seems to be upside down. And, remarkably for a meeting with an IT boss, there’s no screen, no TV, and no projector. There’s just a picture on the wall. When asked about this, Daniel Gyr, CIO of the building insurance, has to laugh. “We mainly do job interviews here,” he explains.

He himself fits the image of an IT boss: short-sleeved shirt, Apple Watch, crew cut. But Gyr likes to laugh – his good mood and fresh complexion are less in keeping with the stereotype of the computer nerd.

Gyr tells the story of how the homeowners insurance company informed its customers last October that they could now receive their invoices via eBill or e-mail. “We told them on Friday, and by Saturday they were flooding in,” he says proudly.

Within one week, 32,000 homeowners had switched to eBill or e-mail invoices. To date, another 8,000 have done so – out of a total of 120,000 customers. Before making the switch, the home insurance company conducted several focus groups, which showed that “many people no longer want a paper invoice in their mailbox,” says Gyr. “But not everyone wants to sign up for eBill – that’s why we continue to offer invoices by e-mail.”

The two options are used in roughly equal measure, but Gyr assesses them differently from the perspective of the invoice issuers: “eBill is a typical Swiss solution: very simple, practical, and reliable. You receive the invoice at the right time, when you are logged in to your online banking, and you pay with two or three clicks, without having to make a single entry. The downside: “I can only see one,” says Gyr: “eBill is not free. The fees could be lower.”

E-mail as an invoicing channel meets a customer need, but it is a time-consuming one: “E-mail accounts can fill up quickly, invoice get sent to spam, accidentally deleted or overlooked – or you get a new e-mail address and forget to update it,” says Gyr. “There’re are also payment errors. Sending is cheap: An e-mail costs nothing.” But the entire process is quite complicated.

Anyone who does not pay the invoice receives a reminder by mail. “This has to do with the fact that our invoices are decrees,” says Gyr. What sounds like legalese has far-reaching consequences: Orders place a legal lien on the property, which can lead to foreclosure. “In rare cases, properties have been foreclosed on simply because the owners didn’t pay the building insurance – we’re talking about a few hundred francs a year in insurance premiums. Such a scenario should be avoided at all costs. That’s why it’s extremely important that the reminders are actually received.” Incidentally, building insurance invoices can only be paid with the QR-bill.

An external service provider, Mikro + Repro in Baden, is responsible for sending the invoices. “It was originally a printing company,” says Gyr, “but it is innovative and has developed into a full-service provider in the area of accounting – certainly thanks to our collaboration.” The building insurance provider sends the data to Mikro + Repro, which then print and send the invoices, prepare them as an e-mail, or deliver them to the eBill portal, depending on the customer’s wishes.

Gyr is generally an innovative boss. “Our digitalization pipeline is full to bursting,” he says. At the same time, he warns against chasing after every trend, because “we often forget what customers really want.” Artificial intelligence is a good example: “Of course there’re also ideas for our industry. But what I’ve seen so far doesn’t offer any real added value.”

Like health insurance, home insurance is mandatory almost everywhere in Switzerland. Unlike health insurance, however, there’s only one public provider in most cantons. “I think this system is very good,” says Gyr, adding: “Because we don't have to compete, we don’t need expensive advertising and can offer customers cost-effective solutions.” Gyr does not accept the oft-quoted authority mentality that health insurance companies often use as an argument against a standardized solution. “I've worked in industry for decades. At Aargauische Gebäudeversicherung we work no less hard, no less innovatively, and with no less customer focus than in the private sector.” A direct comparison with the few cantons with private building insurance operations also bears this out: “Their premiums tend to be more expensive than ours.”

Gyr lives in Birrfeld, or more precisely in Lupfig, with his wife and two grown-up sons. The 53-year-old is a passionate mountain biker, so he has a keen interest in the weather forecast. But when he switched to the home insurance field in 2019, his relationship with hail, windstorms, and flood intensified once again, as these cause the most damage to homes. “When I get a storm warning on my phone, I can’t help but cringe,” Gyr says. “I worry about people in their homes – and about my colleagues who have to work an extra shift.” Gyr’s knowledge of the weather forecast is evident when he says goodbye: “Enjoy the nice weather,” he says, “because the day after tomorrow, around 4 pm, the clouds will roll in again.”