What is a day like as a Solutions Engineer at digital insurance?
Technological specialists in fully digital insurances
At ELEMENT, technological specialists are already deeply involved in the sales process to help implementing new insurance products in record time. Today, we talk to Michael Büttner, Senior Solution Engineer, member of the Sales Department at ELEMENT Insurance AG. Backed by his extensive technological background, he makes sure that ELEMENT always finds a perfect solution for our business partners’ needs.
How did you find your way to ELEMENT
Michael: I had started following the digital insurance scene and soon realized the potential of this very large market. Being based in Berlin, I was very quickly looking at the finleap Universe when I started to search for a new challenge. ELEMENT specifically is currently making an impact in the world of insurance, using state-of-the art technology and methods, which immediately appealed to me. It didn’t take much convincing — a couple great talks later with stake holders at ELEMENT it was a done deal.
What is your professional background?
I started programming as soon as I received a computer when I still was a teenager; I was fascinated by the possibilities ever since and consequently studied Computer Science later. My career started in freelance consulting around Open Source and web development still during my university time — later I came from application development and project management to enterprise consulting — at first at a Document Management Software vendor in Berlin then at a small consulting company as a partner.
Eventually, I became co-CEO responsible for account management, technology and the consulting team of our Berlin office, serving customers of all sizes across many industries — mostly in Germany and Scandinavia. Additionally, with my partner, I envisioned a modern cloud and web-based solution for Customer Communication and Document Management, so we built a new team in Budapest, the headquarter of the Hungarian solution provider we merged with, where I was the architect and technology leader.
What are your responsibilities at ELEMENT?
I’m working within the Sales department, being a very technical person at heart, I provide technical know-how to the sales process and work closely with our customers on translating their requirements into a viable solution architecture. This way, we can work from the beginning on implementing new insurance products in record time.
Additionally, I serve as Product Owner for a development team, responsible for the onboarding of new partners or new projects — and am still able to do some programming myself, which I enjoy immensely.
What is unique to working at ELEMENT?
What impresses me most and motivates me every day is the company’s overall flexibility as well as the autonomy which — in a way — allowed me to define my own job based on my previous experiences and specific know-how. I think this is the core of being both an effective and efficient organisation.
How would you describe the team dynamics and spirit?
I think it’s truly dynamic; all teams are adopting very quickly to requirements while pursuing a clear vision. Not just adopting on a technological but also organisational level — this is very inspiring! This drive for change is clearly coming from many individuals with an extremely high intrinsic motivation, pushing the success on many levels of the company. It’s a pleasure to work with this team!
What’s the most interesting part of your job?
Most interesting are the unique challenges: Solving highly industry-specific problems — for example regulatory — with technology and new approaches. Those are huge puzzles and I love to solve them :)
