Helvetia Insurance has replaced Google Search Appliance (GSA) with Squirro Cognitive Search, as it seeks to deliver better search results to its five million customers across Europe.

Helvetia is one of Europe’s largest insurance firms, providing an array of retail, corporate and re-insurance products to consumers and businesses all over the continent, and it receives around 150,000 searches every month across its seven web portals.

Google Search Appliance had reached the its end of lifecycle and Helvetia wanted a solution that allowed for a more cognitive approach to search, anticipating customers’ requirements and incorporating free text, context and relevancy when delivering results.

“We wanted our search function to be fast, accurate and to move away from traditional approaches to include context and intent,” said Michel Küng, Webmaster at Helvetia. “The way people use search has changed and it’s essential for us as a company to have a search function that meets those changing needs, delivering smarter and more relevant results to our customers.”

Squirro was approached by Helvetia to replace GSA, and in doing so had a brief to ensure full implementation within four weeks and to replicate the look and feel of the existing search function, while adding the free text search that was so important to Helvetia. 

Squirro Cognitive Search is an enterprise search tool that uses cognitive computing to recognises context, relevancy, intent and interest to deliver markedly improved search results. Having already delivered a pilot project based on Squirro Cognitive Search in 2017 with highly successful results, Helvetia knew that Squirro’s platform could more than meet its requirements.

“Squirro Cognitive Search has delivered for us in every way that we needed it to,” added Armando Unholz, Head of Frontend Solutions - CMS. “It was up and running within the tight deadline we asked for and the free text search really builds on what we had previously. It makes searches better for our customers, so it is a better solution for us.”

The revamping of its website, including search functionality, is part of Helvetia’s 20.20 strategy, that promotes agility, innovation and customer centricity. Results are currently provided in the same way as GSA, but in future may include word clouds and other graphical representations, as well as changing the way results are sequenced.

“Helvetia’s commitment to using Squirro Cognitive Search shows the power of our search technology,” said Miguel Rodriguez, Vice President Customer Success & Consulting at Squirro. “Free text and more natural language will become increasingly important in search, as consumers and business users alike begin to demand results that better suit their purpose.”