Image: CEO Oliver Bienek andCTO Patrick Steiner, Liberty Vorsorge AG
With its e-platform “Smart Gate”, Liberty Vorsorge scales its service offering and consistently invests in digitalisation. The technical foundation is the application platform “datalizard”.
The Swiss pension market is evolving quickly. Fully digital providers are entering the market, and established players are under pressure to respond. Liberty Vorsorge addresses this shift with clarity. Founded more than 15 years ago, the company operates an independent pension platform that brings together its own and third-party solutions across pillar 2 and pillar 3. With assets under management of nearly CHF 4 billion, Liberty is one of the leading full-service providers in Switzerland for individual, occupational and tied pension solutions. Growth continues at a strong pace. This development is driven by an innovative business model and a consistent digital strategy, supported by a close partnership with the Zurich-based software company Datalizard.
Smart Gate as a service enabler
At the core of Liberty’s strategy lies the platform approach built around “SmartGate”. From a business perspective, the platform provides products and services across segments such as 3a, occupational pensions, vested benefits and 1e solutions to more than 400 partners. Together with Liberty, these partners can handle their key business processes fully digitally through SmartGate. The offering addresses pension clients, employers, advisors and smaller to mid-sized pension foundations alike.
Customer onboarding is fully digital. Depending on the product, users are guided through tailored processes. Security and a careful assessment of the risk profile are integral parts. Manual work is limited to validation and handling of exceptional cases. For end customers in particular, simple and direct digital access is essential. Once onboarding is complete, customers gain access to their pension portfolio through “Liberty Connect”. They see a consolidated view across all accounts and custody portfolios, including strategy, assets and performance, even across different foundations. Partners also access consolidated views of their client portfolios through the same portal.
Investment strategies and product offerings are defined jointly by Liberty and its partners. Transparency is a key principle. Compared to individual banks, Liberty offers a broader range of products and a high degree of independence in managing pension assets.
Integration as the key
Liberty’s IT landscape has undergone significant change in recent years. Finnova was introduced as the core banking system in October 2019. The digitalisation initiative had already started before that, on the previous system. With datalizard, this transition remained manageable. The platform provides a harmonised data model and supports a modular architecture. Connected systems can be replaced later without disrupting the overall setup. A central aspect is the synchronisation of data across all backend systems. Integration with Finnova via the Finnova Integration Layer is simplified. Core business functionality is implemented directly within datalizard.
Processes such as onboarding are automated, and portals like “Liberty Connect” are available across devices. Data and transaction security, which are critical in financial environments, are ensured. Full traceability is guaranteed through complete historisation, supporting strict compliance and audit requirements.
“Datalizard already supported us years ago with our year-end reporting. That is when we realised the potential of the platform and chose it as the foundation for SmartGate,” says Patrick Steiner, CTO and member of the executive board at Liberty Vorsorge.
Speed as a competitive advantage
The efficient implementation of SmartGate is also the result of close collaboration between Liberty and Datalizard. Datalizard brings over 20 years of experience in financial projects along with strong domain expertise. At the same time, Liberty’s team has a deep understanding of IT and recognises the value of this partnership. “We work together as equals,” says Patrick Steiner.
This combination of expertise and customer focus, together with the capabilities of the datalizard platform, enables short time-to-market cycles. Requirements move quickly from analysis to implementation. Compared to development models that rely on outsourced teams, this setup offers clear advantages. Communication paths are shorter, flexibility is higher and results are delivered faster.
“Liberty Connect” continues to evolve into a comprehensive portal for all user groups. New digital services are planned to further strengthen Liberty’s market position. SmartGate also enables other pension providers to develop digital offerings together with Liberty. The datalizard platform provides the scalability, flexibility and speed required.
A strategy that delivers
Innovation has been part of Liberty’s DNA since its foundation. Digitalisation and innovation reinforce each other. Digital capabilities enable new business models and services that create value for customers and partners. Innovation, in turn, drives further progress. The modular, secure and scalable e-platform “SmartGate” forms the basis for future growth, new business models and partnerships. One example is “FreeME”, the vested benefits solution launched in July 2021 in collaboration with Glarner Kantonalbank.
Through consistent digitalisation, Liberty manages growing volumes from new partnerships without increasing complexity. “Our strategy focuses on delivering value to our clients and partners, with strong performance at transparent and fair costs. We rely on our robust e-platform SmartGate and can implement new ideas efficiently,” says Oliver Bienek, founder and CEO of Liberty Vorsorge.
The dynamics in the pension market increase pressure, especially for smaller and mid-sized providers. Many avoid building their own platforms due to cost and time constraints. Liberty continues to attract new partners because the model works and allows different forms of collaboration.
With its current expansion stage, SmartGate moves closer to Liberty’s vision of a fully paperless platform for the Swiss pension market. Partners can connect their own systems digitally. “The platform approach will continue to evolve and supports Liberty’s development as an independent provider with an open architecture. Our community strategy focuses on specific user and partner groups and aims to build a strong ecosystem. In many ways, it resembles a modern marketplace with a broad service offering. New products and services will continue to create value and strengthen customer relationships,” says Oliver Bienek.
Konsolidierte und stiftungsübergreifende Sicht der Kundenportfolios in «Liberty Connect»
A solid foundation
Datalizard has followed a platform approach for many years. The datalizard platform serves as the foundation for applications in banking, insurance and other industries.By separating business logic from technology and providing built-in functionality for secure operations, solutions can be developed efficiently. Business applications remain stable over time, even when technologies change. Requirements from the business side can be implemented quickly. A key strength lies in integrating long-established systems that operate in isolation. This forms the basis for successful digitalisation initiatives. In short, datalizard provides the foundation to launch new digital business models on top of existing systems. Speed matters. Time-to-market often determines success.
Contacts:
Philipp Künsch, Founder and CEO, Datalizard AG
Patrick Steiner, CTO, Liberty Vorsorge AG, T: +41 (0)58 733 03 03; E: welcome@liberty.ch; www.liberty.ch
