Introduction
Helsana is Switzerland’s largest health insurer, serving 1.9 million customers with CHF (Swiss Francs) 6.4bn in annual revenue. Facing slow, hand-coded releases and high reliance on external contractors, the BI team adopted WhereScape automation to accelerate delivery, modernize its data ecosystem, and reduce costs while using existing infrastructure more effectively.
“We couldn’t work on any new requirements. We were just making sure our own data warehouse kept track of the changes in the core system.”
– Gallus Messmer, Data Warehouse Architect, Helsana
Pre-WhereScape Challenges
- Release bottlenecks: Month-end and quarterly BICC changes demanded 30 – 40 person-days per release, delaying business value.
- Hand-coding risk: Manual SQL and stored procedures increased rework, slowed testing, and created fragile deployments.
- People dependency: Knowledge lived with individuals; holidays or absences stalled work and elevated operational risk.
- Tool sprawl: Multiple overlapping ETL and modeling tools complicated governance, cost control, and onboarding.
- External spend: 10 – 15 external contractors were needed to hit release dates, driving up cost and coordination overhead.
“We depended heavily on individuals. If they were on holiday or out, really the whole process stopped.”
– Gallus Messmer, Data Warehouse Architect, Helsana
Why WhereScape?
WhereScape aligned with Helsana’s goal to modernize quickly without a risky platform overhaul. Automation replaced repetitive hand-coding, standardized patterns across warehouses, and generated native, optimized code: improving speed, traceability, and consistency. Crucially, it enabled a sustainable shift to in-house delivery while minimizing external dependency.
The Solution
Automation-First Development
Helsana adopted WhereScape RED to generate native code for Teradata and orchestrate ETL jobs, reducing manual scripting, cutting defects, and enabling reproducible releases.
Model-Driven Design With 3D
Using WhereScape 3D, the team visualized target models and relationships, iterated quickly with business users, and validated requirements before build: shortening cycles from months to days.
Proof of Concept to Scale
A hands-on POC using Helsana data demonstrated end-to-end automation in days. With IT-Logix as implementation partner, Helsana standardized patterns and embedded best practices.
Shift Left on Collaboration
Rapid prototypes and shared metadata improved communication with business teams, shrinking feedback loops and reducing rework in downstream build and test.
“WhereScape 3D allows visual prototypes to be quickly spun up to confirm requirements with business users… potentially shortening development cycles from months to days.”
– Gallus Messmer, Data Warehouse Architect, Helsana
Results
🚀 Release Acceleration
- Month-end/BICC releases cut from 30 – 40 person-days to 1 – 2.
- Faster impact analysis and standardized patterns reduced handoffs.
- Repeatable pipelines improved predictability and on-time delivery.
🚀 Insourcing and Cost Reduction
- 90% of project staffing is now internal, with targeted augmentation.
- Eliminated most bespoke scripting; reduced tool sprawl and ETL spend.
- Savings on external resources measured in the millions.
🚀 Agile Ways of Working
- Monthly Scrum cadences replaced long release cycles.
- Rapid prototyping and short iterations increased business alignment.
- Roadmap includes nightly builds to further compress lead time.
🚀 Governance and Future-Proofing
- Automated documentation and version control made processes auditable.
- Consistent code generation reduced platform lock-in.
- Easier portability for potential database changes.
“With WhereScape… if we ever decided to change database we should have much less work because the code is generated by WhereScape. So now we are future proof.”
– Gallus Messmer, Data Warehouse Architect, Helsana
From POC to Production
Helsana’s journey began at TDWI Switzerland with a hands-on WhereScape Test Drive. In hours, the team experienced model-driven design in 3D and native code generation in RED. A subsequent three-day, on-site proof of concept using Helsana’s data validated fit, speed, and quality: building trust to scale.
Standardization at Scale
Before automation, two separately built warehouses and inconsistent patterns made maintenance difficult. WhereScape standardized naming, lineage, orchestration, and documentation. This reduced rework, simplified audits, and accelerated onboarding for new team members.
Partnering With IT-Logix
Helsana engaged Swiss BI experts IT-Logix for selective augmentation. Their role: help institutionalize automation best practices, coach internal developers, and ensure a smooth transition from contractor-led delivery to an internal, automation-first operating model.
Business Collaboration, Faster
With visual models and rapid prototypes, business users could confirm data structures and definitions early. This “shift-left” collaboration reduced late-stage change requests, tightened scope, and improved satisfaction with the delivered analytics.
Operational Confidence
Automated job control, dependency management, and consistent metadata reduced release anxiety. Teams gained confidence to iterate more frequently: without sacrificing stability or compliance requirements.
