New Feature: PDF Generation via Interface in Consor Universal

Consor Universal now enables you to generate and deliver PDFs directly through an interface. This allows external systems to automatically access approved documents—fast, secure, and without manual steps.

What does this mean in practice?

The use cases are diverse and can be tailored to your needs. Here are two examples:

• Customer Portals: Policyholders can conveniently download their policy as a PDF. The document is retrieved in real time via the interface directly from Consor Universal.
• Claims Systems: During claims processing, the system can fetch the current policy to instantly display covered damages and agreed deductibles.

This new feature boosts efficiency, minimizes errors, and enhances customer experience through seamless digital processes.

New Feature: Flexible Ordering for Standard Fields

Previously, the order of standard fields was tied to the repository sequence. Now, you can define the order independently for each component—easily via drag & drop.

How it works:

Activate the feature by setting the Universal Property WITH_MANUAL_SFC_SORTING to true. After that, you can arrange standard fields in any desired order.

Why does this matter?

• In the GUI: Adapt the input sequence to your underwriters’ workflow for greater efficiency.
• In Output: Ensure that field order is logical and clear from the customer’s perspective—improving policy readability.

This feature offers maximum flexibility to meet varying requirements in both the user interface and printed output.

New Table Formatting Options

With extended formatting capabilities in Consor Universal, you can now design printed tables more flexibly and individually. New options include:

• Coloring columns for better visual structure
• Merging rows and columns to present complex content clearly
• Using vertical text to save space

These features help you meet the specific needs of different lines of business. Examples:

• Highlight insured vs. non-insured benefits with color
• Use vertical text for compact layouts in complex tables

More design freedom means your output documents are not only functional but also visually appealing and well-structured.

All these features are available from Consor Universal 8.3. Contact us, if you are interested in an upgrade. 

From In-House Power Plants to Centralized Energy Supply

A look back highlights the transformation: factories once operated their own power plants to generate electricity — costly, complex, and risky. Only with centralized power stations did companies gain access to energy that was simple, safe, and reliably delivered “from the socket.”

Today, the same applies to software: what used to be painstakingly managed in on-premise data centers can now be delivered as a SaaS solution — modern, secure, and always available.

BarmeniaGothaer – One Step Ahead

BarmeniaGothaer is among the top 10 insurers in Germany and one of the largest mutual insurance associations.

From the very beginning, BarmeniaGothaer chose the Consor Universal Cloud Service. Key priorities included IT security and high service availability. The solution’s ISO 27001 certification and DORA compliance were decisive factors. Since June 2025, BarmeniaGothaer has been live with industrial property insurance offerings.

The Key Benefits of Consor Universal in the SaaS Model

• Cost Efficiency & Predictability
  No more large investments in hardware or IT operations. Insurers pay only for what they use — clearly calculable, like an electricity bill.
• Always Up-to-Date
  New features, updates, and regulatory changes are delivered quickly. No extra projects, no delays — innovation reaches the customer automatically.
• Maximum Security & Availability
  Professionally operated, certified data centers by Amazon Web Services ensure top-tier security standards, redundant systems, and continuous availability.
• Unlimited Scalability
  From niche insurers to global players — Consor Universal adapts. Growing demands can be met quickly and flexibly.
• Focus on Core Business
  Shift away from IT operations and toward what truly matters: underwriting complex risks, product development, and customer engagement.

A Strategic Step Forward

Migrating to the Consor Universal Cloud Service is more than a technological decision — it’s an investment in competitiveness and agility. Insurers who choose Consor Universal as a SaaS solution secure a platform that runs reliably, evolves continuously, and supports every growth step.

Just as factories once shut down their own power plants to rely on centralized electricity, now is the time for a modern, efficient, and future-ready IT strategy in industrial insurance.

Ready to take the next step?

With the Consor Universal Cloud Service, you lay the foundation for successful underwriting — today and in the future.

Our Approach to Your Security

At Consor, we rely on a clearly defined and proven update process to minimize security risks and keep your software consistently up to date:

• Regular Reviews: Using tools like RenovateBot and Dependency Track, we identify new versions and potential vulnerabilities early on. In addition, we conduct annual penetration tests through an external provider.
• Rapid Response: Critical security vulnerabilities are resolved within 30 days — often even faster.
• Structured Processes: New libraries are only integrated after thorough review by our TechBoard — including license and compatibility checks.

Why This Matters to You

• Maximum security for your systems
• Continuous development without disrupting your operations
• Reduced risk of outages and attacks due to outdated components

Our Promise

We don’t just keep Consor Universal running — we make it secure, stable, and ready for the future.

Have questions? Feel free to reach out — we’re happy to help.

Ruedi, why did you decide to join Consor in 2015?

I joined Consor as the successor to the founder, as a new investor, and as CEO. It was a unique situation.

At the time, I was specifically looking for a medium-sized software company in the B2B sector that was open to investment and had potential for growth. Not a start-up, but a company that was already established on the market. With Consor, I found exactly that.

Conversely, René Walter [editor’s note: the founder and former owner] was also looking for me and found me. He drew up a list of over 30 criteria. Among other things, his successor had to have studied computer science, be between 40 and 50 years old, and have already managed a medium-sized Swiss software company in the B2B sector. Coincidentally, I met almost all of these criteria, and we both quickly realized that it was a good fit.

What has changed internally at Consor since you took over?

A lot—really a lot. Consor was founded in 1979, and I took over in 2015. After 36 years under the same leadership, modernization was definitely needed.

We reorganized into cross-functional teams and switched to Scrum. We renewed our entire tooling and technology stack. We moved our data center to the cloud and now offer Consor Universal also as a SaaS model.

There were also many administrative changes. We updated our time tracking and CRM systems, reissued employment contracts, migrated personnel data to the cloud using a modern tool, strengthened our security processes, and achieved ISO 27001 certification. The list could go on almost endlessly.

Which technology or development has surprised you the most in the past 10 years?

Ten years ago, I would never have believed that Swiss and German insurers would move their business to the public cloud by 2025 and even adopt the Software-as-a-Service model. It was clear this would happen eventually—but I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.

I know digitalization is very close to your heart. Where do you think the insurance market stands in this regard?

Insurance companies, along with banks and government agencies, were among the first to digitize their business—in the 1970s and 1980s. Unfortunately, many couldn’t capitalize on this first-mover advantage and are still running on host systems from that era. These legacy systems are stable and incredibly fast, but they’re expensive to maintain and lack flexibility. A 25-year-old entering the workforce today expects a web interface—not a black-and-green 25×80 character screen.

Overall, many insurers are lagging behind the IT developments of the past 10–20 years. Of course, all CIOs are aware of this and are looking for creative and affordable ways to close this digitalization gap.

Many are considering skipping certain technologies altogether. Instead of moving from host systems to client-server infrastructure, they’re jumping straight to SaaS providers.

The insurance business is traditionally seen as a conservative industry. How can industrial insurance foster real innovation?

It’s not the core task of an insurance company to be technologically innovative. Innovation in insurance typically arises through new offerings for customers. For example, parametric insurance or embedded insurance products like the new offering launched by Swisscom together with Zurich and AXA.

Doesn’t that also require innovative technology?

Absolutely. Especially in the field of technical insurance, there are many approaches that combine AI and the Internet of Things. For instance, wind turbines can be equipped with sensors, and using the collected data and artificial intelligence, predictions can be made about if and when a turbine might fail. HDI has launched a corresponding insurance product.

What does “digital responsibility” mean to you personally as a CEO?

The entire IT sector bears a special responsibility in this regard. On one hand, digital tools and applications offer huge advantages and efficiency gains in everyday life and business. On the other hand, it’s essential to ensure that sensitive data remains protected and isn’t misused. AI amplifies all of this—the great benefits, but also the potential risks.

This discussion goes far beyond the IT industry and affects politics and society as a whole. The much-discussed concept of digital sovereignty, in my view, is already an illusion. We are all dependent on large tech corporations. At the very least, we can try to spread the risks and not put all our eggs in one basket.

What personally drives you to give your best for Consor every day?

I still find it exciting to work with our customers and our team to develop new software solutions for emerging challenges.

I’ve been in the software industry for 30 years.

We’re driven by technology and almost addicted to new developments. Like surfers, we wait for the next wave and try to catch it as best we can.

What’s the current wave that needs to be caught?

Right now, everyone is interested in AI. In industrial insurance, we’re still seeing few solutions in this area. We have several ideas and want to develop prototypes together with our customers.

One idea is to feed the unstructured data from an insurance application into an AI and then make specific queries: What is the desired coverage amount? What deductible is requested?

What do you wish for Consor and its customers over the next 10 years?

I truly hope that products and processes will be designed and implemented more end-to-end. At many of our clients, we still see manual processes with lots of media disruptions. It would be great if more insurers shared our vision of bringing their entire process—from broker, risk assessment, quote, policy creation and changes, all the way to billing—onto a digital platform. Ideally, across all lines of industrial insurance. That would bring the greatest and most sustainable benefit to everyone involved.

The project management team from BarmeniaGothaer, consisting of Melissa Knie, Stefanie Poensgen and Thorsten Krämer, made the start. They guided us through the first, hot project phase from the idea to the MVP from different perspectives. They described very vividly how they worked closely with Consor in the first year of the project to achieve the goals set. During the live demo, the audience was able to see the current status for themselves.

This was followed by an interview with our CTO Andrea Rezzonico. We looked into the status of the Consor Universal Cloud Service (CUCS) and what the next steps are. A topic that is of increasing interest to our customers.

After a short break, Michael Meili from Helvetia Specialty Lines and Markus Thöni from Consor showed how sales accounting is implemented with the help of Consor Universal. In particular, it became clear how much manual work could be replaced by automation. The sales accounting process at Helvetia Specialty Lines has been simplified and automated thanks to Consor Universal and the error rate has been reduced.

Our Head of Development, Marco Regniet, then answered questions about Consor Universal’s release strategy. He was able to show how we have established a clear and easy-to-understand release model by adapting our process.

Martin Nokes then took us through some of the feature highlights that we have been able to implement since the last User Conference. Once again this year, there was not enough time to show everything in detail.

Thilo Moseler from Mobiliar then showed various use cases in which data warehouses were integrated into Consor Universal. His presentation also made it clear how much Consor Universal facilitates the daily work of underwriters.

Finally, our keynote speaker, Dr. Frederik Flöther from QuantumBasel, introduced us to the exciting world of quantum computing. In addition to the current state of the art, he showed us inspiring application examples of how quantum computing is already being used in combination with AI models in the finance and insurance industry.

Our guests were able to talk about this for a long time during the subsequent drinks reception.

We recorded the presentations, which will be available on our YouTube channel shortly.

Would you like to join us next year? Please get in touch with us.

Like the previous Datamart, the functionality can be integrated directly into the business transaction via a mapper. The mapper also defines the times at which the data from the business transaction is to be filled into the defined structure, e.g. on release.

There are already scripts that enable simple migration from Datamart 1.0 to Datamart 2.0. If you are interested in the new functionality and would like to know more, please do not hesitate to contact us for details.

Challenges

However, quotation and inventory management systems are often not designed to deal with so many objects. The different types of objects in the divisions and products also have completely different characteristics with correspondingly different attributes and business rules. As a makeshift solution, Excel spreadsheets are used in which the objects are managed separately from the offer or contract.

Approach with Consor Universal

With object management, Consor Universal offers an ideal solution for precisely such contracts. The objects are stored within the business transactions in an audit-proof manner and with a history. They are entered and managed directly via the underwriting platform and are intuitive. The objects are also seamlessly and completely available for the output (documents). Groups and hierarchies are also supported so that comparable objects can be combined for pricing, e.g. different vehicle types in fleet insurance.

Object management is also suitable for embedded insurance and group contracts. For the latter, in particular, it is possible to configure at product level whether the risk objects of approved business transactions may be changed. In group business, this is of course necessary for entries and exits. Group contracts are used for business accident insurance, for example.

Would you like to find out more about property management or would you like to see it live? Then get in touch with us!

However, the reality in industrial insurance in 2024 is still completely different.

The degree of automation through software support is still low for many brokers and insurers.

Let’s take the example of industrial property insurance and assume that a medium-sized company with 20 locations in southern Germany needs property insurance for buildings and contents. In addition to the addresses, a large number of risk characteristics are collected for the 20 locations, such as flood zone, type of construction, fire alarm system, fire extinguishing system and much more. Depending on the type of business and insured risks, further risk characteristics are added for each location. Larger locations can be subdivided into individual areas – for example, production hall, warehouse and administration. This multiplies the number of risk characteristics to be recorded.

Often, all these data points are still collected manually – with paper and pen or in an Excel spreadsheet. As part of a tender, this data is typically sent by the broker to various insurers by e-mail. The most common “data formats” are Word, Excel, PDF or simply plain text in an unsecured e-mail.

Insurance companies have to manually process this unstructured flood of data. Many industrial insurers still work with Excel for risk assessment and pricing. Accordingly, the data received is manually typed from one Excel spreadsheet into another. This is not very efficient or digital – it is also error-prone and time-consuming.

Originally, the insurance industry was one of the pioneers in IT.

Back in the 1970s, insurance companies invested heavily in digitization, which was still called EDP at the time. So why is it that the level of digitalization is so low in industrial insurance today?

One key reason for this is the lack of standardization in data exchange. In principle, every industrial insurer collects and processes roughly the same data. In industrial property insurance, for example – as described above – flood zones, construction methods, operating modes, etc.. However, there is no comprehensive and widely supported data exchange standard and no corresponding data exchange platform yet.

The BiPRO e.V. association has covered the rating, offer and application (TAA) processes for private and commercial business with the 420 standards and has also standardized a description of the risk data with the 419 standards. These BiPRO 419 standards are actually only a shell – the specific data structures have not been worked out in detail. Accordingly, these standards are still largely unknown in industrial insurance and are hardly mapped in specific IT systems. Due to demand from the industry, BiPRO e.V. would like to revive the topic in a specialist group from Q1/2025. Affaire à suivre.

The Corify platform – a subsidiary of InsurTech company Hypoport – is taking a promising approach. Corify aims to enable a standardized and holistic risk description and thus a transparent market. The platform brings together the risks of the insurance industry with the requirements of insurers and brokers in a digital process. Corify has already come a long way with the specification and implementation of the platform and has already gained brokers such as Pantaenius and the fleet insurance service provider Auto Fleet Control as participants in the marketplace.

In addition to private-sector initiatives such as Corify’s, there is also movement at association level towards a standardized exchange of risk data.

At the beginning of September 2024, the General Association of the Insurance Industry (GVNW) announced that the RD-X project was about to be launched. RD-X stands for Risk Data Exchange. The aim of this GVNW initiative is to make the exchange of risk data between customers, brokers and insurers more efficient and secure. The aim is to develop a platform that enables the digital and standardized transmission of risk data. The focus is on increasing the efficiency of risk data exchange between all market participants.

However, we are not there yet. Under the leadership of the GVNW, an association will first be founded to finance and implement this project. The initiative of the insurance industry is supported by several large insurers and brokers. BASF, HDI Global SE, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, Ecclesia Group, Zurich Insurance and Funk are among those involved.

Is this GVNW initiative in competition with Corify? No, on the contrary! It’s not just industrial customers and insurers who want standardized data exchange. Private-sector providers of software solutions are also hoping for corresponding standards and processes for the secure and automated exchange of risk data.

Only a cooperative, committed approach by all market participants can ensure that the opportunities of digitalization can be exploited in the medium term and that scanned, handwritten risk data does not have to continue to be sent.