――Looking back, can you tell us about Sollers at the time of its founding and the state of the insurance industry back then?

Michał Trochimczuk: The challenges facing the insurance industry have changed significantly over the past 25 years. We have provided a lot of support in the field of technology, but issues related to technology evolve over time. When we founded the company in 2000, shortly after the collapse of the Internet bubble, it wasn’t necessarily a good time for insurance companies. European insurers did not have centralized systems; instead, each local office operated its own system, and policies were issued on paper. In addition, products weren’t centrally managed, and there were no call centers, so policyholders had to visit local offices or agents.

Sollers was originally founded by five members, but three of them left shortly. Nevertheless, we embarked on a project for PZU, the largest insurance company in Eastern Europe, which had 14 million customers and numerous offices in Poland and the three Baltic countries: Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia. By integrating their systems and centralizing the dispersed products, we helped improve the company's profitability.

Due to the success of this project, we expanded our business. However, Poland was a relatively small market, so in 2006, we started to expand internationally. In 2014 we entered the much larger UK market. At that time, UK insurance companies also had decentralized and inefficient systems, so we helped them centralize their systems, encouraged a shift to paperless operations, and set up call centers for customer support. Nowadays, instead of having customers call, procedures can be completed online. In other words, both business processes and technology are completely different now compared to 25 years ago.

We’ve expanded our business not only in the UK, but also into Germany, France, and Nordic countries, and later into North America and Asia, using technology to address the challenges faced by insurers in each region. Currently, we are also supporting insurance companies in Japan.

　―― What principles have you valued as a manager since the company was founded?

Michał Trochimczuk: I believe that the keys to success in the insurance industry are integrity, transparency, and agility. We have always treated our customers, business partners, employees, and stakeholders with these values ​​in mind. These principles are essential for accurately understanding market needs and driving effective change across the organization. In particular, agile methodologies have begun gaining recognition as a systems development approach in Japan's market in recent years. Agile can be seen as a crucial tool for improving adaptability in the rapidly changing Japanese insurance industry and accelerating its transformation.

Another key point is that all our teams work together to drive the business forward. For example, we designed a target model for marine insurance claims operations to solve a problem for a Japanese insurer. The London market in the UK specializes in marine insurance claims operations, and we work with 16 insurance companies there, so the team in Japan is addressing the customer's issues with support from the team in the London market.

　――Could you tell us about the company’s involvement with the Japanese insurance industry?

Michał Trochimczuk: We first began our business in Japan in 2017 with a project to implement a core insurance system for AXA General Insurance Company and opened an office in Tokyo in 2018. Since then, we’ve strengthened our relationships with customers by conducting PoCs for core system implementations and holding webinars and face-to-face events, such as "InsurTalk", for the insurance companies.

The Japanese insurance market is known for its strong foundations and uniformity. These characteristics may have contributed to the slower adoption of new technologies, but now many insurance companies are recognizing this challenge and are actively working on transformation. Significant progress has been made, especially in the modernization of core systems and the adoption of cloud technologies. Additionally, the automation of business processes is seen as a key strategy to respond to demographic changes. At Sollers, we support the effective implementation of these innovative solutions.

　――What is your understanding of the current global insurance market?

Michał Trochimczuk: From a global perspective, the entire insurance industry is striving to adapt to rapid technological advances. A major challenge is responding to the increasing number of insurance claims related to natural disasters. Our research shows that in many markets companies that have successfully embraced technological innovation are also achieving outstanding business results.

　――What are you currently focusing on in the digital field?

Michał Trochimczuk: AI has the potential to drive innovative change in the insurance industry, but a step-by-step approach is essential for its realization. Additionally, effective use of AI requires, first and foremost, investment in data management. We have developed expertise in data management, cloud computing, and AI technology, and by leveraging the knowledge of our numerous business partners, we have established ourselves as a vendor capable of providing comprehensive support and value.

　――What challenges does your company face at the moment?

Michał Trochimczuk: Every day brings new challenges, but since 2006, we’ve focused our operations on strategically important markets. Understanding a new market and its culture is always a challenge for us, and it takes time. Although we’ve been in Japan for eight years, we are still learning about the market and its culture, and we recognize the need to be patient. One thing we’ve learned about Japan is that it shares similarities with Germany—both countries are risk-averse and conservative because they value safety, so decision-making takes time. Our successful experience in Germany has helped us understand Japan.

Another challenge we face is maintaining our current working style while expanding the business. Teamwork is of utmost importance, and we are currently focused on expanding efficiently while preserving our organizational DNA.

　――What are the initiatives to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the company's founding?

Michał Trochimczuk: Currently, cloud-based AI solutions are developing rapidly, and we focus on presenting these to the industry as effective tools for solving business problems. In addition, to commemorate the 25th anniversary, the company is launching the "CEO Voices" project. This initiative will involve interviewing CEOs of major insurance companies around the world, gathering insights on the challenges facing the industry and the solutions to these challenges, and sharing these insights both internally and externally.

　――What are your future prospects?

Michał Trochimczuk: The gap between leading companies and others in terms of responding to technological innovation is gradually widening, and this trend is expected to become even more pronounced in the future. Looking back at the transformation of the industry over the past 25 years, the pace of change has steadily accelerated. We plan to further strengthen our expertise in the latest technology fields within the insurance industry. In addition to expanding our knowledge, we also aim to develop solutions optimized for each market.

　――Do you have a message for the Japanese insurance industry?

Michał Trochimczuk: One interesting statistic is that IT costs at Japanese insurance companies are about twice as high as those at Western companies (5% in Japan vs. 2.5-3% in the US and Europe, as a percentage of total premium income). Optimizing this cost structure is a key challenge, and I am confident that with the right strategy, it is possible to achieve cost efficiency while improving service quality.

The Japanese insurance industry has a strong will and the ability to implement remarkable innovations. At the same time, there is a tendency to fixate on perfection to avoid risk. To keep up with other markets, it’s becoming increasingly important to work in an agile manner, accept failure, and continue improving. At Sollers Consulting, we are ready to provide comprehensive support to help the Japanese insurance industry embrace the agile approach.