Pohjantähti migrated 1.5 million documents in five months — during a lockdown

Building for the future. Then the future arrived early

When Pohjantähti launched the largest digitalization project in the company’s history, the goal was clear: build a stable, long-term ICT infrastructure that keeps pace with customers’ growing demand for digital services — now and in the future.

In 2019, no one anticipated that a pandemic would accelerate that demand within months. But Pohjantähti — a personal insurer with roots going back to 1895 — had a clear roadmap in place. When 30 offices switched to remote work, the company pressed ahead and delivered a brand-new document archive on schedule.

120,000+ customers, but no single place to find their documents

Pohjantähti ran several paper and digital archives. Documents created in one system were not available in the others, and finding the right information took time.

For a company serving over 100,000 personal and 16,000 corporate customers, unified document handling is mission-critical — not just to speed up search, but to provide a stable foundation for growth.

Highest score in the tender. And a bigger idea of what a document can be

When it was time to choose a new solution, Nextway’s document management scored highest in a formal tendering process.

Next Enterprise Archive went beyond what Pohjantähti expected from a traditional DMS. The solution handles document formats of all kinds — PDFs, Office documents, emails, phone calls, images. The key insight: any file format that contains information worth preserving should be treated as a document and archived as one.

Communication channels emerge faster than ever, and customer dialogues come in formats of all kinds. With Next Enterprise Archive, we have a scalable solution that will also handle tomorrow’s needs for archiving correspondences.
— Elina Kotilainen, CIO, Pohjantähti

More than a software deal: a seat at the Next Insurance User Group

The archive was not the only reason Pohjantähti chose Nextway. By selecting Nextway as their document partner, Pohjantähti also joined the Next Insurance User Group — a forum where like-minded, agile insurers meet to discuss future technologies and share their experience with Next. An additional advantage when choosing a new software vendor.

Implementation during Covid-19? Not an issue

The lockdown created no obstacles. In five months, Nextway migrated 1.5 million documents and rolled out the full solution to all 300 users. As of spring 2021, Pohjantähti has around 3 million insurance documents in the new digital archive. Migration of claims documents remains a project for the rest of the year.

Nextway promised easy, and delivered exactly that.
— Elina Kotilainen, CIO, Pohjantähti

No loose attachments. Every access logged

With the new solution, compliance at Pohjantähti took a significant step forward. Email attachments no longer circulate through the organisation. Everyone reads documents directly from the archive and shares them through the system.

Only files with permission can be accessed. The Next Extended Access Log feature logs not just activities on documents, but every instance of a document being viewed. Currently available for insurance documents — and soon to be rolled out to claims — Extended Access Log distinguishes whether a user intentionally opened a document, saw it in a preview, or only encountered it in a search result.

Nearly 8% net sales growth in Q1 2021. The archive is just getting started

Forward-thinking insurers invest in digital infrastructure. In the first quarter of 2021, Pohjantähti reported nearly 8% net sales increase, driven by diverse sales channels running on a digital platform.

At the foundation sits a digital archive where information from customers, partners, authorities, vendors, and employees is stored securely. Some documents for a few years. Others for over a century. Controlled, yet flexible enough to support future growth — and all the documents that come with it.