Visionnaire Tecnologies and Unimed Curitiba joined efforts to start an innovative Health Tech

  • 28/02/2023
  • Managed Services

Client
Unimed Curitiba 

Area
Health Care

Problem
Need, on the part of Unimed Curitiba, to be present in the digital environment so as not to lose ground in the midst of the Mobile Revolution. Agility was needed, as the market was growing fast, and the company could not fail to offer mobile solutions to its thousands of customers. 

Solution
On one hand, Visionnaire's technological expertise; on the other, the medical expertise of Unimed Curitiba. The result was Univision, a Health Tech responsible for creating innovative solutions for health and wellness.

Results
This is a different Success Case, as it is not specifically about a system nor software development, technical consultancy or a Recruitment & Selection service – all of which are areas of Visionnaire's expertise. This is the best example of Visionnaire's capacity to transform ideas into companies and startups that start from scratch and that, later on, can walk on their own. 

In this specific Success Case, Visionnaire took care of the business area, as a partner and part of the board, that is, it took care of all areas of the project, which shows our ability to navigate well in all complexities and face challenges seriously. 

Therefore, Visionnaire and Unimed, together, transformed an innovative idea into a company that, today, successfully walks on its own legs. It is important to point out that Visionnaire did not leave the partnership because of any type of conflict or disagreement, but because of the feeling of accomplishment. 

Technologies
Under Visionnaire's leadership, Univision's growth has been incredibly fast, reaching 60 dedicated people. And this is not by chance, since Visionnaire replicated, in the new venture, agile processes for project management. 

Starting a business is not easy. According to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE in Brazilian Portuguese), 80% of micro and small companies do not make it to one year, and 60% do not complete five years of existence. Visionnaire's replication of processes not only maintained Univision working, but grew it far above average. 

Visionnaire has been working with cloud systems for years, and our experience has been instrumental in Univision's growth. We stand out in projects with Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and this case is an example, executed in production with lower cost and more speed in cloud environments. For this, we have implemented successful solutions with Micro-virtualization, Microservices, Docker and Kubernetes in a GCP environment. 

Hybrid development was also a basis for this project, as technologies such as Java, Node, Node.js, Ionic Framework and Angular, Grafana and React Native were used.

Detailed Problem
Unimed Curitiba was founded in 1971 by a group of 23 physicians and today it is the largest health plan operator in the Brazilian State of Paraná and one of the five largest in the country, according to the Supplementary Health Performance Index (IDSS in Brazilian Portuguese). There are more than 550,000 customers, 4,700 cooperative doctors, 54 hospitals, 241 medical specialty clinics, 93 laboratory analysis units (20 of which are their own, named Unimed Laboratório), and three accredited blood banks to provide blood bags to hospitals that do not have their own blood bank. 

In the mid-2010s, Unimed Curitiba aimed to enter the so-called Mobile Revolution, the name given to the growing area of applications and solutions accessible via cell phones, a device that was rapidly becoming popular in emerging markets. Unimed Curitiba was aware that it needed to establish its presence in the digital environment, but it needed to innovate quickly, as such market was in turmoil.

Faced with such a scenario, it was clear that the company would have to invest in itself and with the awareness that, in order to reach the objective as soon as possible, it would be necessary to create a new area, as it was clear that the company's Information Technology (IT) sector was not technically qualified for the challenge at that time. In short, Unimed Curitiba was willing to invest in a partner technology company. 

Detailed Solution
Unimed Curitiba and Visionnaire Tecnologia have a relationship that has lasted more than 24 years. The lasting partnership between both has resulted in numerous successful projects over many years. To follow, some of these projects are listed:

Firstly, the good connection between the companies was the pillar of trust for Visionnaire to be invited to the partnership project, which would be something new for the company. Interestingly, the invitation came in mid-2015 at a routine follow-up meeting, something cultural at Visionnaire. 

From then on, negotiations began so that both companies, which previously formed a supplier and customer relationship, would start to lead a society, each in its specialty: Visionnaire with its technological expertise, and Unimed Curitiba with its excellence in health. 

Visionnaire had the vision and technological capacity necessary to expand the Unimed Curitiba environment, which was responsible for interconnecting units in other locations, and thus a Health Tech was born whose provisional name would be Univision, but the term ended up becoming definitive in 2018. 

The Health Tech concept involves the application of technology to health and wellness areas, which encompasses a wide range of products and services, including medical devices, digital health platforms and telemedicine. The goal of health technology is to improve relationships with patients, reduce costs and increase access to quality care. It was therefore an innovation for both parties. 

The Health Tech in question operated for two years within Visionnaire's facilities. There are structures that work to this day, even after Visionnaire left the company in 2022 with the feeling of duty done within the project, as Univision proved to be perfectly able to walk on its own legs. 

Long-term connoisseur of Unimed Curitiba and dominator of the enterprise's technological area, Visionnaire was largely responsible for the growth of the project and the modernization of Unimed Curitiba. 

Although Visionnaire does not offer Business Administration and Management as services – the way we do with Software Development, Professional Services, Corporate Portals and Sites, Managed Services, Agile Digital Marketing and No-Code Development –, we have the necessary Know-How to starting a venture and taking care of the administrative part, something that was clear with the success of Univision.

Brochure
Case Brochure 

Presentation
Case Presentation