Will the data center industry turn more and more to sustainable business? Wojciech Stramski, CEO of Beyond.pl, a Polish provider of sustainable data center and cloud services, comments on the issue situation as follows:

Those who do not save energy lose competitiveness

"Those who ignore sustainability policy and are afraid to implement it in their company will lose their competitiveness. The demands on environmental management are increasing - from non-governmental organizations, the European Commission and ultimately from customers. For them, issues such as measuring the carbon footprint and energy efficiency, but also the protection of biodiversity and human rights, are just as important as the level of service, safety or server efficiency.

If the awareness of companies has not changed significantly as a result of the climate crisis, there is a good chance that this will be the case with the current energy crisis. Irresponsible digitization that ignores the principles of sustainability will lead to an irresponsible increase in resource consumption, including electricity consumption. Leveraging modern technologies such as 5G, IoT, AI or machine learning and working with proven and effectively managed partners using cutting-edge product and software solutions makes it possible to optimize energy consumption and sustainability. 

Companies that have not been interested in solutions to reduce energy consumption have no choice now that various governments are announcing energy restrictions for businesses and rising prices. The users of the mentioned technologies should not only be companies from the IT sector, but also from the wider service sector, manufacturing or heavy industry. 

Further reducing energy consumption not only in times of crisis

In a situation of limited energy supply, we must fight to reduce energy consumption. This is reflected in the data from a study published in October 2022. Study (Title: 'In search of optimization. Data centers, colocation and cloud'). The survey shows that increasing energy efficiency is seen by companies as the best way to reduce energy costs and emissions. 61 percent of respondents from the largest Polish companies and corporations cited the rising costs of maintaining and upgrading their own data centers as an important motive for hosting IT resources in a professional data center or for cloud computing.

Changing customer requirements are forcing the IT industry to compete in the field of energy efficiency, the measure of which is the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) indicator. In 2021, its average value according to Uptime Institute at 1.57 PUE, which means that data centers consume on average 57 percent more energy to maintain the facilities' infrastructure than is required by the IT equipment operating within them. For enterprise server rooms, this ratio exceeds a value of 2.0 to 2.5. 

The ideal, albeit still practically unattainable, PUE value is 1.0 - in this case, the energy consumption of the data center would be equal to the demand of the IT devices operated in it. Beyond.pl's data center has a PUE value of 1.2, making it one of the most energy-efficient facilities in Europe. In addition, the facilities have been powered by renewable energy since 2020.

The data center industry takes sustainability very seriously

The activities of the data center industry are also being noticed, and in 2022, for the first time in the twelve-year history of the European Green Week (EU Green Week), providers were given the opportunity to showcase their environmentally friendly activities. Numerous initiatives aimed at making cloud services and data centers more transparent, driving green change, and creating regulations are making the entire IT industry more sustainable. 

These initiatives include the Pact for Climate-Neutral Data Centers or the Green Digital Coalition, whose membership includes Beyond.pl's requirements to power its facilities with 100 percent green energy, hold the ISO 14001 standard, and thus implement consistent measures that minimize the negative impact of its operations on the environment and contribute to sustainable corporate development.

What is forgotten when discussing the carbon footprint and environmental impact of technology is the fact that professional modern data centers achieve high resource savings, including electricity or water. Without modern data centers, the emission levels in the IT industry would be many times higher. Companies that choose to maintain their IT resources in their own server rooms are not able to provide the same level of optimization as larger facilities built specifically to maintain large IT environments.

Technology companies are not exempt from the challenges that all organizations face when it comes to employee diversity, equal pay for men and women, establishing stable foundations for corporate governance (organizational structure, business model, compliance with business ethics) or the environment. The challenges related to environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues are all the more important for technology companies because the sector is characterized by relatively little regulation in this area.

Source reference:

• https://www.statista.com/outlook/tmo/data-center/worldwide
• https://www.computerworld.pl/news/W-poszukiwaniu-optymalizacji-Centra-danych-kolokacja-i-chmura,441821.html
• https://uptimeinstitute.com/about-ui/press-releases/uptime-institute-11th-annual-global-data-center-survey

This article originally appeared on m-q.ch - https://www.m-q.ch/de/wie-ernst-nimmt-die-rechenzentrumsbranche-das-thema-esg/

There's life in the old dog yet again. This also applies to car brands from time to time, even if most attempts at revival fail - let's remember Borgward or DeLorean. The brand that is the subject of this article now produces only one vehicle and is well on its way to becoming the next brand zombie with a glamorous history: Lancia.

In the ears of many automotive enthusiasts, this name still has a good ring to it, recalling classics such as the Aurelia, Flaminia or the rally legend Stratos. The Stellantis Group now wants to take up this great tradition again and presented a sculptural design study at the end of 2022 to mark the brand's resurrection, which had one thing above all: no wheels. In other respects, too, it was more reminiscent of a computer mouse from the 2010s - after all, it is supposed to anticipate the future design language of the recently all-electric brand (of course!) Lancia. The first new vehicles with wheels are to be expected at the earliest 2024. We can be curious, but already some (unauthorized) images are circulating through the net.

In addition to the sculpture, a completely new corporate design was also presented, which is supposed to be based on its logo predecessors from successful days - but still comes across as very "pure and radical" - that's how Lancia calls its new concept "PuRa". So much for the official diction, peppered with all sorts of elaborate 3D videos and slightly clichéd Italian lifestyle in moving images.

The logo itself represents a return to its semantic origins - and still manages to get everything wrong. The lance with the flag is practically impossible to decode. Furthermore, the design has considerable formal flaws, as shown by the black-and-white representation, which is to be used primarily digitally. It is practically unrecognizable at small sizes. Why such a rather clumsy old-school 3D logo is presented in our digital age is probably known only to the designers themselves. Better there is everything else that is in the brand construction kit.

In any case, they have succeeded here in making you immediately think you are in an elegant, Italian premium world when you see the brand: The Lancia typography, colors, materials and graphics, however, tend to speak a language that comes across as less modern than nostalgic in today's automotive environment. Is this what an automotive renaissance for the 21st century looks like? One wonders who this brand will inspire in the future. Certainly not Gen Z or millennials. It's more likely to appeal to the older generation, if they can be dissuaded from their ultra-modern Mercedes, Ferrari or Porsche models.

In any case, we can hope that the announced exciting new Lancias will go on sale before the actual reminiscent target group passes away.

* Heinrich Paravicini is founder and creative director of Mutabor.

The new principle free of charge

Win customers and increase sales with contemporary content marketing.

• Author: Kerstin Hoffmann
• Publisher: Wiley-VCH, 2023
• Pages: 270
• ISBN: 9783527511358

It may seem like an absurd business model to make one's knowledge freely available instead of protecting it. Nevertheless, Kerstin Hoffmann advises giving up the secrecy. The glasses through which she judges the sense of blogging positively to euphorically are relatively often those of her own web activity. Readers, however, get a good chance to judge for themselves whether the "principle of free" is for them. A book for anyone who wants to be introduced to the strategies and methods of content marketing.

Change it!

21 creative instigations to change the whole world, any organization, and even yourself.

• Author: Andri Hinnen and Gieri Hinnen
• Publisher: Murmann Verlag, 2022
• Pages: 220
• ISBN: 9783867746991

Why is the underdog Han Solo the perfect hero type? Why did Nemo have to leave his reef and Luke Skywalker have to sacrifice the father he longed for? The best films make use of archetypal metaphors that have a deep impact on the subconscious. Those responsible for change projects can do the same. Whether it's the hero's journey, Hegel's dialectical rule of three, or the obligatory temptation that every hero must resist, the Hinnen brothers very entertainingly show how to grab and activate their audience.

4000 weeks

Life is too short for time management.

• Author: Oliver Burkeman
• Publisher: Piper Verlag, 2022
• Pages: 304
• ISBN: 9783492058162

The life of a person who reaches the age of 80 lasts about 4,000 weeks. 4,000 weeks, from which - as time management advisors teach us - we always have to get the best out of. For Oliver Burkeman, this is a wrong approach that doesn't make people more satisfied, but only more stressed. His counter-suggestion: accept that time is limited and that we never have our lives completely under control. And recognize that rest has value in itself and that time spent with others is especially precious. An inspiring book for all those who no longer want to put themselves under time pressure.

The power of platforms

Politics in the age of the Internet giants.

• Author: Michael Seemann
• Publisher: Ch. Links Verlag, 2021
• Pages: 448
• ISBN: 9783962890759

Today, no one can ignore platforms. They are everywhere, multifaceted, and their influence is constantly growing. This can be extremely problematic, but under certain circumstances it can also be helpful - for example, with regard to global challenges such as climate change. What platforms are, how they function, and what political and economic dimensions they have are explained by Michael Seemann in The Power of Platforms in a detailed, vivid, and extremely well-versed manner. It's not always easy reading, but it's highly interesting.

Seven years after its founding, Too Good To Go is also taking the next step in its visual development. As of now, the company presents itself in a new design. The modernized look is intended to focus even more on the community and connect across all generations.

With this step, the brand wants to increase its impact and save even more food from the garbage can. Together with over 70 million registered users and more than 130,000 partners in 17 countries, the brand aims to end food waste and sustainably protect our environment.

Focus on broad audience

"The power of our brand has been instrumental in the growth of Too Good To Go. It has helped build a strong community of 70 million registered user:s, gain tremendous credibility and sustain a high level of organic growth. To further increase our impact, we recognized that we needed to reach a broad audience beyond the niche audience that already recognizes the urgency of taking action on food waste," explains Ivo van den Brand, Global CMO of Too Good To Go.

With the new brand positioning and identity, Too Good To Go aims to create an emotional connection with the community. The new brand personality is intended to be friendly, honest, humble and authentic.

The new brand identity was developed entirely in-house by TGTG's international brand, creative and design teams in Copenhagen, London, Paris, Madrid, Milan and Toronto.

Faced with an all-time high in transaction volumes, customer expectations and competitive threats, banks must adapt quickly to keep pace. To meet these challenges, Oracle recently introduced its Banking Cloud Services, a new suite of component-based, composable cloud-native services.

Renew business functions of banks faster

These new services provide banks with highly scalable corporate deposit account processing, enterprise-wide limit and collateral management, real-time global ISO 20022 payment processing, API management, and new self-service capabilities for digital experiences. Based on a microservices architecture, they help banks renovate and modernize their business functions faster and with less risk. "Banks must innovate to succeed in today's competitive environment," said Sonny Singh, executive vice president and general manager, Oracle Financial Services. "We've developed one of the world's most comprehensive suites of cloud-native SaaS solutions to help banks of all sizes innovate quickly, securely and scalably without compromising their existing environments."

The new services in detail

The services can run standalone, seamlessly interoperate and co-exist with existing applications to help banks reduce cost and risk while driving innovation, Oracle explains. As a result, banks benefit from faster provisioning and availability - which can be achieved in minutes - and benefit from automated patching and shorter turnaround times for disaster recovery, reducing IT costs and burden. The new services include:

• Oracle Banking Accounts Cloud Service: Current corporate demand deposit account (DDA) solutions are not equipped to handle the explosion in e-commerce and digital payments that have led to a massive increase in global bank transactions. Accounting firm PwC estimates that the global volume of cashless payments is expected to increase by more than 80 % to nearly 1.9 trillion transactions between 2020 and 2025. The Oracle Banking Accounts Cloud Service provides highly scalable demand deposit account processing on Oracle Coherence Datagrid infrastructure. The service has already been tested for extreme performance, recording over 200 TPS per CPU on commodity hardware. It also integrates with a bank's existing processes and technologies, allowing them to modernize their core banking DDA systems to bring new offerings to market without operational disruption.
• Oracle Banking Payments Cloud Service: Legacy systems cannot scale or manage the growing volume and velocity of digital payments from e-commerce and new transaction types. Oracle Banking Payments provides a single engine for real-time payment processing, including cross-border, high-value bulk, retail and 24×7 payments. The foundation of the service is based on a canonical ISO 20022 data model and more than 15 leading global payment systems such as SWIFT, SEPA and others that are ready to use.
• Oracle Banking Enterprise Limits and Collateral Management Cloud Service: Due to the lack of an enterprise-wide system, inefficient monitoring and poor controls, commercial banks struggle to manage the influx of defaults. According to McKinsey estimates, banks using improved models could see a 20 to 40 % reduction in their credit losses. With Oracle Banking Enterprise Limits and Collateral Management, banks can gain a holistic view of their risk by centralizing the limit definition process and collateral management. In addition, the service reduces risk by providing banks with a real-time solution for risk tracking, credit allocation, decisions and approvals.
• Oracle Banking Digital Experience Cloud Service: Oracle Banking Digital Experience Cloud Service is a digital banking solution that delivers ready-to-use banking experiences for businesses and consumers that improve customer service. The solution provides customer and product acquisition in addition to contextual omnichannel digital experiences supported by video, chatbot, AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP)-based engagement tools. In addition, the service works with the bank's existing technology and third-party services to enable seamless processes.
• Oracle Banking APIs Cloud Service: With more than 1,800 ready-to-use business and basic banking APIs, Oracle Banking APIs Cloud Service enables banks to deploy an open banking platform to accelerate innovation while complying with regulations. With this solution, banks can improve the customer experience and revenue opportunities by embedding their services into a growing ecosystem of partners, including e-commerce portals, enterprise software and more.

Source: Oracle

This article originally appeared on m-q.ch - https://www.m-q.ch/de/dank-neuen-services-banken-koennen-schneller-in-die-cloud-wechseln/

Canon (Schweiz) AG is integrating BLP Digital's Software as a Service (SaaS) solution into its Workspace software portfolio as a distributor. BLP Digital's comprehensive cloud suite expands content and document management. The technology, which was researched at ETH Zurich, was developed over many years in collaboration with 60 companies and, according to the company, represents "a true quantum leap" in the automated processing of supplier documents such as delivery bills, order confirmations and invoices or incoming orders from customers.

Use of artificial intelligence

Thanks to artificial intelligence and novel neural networks, the software can extract head, foot and position data in high quality without having prior information regarding the structure and content of the documents, the manufacturers explain. The often unstructured data from various sources is thus transformed into structured, appropriately classified information. Users also benefit from the deep integration of the solution into ERP and surrounding systems as well as the intelligent comparison of master and transaction data in real time. Associated processes thus run efficiently and automatically - purchasing, logistics, finance and sales departments in particular benefit from significant time savings. This means that companies are resiliently prepared for the future.

A win-win situation

Canon continuously invests in the further development of its business practices in order to expand its already leading position in the information management market. As recently as February 2023, Canon (Schweiz) AG announced the expansion of its solutions business under the leadership of Michael Maunz: "Our goal is to accompany our customers on the path to digitization with customized end-to-end solutions and services. With the cloud solution from BLP Digital, we can expand our portfolio and offer our users a new, attractive and modern technology. With the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning, we are adding additional sophistication to cloud capturing and ERP process automation," explains Michael Maunz, Head of Solution Domain, Canon (Schweiz) AG.

BLP Digital, on the other hand, is pleased about the cooperation with Canon - in the future, they will know that they have a company with a strong presence in the market and excellent specialists at their side, who will contribute their broad know-how and network in the field of information management. "Sealing the cooperation with Canon as an established sales partner with comprehensive process expertise in various industries is a stroke of luck for a startup like BLP," says Thore Harmuth, Co-Founder, BLP Digital AG.

Source: Canon (Switzerland) AG

This article originally appeared on m-q.ch - https://www.m-q.ch/de/canon-schliesst-partnerschaft-mit-eth-und-hsg-spin-off-blp-digital/

The Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) Roundtable, held in collaboration between the Gesellschaft für Marketing Schweiz GFM and Deloitte at Zurich's Trustsquare Eventspace, gave experts and entrepreneurs the opportunity to share their insights from the publication with the audience. Their perspective combines the knowledge from research with the experience from practice.

During Thursday's discussion, panelists emphasized the need for companies to be flexible in their marketing strategies. The CMOs from Breitling, Läderach, Zurich Insurance and Bank Cler also spoke about the challenges posed by the ever-changing marketing landscape. It is crucial to stay one step ahead of the competition, they said.

Swiss innovative power in transition

"Strategic thinking and curiosity are two important qualities we look for in new employees," says Daniele Calderoni, Group Head of Brand Marketing at Zurich Insurance. However, only 28 percent of the companies surveyed in Deloitte's study, published in mid-February, consider themselves willing to take risks (Werbewoche.ch reported). Creativity or a positive error culture is considered less important in a global comparison.

The presence of Swiss companies in the Metaverse also leaves something to be desired. While in other nations only 8 percent of respondents said they had no plans yet regarding Metaverse, in Switzerland the figure was 12 percent. Virtual opportunities, however, are gaining relevance. Breitling CMO Tim Sayler, for example, says that as early as 2020, Breitling will begin issuing an NFT with every watch sold.

For a sustainable economy

However, in terms of sustainable products and long-term commitment to sustainability, Switzerland is a frontrunner in an international comparison. Sustainability must be firmly anchored in the corporate strategy, he says. "First deliver, then communicate," says Gregor Eicher, Head of Marketing & Sales at Bank Cler, at the CMO Roundtable. Economic considerations are seen by participants as an opportunity, not a risk, and are already largely present in corporate decisions.

To develop the necessary leadership culture, which Thomas Meier describes as "the key ingredient," he enlisted the support of TheNextWe. "It all starts with the mindset," says Meier. The mindset that fits a global player was successfully developed individually and implemented sustainably in a worldwide executive coaching session in which the management board also participated.

"We export 90 percent of our products around the globe, and internally we have retained the feeling of a family business where togetherness is very important. At the same time, we can step on the gas a lot more with our brand. Together with TheNextWe, we have succeeded in realizing the necessary mindset for this. Everyone looked at themselves and asked themselves 'What's stopping me from taking this step?' That was the liberation we were looking for," explains Ricola CEO Meier.
René Schori, Chief Human Resources Officer, adds: "That was the main task: that we enter a transformation from an export-oriented Swiss SME to a global company that has a play-to-win mindset."

The entire Executive Board and managers working at the headquarters in Laufen as well as in the USA, Singapore, Italy, France and Belgium took part in the twelve-week program. In the first four weeks, TheNextWe worked with them on an individual level to identify their attitudes and reservations in connection with the topic of "leadership. Each participant was assigned their own coach for this purpose. On this basis, TheNextWe helped to establish a new collective mindset across all areas that fits the upbeat character of a global player.

The new behavior resulting from this work was practiced and consolidated for eight weeks. TheNextWe app served as the central platform for coaching throughout, guiding participants through inspiring exercises, coaching conversations, and setting and achieving personal milestones.

The program concluded with an event where all participants could share what they had experienced. Together, they noted a great collective change resulting from the liberation from self-limiting mindsets. Leaders reported, for example, that they were now able to address difficult issues directly and use the talents in their teams more effectively.

Rosa Riera, co-CEO of TheNextWe, sums up: "In the family-run SME sector, major changes are on the horizon, often involving a change of leadership from owner to external manager. This transformation is not trivial. Keeping the genuine togetherness while establishing the performance mindset - that's what enables a traditional company to remain successful as a global player."

Agap2 Switzerland approached Farner with a simple insight: talent is increasingly difficult to recruit, and retaining current employees has become a real challenge. In this context, Agap2 has many little-known competitive advantages.

Farner's employer branding teams met with employees and consultants to identify Agap2 Switzerland's personality and the company's distinguishing features. Because job security and the variety of tasks on offer are at the forefront, Agap2 Switzerland has adopted the claim "Let's make work an adventure", which is based on the following three main values: "Relying on the match", or the promise to assign projects in a way that meets the wishes of the employees. "Providing variety", or the promise to offer a real professional adventure in which employees can grow. And "accelerating progress", or continuously anticipating clients' needs to help them develop projects that will shape the future.

To bring these newly identified values to life, a visual concept was devised and applied to the brand's internal and external communication tools: a new career portal on the website, an activation strategy via the company's LinkedIn professional network, and an internal newsletter program for all employees.

In industry, more and more companies are relying on computer vision systems that can recognize and process objects in still and moving images. They use them, for example, to automatically detect visible damage to machines or infrastructures for maintenance purposes, to inspect workpieces produced for defects for quality control purposes, or to determine parts and equipment for reordering for their inventory management. A critical component in the application of computer vision is the recording technology, because its success depends to a large extent on the image quality. Different cameras and laser systems are available for capturing images, each with their specific strengths and weaknesses. Which solution is best depends on the specific application. 

Swiss data science specialist LeanBI explains which factors industrial companies need to consider when making their selection:

What are the lighting conditions? 
Cameras require very good illumination, especially for moving parts, so that the images do not become blurred. Laser systems, on the other hand, can work reliably and deliver accurate data even in unfavorable lighting conditions.

Is there any contamination? 
In industrial plants, contamination often has a negative effect on the image quality of cameras. Cleaning systems using compressed air or water can eliminate the problem, but they make the overall system more expensive and more prone to errors.

How accurate do the recordings need to be?
Standard cameras with 4K resolution are inexpensive, but often not enough in industry. Submillimeter imaging requires expensive cameras with resolutions of 10K and more. Laser systems that are inherently high-resolution can then be the better choice. 

Is three-dimensionality necessary?
Cameras capture 2D images, laser systems can generate 3D images. Although 3D models can be reconstructed retrospectively from 2D images using photogrammetry, this is a relatively complex process that often requires manual intervention.

Is a combination with other data useful?
Often, the combination of image data with further data, for example from acoustic and vibration sensors or current measurements, can offer added value. This added value also depends to a large extent on the imaging technology used. 

"Industrial companies should check and weigh the possibilities and limitations of the various techniques at an early stage," explains Marc Tesch, owner and CEO of LeanBI. "A supposedly simple computer vision application with a camera can suddenly become complex and expensive if it turns out that good illumination and a cleaning system are required. In such cases, a laser system may be a better solution from the start."

Source and further information: www.leanbi.ch​

This article originally appeared on m-q.ch - https://www.m-q.ch/de/computer-vision-in-industrieunternehmen/

What moves Lenzerheide? What is behind the vacation region's recipe for success? Which players played which role in the past and today? What is happening at the moment? Where do we want to go? And how? What challenges are we facing? What problems do we need to tackle? The new podcast "Lenzerheide Backstage wants to get to the bottom of such and other questions and stand for an open culture of conversation and exciting discussions.

On the 1st Wednesday of each month, a new 20- to 30-minute episode is released, focusing on a personality from the region. The podcast appears in Swiss German on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts and is produced by Lenzerheide Marketing and Support.

First episode with Maurin Malär

Maurin Malär is the guest in the first episode of the new destination podcast "Lenzerheide Backstage". The 32-year-old has been mayor of the municipality of Vaz/Obervaz since January 1, 2022. In the podcast, he looks back on his first year in office and gives an insight into current burning political issues. He talks about the importance of tourism, the difficulties of cooperation in a cross-municipality destination, and upcoming major events.

The six factors "Product & Service", "Innovation", "Profitability", "Sustainability", "Management" and "Employer" shape a company's good reputation. Among other things, a good reputation ensures new and loyal customers, attracts the best talent, increases social prestige and ensures broad support from all stakeholders. Information and communication in the media play a key role in shaping opinion. For the benchmark study "Reputation of health insurance companies in Switzerland", over 12,500 statements from Swiss media and online sources from the entire year 2022 have now been evaluated.

Twelve major health insurance companies analyzed

The benchmark study surveyed the reputation of the health insurers Assura, Atupri, Concordia, CSS, Groupe Mutuel, Helsana, KPT, ÖKK, Sanitas, Swica, Sympany and Visana. For the analysis, the performance of these companies was evaluated in the dimensions responsible for reputation. KPT achieved the top result with top scores in the areas of product & service, innovation and cost-effectiveness. Second-ranked Sympany was also convincing in Product & Service and Profitability and also achieved a top result in Management. Swica came third with very good scores in management and as an employer.

High visibility does not guarantee a good reputation

The reputation analysis was based on all publicly accessible Swiss media and online sources in the entire year 2022. It showed that the companies with the greatest media visibility -CSS, Visana and Helsana - do not automatically receive the best reputation.

"Good visibility only becomes a reputation driver in combination with a positive tone. That is why CSS, Visana and Helsana did not achieve good reputation scores everywhere despite their high visibility. KPT, on the other hand, is in the middle of the pack with visibility, but reaches the top spot thanks to high tonality scores," explains Lukas Zihlmann of Swissreputation.group.

"Innovation" and "blue-collar employer" as reputation drivers with potential

While topics relating to products & services, profitability, sustainability and management are relatively well represented, only 3.3 percent of the statements are assigned to the dimensions "innovation" and only 3.2 percent to "employer". KPT, Groupe Mutuel and Sanitas are convincing when it comes to innovation topics, whereas Helsana, ÖKK, Concordia and Assura have no media presence in this area.

When it comes to perception as an employer, Swica, Visana and Concordia stand out with the best scores. Sympany, ÖKK and Atupri, on the other hand, fail to achieve sufficient employer visibility in the media. "Due to the small number of innovation and employer topics, even a few communication measures in the two areas can have a comparatively large effect and consequently influence the overall reputation," concludes Zihlmann.

Sustainability as a topic not yet everywhere

Social, ecological and economic sustainability was the subject of 18 percent of the statements analyzed. This means that sustainability is the reputation dimension with the most mentions after product & service - a share of 40 percent of the statements. However, the ranking of the twelve health insurance companies shows that the good presence in itself with regard to sustainability topics does not yet result in strong reputation values for most companies. The reason for this is the exceptional performance of Visana, which combines very high visibility with top tonality scores.

"Since the values in the individual reputation dimensions are always based on the best company in each case, the results of the other health insurance companies, despite good performance in some cases, recede somewhat into the background," says Luka Zihlmann. "Visana is the clear benchmark in terms of sustainability. And for some companies, sustainability is simply not yet an issue."

Reputation measurement using AI

According to the study authors, the analyses in this benchmark study were carried out using AI-based, customized and extensively "trained" software. As a data basis, all publicly accessible media and online mentions of the twelve included health insurance companies were collected in the period from January 1 to December 31, 2022: These include journalistic online media, news portals, forums and blogs, but also social media such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and other sources.

An AI-assisted text analysis then semantically evaluated the collected statements and assigned them to the relevant reputation dimensions. Based on the number of statements and the assigned tonality (positive/neutral/negative), the reputation values of the six individual dimensions were determined. The overall reputation is calculated by adding the weighted individual values.

The complete benchmark study, which is subject to a fee, includes detailed results on the reputation of the 12 health insurers. Complete information on the overall study is available from Swissreputation.group.