Digital services, new partnerships, and rising expectations around accessibility and personalization are reshaping how insurers support their members. For Menzis, one of the Netherlands’ largest health insurers, this evolution directly connects to its long‑standing mission of keeping healthcare accessible and relevant for everyone.
Founded in 1836, Menzis is a non‑profit cooperative that places people at the center of everything it does. Working closely with healthcare providers, municipalities, and partners, the organization continuously explores smarter and more sustainable ways to support the health of its 1.9 million members.
To do that effectively in a rapidly evolving market, they needed a trusted partner to help them manage, personalize, and expand its additional services, digital health solutions, and benefits.
The challenge: Limited flexibility in a fast‑moving market
In the Dutch healthcare market, insurers operate in one of the most regulated environments in Europe. Core insurance packages are largely standardized and tightly controlled by legislation, with expectations around digital services to continue to rise.
This means insurers must continuously look for new ways to keep pace with the changing market, deliver high quality service, and introduce digital health solutions that support people throughout their entire health journey.
“Before the Proposition Backend, we were dependent on app releases and therefore indirectly on iOS and Android," says Siona Gidding, Product Owner Digital Partnerships | Care Access & Care Innovation, Menzis Cooperative. "That dependency also applied to content adjustments within the Extras.”
Menzis needed a more flexible setup that would allow the organization to manage and expand its Extras offering with greater speed and independence. The aim was to create an environment that would allow the team to introduce new services, partnerships, and digital health solutions faster, while still providing members with a seamless and consistent experience through the Menzis app.
The solution: A Mendix backend to orchestrate propositions
To address this challenge, CLEVR built Backend Propositions, a Mendix application that acts as a centralized backend layer for managing Menzis Extras.
Instead of embedding commercial logic directly in the consumer app, the platform gives Menzis a flexible environment where the organization can manage the full lifecycle of its Extras offering in one place. The system supports the configuration of propositions, determines which members are eligible for specific services, and ensures that offers are presented in a relevant context through the Menzis app.
At the same time, the platform provides operational control for managing partner offerings and monitoring how propositions are used. This allows Menzis to ensure availability, maintain oversight of collaborations with service providers, and continuously optimize the Extras portfolio.
“From the start of the project, the goal was to create something Menzis could continue building on," says Sherwin Shahbazi, Project Manager at CLEVR. "By moving the proposition logic into a dedicated backend platform, the team now has a scalable foundation that makes it much easier to introduce new services, work with partners, and expand the Extras ecosystem in the future.”[ET1] [SS2]
Results: Greater agility and stronger member relevance
Although the solution has only recently gone live, Backend Propositions has already changed how Menzis can manage and expand its Extras offering, enabling teams to:
• expand and manage the Extras offering with greater speed and independence
• introduce new services, partnerships, and digital health propositions more easily
• tailor offerings to different member groups and insurance packages
• maintain better oversight of partner collaborations and service availability
• continuously evolve the Extras ecosystem as member needs and market conditions change
Where the Extras offering was previously tied to app release cycles and development dependencies, the organization now has a dedicated platform that unlocks a new level of operational flexibility.
Teams can manage, expand, and refine the Extras ecosystem directly, enabling Menzis to introduce new services and partnerships more dynamically while continuously adapting the offering to member needs in a fast-changing healthcare landscape.
A flexible digital foundation where it matters most
Delivering the solution required close collaboration across multiple teams between CLEVR, and the Menzis middleware and app team. By working together from the start, the teams were able to define how the backend should function, how it would integrate with the app and middleware layers, and how the experience would appear to members, ensuring both technical and user perspectives were aligned before development began.
“Our goal was to offer the Extras to our members starting January 1, 2026," adds Siona. "We began the preparation phase in summer and started building in September. CLEVR, as part of the broader backend team, played a key role in successfully delivering the solution, remaining accessible, engaged, and solution‑oriented whenever questions arose.”
Backend Propositions ultimately gave Menzis exactly what the organization was aiming for: a secure and flexible environment in which teams can manage and expand the Extras ecosystem with far greater control and independence, and deliver personalized and meaningful services while respecting the strict governance protocols of the sector.
Together, Menzis and CLEVR have set the foundation for a flexible and effective digital operating model that strengthens how the insurer connects digital services, member experience, and commercial strategy. Today and in the future.
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