Helia, a leading Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) provider in Australia, has been committed to accelerating financial wellbeing through home ownership for almost 60 years. Partnering with both bank and non-bank mortgage originators, Helia plays a vital role in helping home buyers achieve the goal of home ownership.
Industry: Financial Services
Headquarters: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Number of Employees: 200+
Website: Helia
Helia’s mission is to become the unparalleled leader in LMI. In 2023, Helia was recognized with an Appian Innovation Award for transforming its operations, culture, and employee experience through the Appian Platform—and its ability to conduct quick builds to enable experimentation. The company’s goal was to modernize business processes, streamline the LMI policy lifecycle, and enhance employee skills to keep pace with technological advancements.
Helia leveraged the Appian platform to accelerate business transformation. The organization used it to implement a new underwriting platform, an operational quality assurance tool, a claims management platform, and a billing solution—all while automating the entire LMI policy lifecycle. These advancements enabled faster, more efficient processing and empowered the team to innovate with confidence.
Helia's success stems not only from technological upgrades, but also from a strong commitment to its customers and employee development. By embedding Appian’s education and certification programs into its employee development strategy for technical and operations teams, Helia cultivates a learning culture that fosters growth and innovation for roles across the business.
At the forefront of this initiative was Ganesh Radhakrishnan, Digital and Cyber Risk Leader at Helia. Ganesh encourages his team to pursue Appian certifications, which validate their technical expertise and allow them to take on increasingly complex tasks. Certifications are not just formal qualifications; they’re accomplishments that bolster employee confidence and capabilities.
“Certification is more than just a piece of paper; it’s an achievement,” Ganesh explains. Reaching these milestones leads to tangible results, as Helia sees faster development velocity with each new certification earned. To encourage this process, Helia integrated certification goals into employee performance reviews. This makes it integral to the company’s growth and innovation strategy.
Helia goes even further to encourage certifications—the company also provides incentives and recognition for achievements. Helia maintains a certification leaderboard to motivate developers at all levels to continue advancing their skills. Each certification is celebrated with a photo and goodie bag. Plus, they further celebrate these achievements at team reviews, fostering a learning and growth culture. Helia’s regular “Appian Development Community of Practice” meetings provide a platform for showcasing new features, further fostering collaboration and innovation.
In fact, a recently graduated developer earned their Associate Developer certification in just 90 days, highlighting the accessibility of the certification program and the effectiveness of Helia’s learning culture.
Beyond certifications, Helia’s technical and operational team members use all of Appian’s educational resources including webinars, technical documentation, and community forums. By staying up to date with the latest Appian features—such as AI tools and Process HQ—Helia remains at the forefront of technological innovation.
These educational tools help Helia remain agile and quickly deploy cutting-edge, future-proof solutions to customers.
Helia’s commitment to growth and innovation, driven by its strategic investment in Appian certifications and education, has delivered significant benefits. Helia's rapid adoption of new technologies is proof of its LMI industry leadership, delivering better customer outcomes and a stronger, more agile business.
By fostering a learning culture, Helia not only strengthens its internal capabilities, but also enhances its ability to reimagine the home ownership experience. This blend of technological transformation and employee development will fuel its mission of accelerating financial wellbeing through home ownership.
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