In the corridors of… msg life
The scenery is stunning, and we’ve all seen it. We’re standing in the middle of Avenida dos Aliados, admiring one of the most emblematic squares in Porto and everything seems enormously beautiful: from the Town Hall building in the background to the imposing old houses with facades ornamented by the city’s history. One of these buildings is home to msg life.
msg life is one of the largest European providers of information systems for insurance companies, shaping their experience with excellent software delivered in worldwide projects and customers. Due to their flexibility and the promotion of business users’ autonomy, these solutions allow increases both in productivity and agility.
For 40 years, since the 1980s, they have been contributing to the strategic and operational improvement of the insurance sector, affirming, year after year, its strong presence in the global market. With the arrival of globalization and digitalization, the company is committed to being at the frontline of innovation in insurance processes of all kinds (life, non-life and health), to provide its customers with the most advanced technologies and efficient solutions in an increasingly demanding market.
It is in this cutting-edge software development that msg life Iberia – which includes the Portuguese teams – comes in, as they work with agile methodologies since day one. Right now, according to the Tech Lead André Silva, the projects developed by the team are mainly for the USA, Germany, Romania, Poland and Slovenia.
From the heart of Porto with love.
The company began as a small start-up in 2012 and, two years later, in 2014, it was integrated into msg life Group. During 2013 they settled in the Aliados’ office, where its 50 employees have the top three floors of the building at their disposal.
On the first floor, the most “crowded” of them all, there are some teams disposed in an open space with wide – but very welcoming – corridors with intense natural light. On the walls, we can find two types of windows that take us to two completely different worlds: 1) real windows with a magnificent view of Avenida dos Aliados and, on the opposite side, the sight of a peripheral area that mixes old and new Porto; 2) there are several “windows” to the msg life world, glass boards where the best professionals in the field rethink and rebuild the whole insurance business. Every day.
There is also a modern cafeteria with everything that people need to restore their energy during breaks: snacks, coffee and an inspiring view over Porto.
In the staircase between the first and second floor, we are presented with a setting worthy of a historic film: windows, stairs and handrails that remind us of the Victorian Era.
The next floor is mostly used for meetings, whether face-to-face or remote. Each of the meeting rooms has the name of an emblematic monument of the city. We can imagine msg life employees setting up a meeting:
– Next Wednesday at Clérigos, at 3 pm?
– Clérigos is not available at that hour. We should go to Aliados instead!
A few more stairs up and we are on the top floor of the building, which is also used by the company. There is an open area with a wide meeting room and a huge projection screen, as well as a leisure area with comfortable armchairs for a quick meeting or to just get some rest.
If we look around carefully, we will find one of the best-hidden treasures of msg life: a tiny door that takes us to the rooftop of the building. If the view that had been presented to us on the lower floors was splendid, the word for this one is… breathtaking. As Cátia Baião, Marketing & Partnerships Manager tells us, this is where some of the company’s parties and summer sunsets are held.
In addition to the promotion of a good environment and team spirit through in-house initiatives, Cátia also mentions training as a crucial point in msg life’s day-to-day activities. That is, the company and the employees have the chance to select the training that they think is most relevant in terms of soft skills and/or new technologies. It is an easy win-win situation!
A proud PTH associate since 2018
In November 2018, msg life became the 18th company to join Porto Tech Hub. Since then, it has been a truly active member in all the Association’s initiatives, playing a very important role in the 2019 Conference and in the latest editions of the SWitCH program.
PTH’s career retraining program has been where msg life has contributed the most. The company has already integrated SWitCH students in its teams for their internships and some of them are even part of their staff nowadays.
For Cátia Baião, the partnership with PTH has fulfilled the expectations, both in terms of cooperation with other technological companies, as well as in the dynamics that exist with the association itself.
It is time to go down 5 floors and… it just feels like we are in another city than before. But no: we are just looking at Porto from bellow.
