IC PZU Ukraine is one of the leading insurers in the Ukrainian market and a member of the international PZU Group, whose history spans more than 200 years. With a broad network of regional offices and a large customer base across the country, the company relies on internal processes that are fast, accurate, and dependable.
As the business continued to grow, IC PZU Ukraine set out to build a unified HR ecosystem that could combine a people-focused approach to employee experience with the security and reliability required of digital business processes. This was particularly important in insurance, where trust is at the heart of the customer relationship.
Customers turn to an insurance company at times when they need not only an insurance policy, but also human support and empathy when an insured event occurs. That is why the quality of customer service directly depends on how effectively the company supports its own employees by providing clear processes, access to up-to-date information, and convenient digital tools for their day-to-day work.
At the same time, the insurance industry operates within a strict regulatory framework and requires robust data protection and reliable document workflows. Meeting these demands called for a broader digital transformation of HR. IC PZU Ukraine partnered with SMART business to build an integrated HR ecosystem covering people management, payroll, and internal communications. Explore our new success story to find out how exactly this transformation unfolded and what results it delivered.
Implementation background: Why IC PZU Ukraine decided to modernize its HR digital foundation
As IC PZU Ukraine’s team and internal processes continued to grow, the company needed a single HR environment that would bring together personnel administration, payroll, learning, performance evaluation, and corporate communications. While the existing processes were already organized in line with internal standards and provided the required level of efficiency, continued business growth called for a more integrated digital approach.
The company wanted to shorten the onboarding time for new employees and reduce the workload on the HR team. Another key priority was to create a single environment for centralized data management, as one of the specific challenges of HR management at IC PZU Ukraine is the need to effectively coordinate a large workforce spread across different cities.
In the insurance industry, any delay or disruption in a process can mean that a customer does not receive timely assistance in a stressful situation. At the same time, services need to be delivered not only quickly, but securely. Data protection is particularly important in insurance, both for customer and internal data, as processes must comply with Ukrainian legislation and regulatory requirements. That is why the new HR system from SMART business needed to do more than automate operational tasks: it also had to ensure that IC PZU Ukraine met its corporate security standards.
The solution chosen
The partnership between IC PZU Ukraine and SMART business developed in stages. One of the first steps was the implementation of SmartPoint Intranet, a corporate portal that helped create a single communication environment for employees. The next stage was to expand the HR ecosystem with SMART HCM & LMS and SMART Payroll — solutions for automating HR management, learning, performance evaluation, recruitment, and payroll.
The selected solutions addressed several key priorities:
- Centralize personnel administration — create a single foundation for managing employee data, the company structure, and standardized HR processes.
- Automate payroll, HR, and financial processes — including vacation pay, sick leave, business trips, provisions, and statutory reporting.
- Support employee learning, development, and performance evaluation — bring these processes into a single digital environment and make it easier to work with the results.
- Optimize recruitment — automate and streamline the recruitment process.
- Reduce the workload on HR and Finance departments — by automating operational tasks, bringing processes into alignment, and making more effective use of data.
Implementing SMART HCM & LMS as the foundation of IC PZU Ukraine’s HR ecosystem
As part of the SMART HCM & LMS implementation project, the IC PZU Ukraine team worked with SMART business consultants to digitize key areas related to HR management, employee development, and internal services. The project resulted in the implementation of the following modules:
- Personnel administration — for centralized employee data management and more structured HR processes.
- Recruitment module — to streamline recruitment and communication with candidates.
- Learning and employee development module — to support continuous employee learning and bring internal development programs into a structured system.
- Performance evaluation module — for conducting performance reviews, collecting feedback, and fostering a culture of performance evaluation.
- HR data management tools — to improve process consistency, information transparency, and data management across departments.
The key factors in choosing SMART HCM & LMS were the system’s comprehensive functionality, flexible configuration options, and the platform’s ability to adapt to the specific needs of the insurance industry. The option to implement the solution in stages was also important. It allowed us to prioritize the most critical HR processes and gradually expand the system’s functionality. This approach gave the team stability: employees could adopt new tools without being overwhelmed, while the business could quickly address its most pressing needs and prepare for the next stages of the transformation at the same time.
Implementing SmartPoint Intranet as IC PZU Ukraine’s corporate portal
The implementation of the SmartPoint Intranet corporate portal was another important part of building a unified HR ecosystem at IC PZU Ukraine. The project focused on centralizing information and creating a convenient, user-friendly space that would make corporate services easier to access, support internal communication, and help employees navigate the company’s processes more quickly.
With PZU’s workforce spread across different cities, employees could easily find themselves out of the loop or spend valuable time searching for the information they needed without a single, shared information space. SmartPoint Intranet addressed this challenge by bringing employees together in one digital environment and giving them equal access to services, documents, and communications regardless of where they worked.
As a result, the implementation of SmartPoint Intranet provided the following capabilities:
- Unified corporate knowledge base — for centralized storage of internal policies, instructions, document templates, training materials, and other corporate resources.
- Interactive organizational structure — for visualizing departments, teams, and responsible employees, with quick access to up-to-date information.
- Employee directory — for quickly finding colleagues and contact information and facilitating collaboration across teams.
- Single access point to corporate services — bringing together key internal systems and company resources in one digital environment.
- Internal communications tools — for publishing news and internal initiatives and increasing employee engagement.
- Centralized document repository — with controlled access, document version management, and convenient search.
- Access from any device — making it easier for employees to work both in the office and remotely.
For an insurance company the size of PZU Ukraine, it is critical that all employees, regardless of where they work, have equal access to information and services. SmartPoint Intranet has become a virtual ‘meeting room’ for us, where the team can always see the latest news, quickly find the documents they need, and interact without barriers. This has significantly reduced the time we spend on internal communications and made work more transparent and convenient for our people.
Implementing SMART Payroll to automate payroll and HR processes
Another key area of IC PZU Ukraine’s digital HR transformation was the implementation of SMART Payroll to automate payroll and personnel administration processes. For an insurance company with numerous departments, regional teams, and high standards for data accuracy, payroll is a matter of trust within the organization. Any delay or error in payments directly affects the employee experience, engagement, and sense of stability.
That is why centralized payroll management, compliance with legal requirements, and the ability to keep the system running reliably across the company’s large, distributed structure were particularly important for PZU Ukraine.
The implementation of SMART Payroll provided the following capabilities:
- Automated payroll calculation — including vacation pay, sick leave, business trips, and other types of payments.
- Provision management — automatic accrual and write-off of vacation and bonus provisions.
- Statutory reporting — preparation and submission of payroll-related reports in accordance with Ukrainian legislation.
- Centralized payroll management — to improve the transparency, accuracy, and speed of HR and financial operations.
Automating payroll processes has reduced the operational workload on the HR and Finance departments, improved the accuracy of HR and financial data, and made processes more transparent. This was particularly important for us because the system had to comply with Ukrainian legislation, our internal accounting rules, and the specific requirements of the insurance business.
How the migration was carried out: challenges and team adoption
The transition to the new HR ecosystem at IC PZU Ukraine was carried out in stages, as SMART HCM & LMS, SMART Payroll, and SmartPoint Intranet had to integrate seamlessly with the existing IT infrastructure while meeting the company’s internal requirements.
One of the key implementation priorities was therefore to ensure accurate synchronization of information across the company’s different systems. The new solutions were customized to align with data management and accounting rules and the specific requirements of the insurance industry. This made it possible to create a single digital environment without duplicated processes across departments or inconsistencies in the data.
IC PZU Ukraine completely replaced its HR ecosystem, so it was only natural that we encountered several technical challenges. In particular, we had to pay close attention to integrating payroll processes, migrating employee data to our internal accounting system, and synchronizing the learning modules with corporate content. However, thanks to the professional approach of the SMART business team, these challenges did not stand in the way of our digital transformation.
As a result, the project was implemented in the following stages:
- Phased data migration — auditing, test migration, and the main data migration to ensure data accuracy and uninterrupted system operation.
- Integration with corporate systems — setting up synchronization of payroll processes, employee data, and internal services with the company’s existing IT infrastructure.
- Building a unified organizational structure — creating a centralized employee directory and department structure based on data from Microsoft Entra ID and additional internal sources.
- Adapting the systems to the company’s internal requirements — customizing processes to reflect the specifics of the insurance market, corporate policies, and Ukrainian legislation.
- Employee training and support — conducting training sessions, preparing interactive guides, and supporting teams throughout the transition to the new digital environment.
The project involved HR specialists, the Finance department, the IT department, the IC PZU Ukraine project office, and SMART business consultants. This comprehensive approach made it possible to address both the technical and organizational aspects of the transformation — from system integration and data security to the convenience of employees’ day-to-day work.
Despite the scale of the changes, IC PZU Ukraine was able to ensure a smooth transition to the new tools for its employees through regular training sessions and interactive guides.
Results of the digital transformation of IC PZU Ukraine’s HR ecosystem
The implementation of SMART HCM & LMS, SMART Payroll, and SmartPoint Intranet has fully delivered on the original goals of our digital transformation. Thanks to the training sessions and interactive guides, employees were able to adapt to working with the new systems. Digitizing HR processes has helped us improve the speed, accuracy, and transparency of our HR operations.
The implementation of SMART HCM & LMS, SMART Payroll, and SmartPoint Intranet has helped IC PZU Ukraine reduce the operational workload on its HR and Finance departments, speed up the processing of personnel changes, and improve data accuracy. The impact of digitalization on employees’ day-to-day experience is also worth highlighting: with services centralized, information available in one place, and HR tools easy to access, interactions between employees and the HR department have become significantly more transparent and efficient.
Most importantly, the new HR ecosystem has given IC PZU Ukraine a reliable digital foundation for future business growth. By automating and centralizing processes, the company can manage its large regional structure more effectively, coordinate collaboration between departments more quickly, and adapt its HR processes to the changing insurance market and evolving employee expectations.
IC PZU Ukraine is an example of a mature company taking a systematic approach to HR digital transformation. Rather than automating individual processes in isolation, the company is building a comprehensive ecosystem for its people, processes, and data. This is especially important for a large insurance business with a distributed structure and stringent requirements for accuracy, security, and reliability. We develop SMART business solutions specifically for companies like this — helping them address the full range of HR ecosystem needs, from corporate communications and access to information to HR management, learning, performance evaluation, recruitment, and payroll. We are proud of our partnership with IC PZU Ukraine and grateful to the team for their trust, openness to change, and commitment to improving their internal processes.
