CRM in Insurance: Capitalizing on the Customer Service Opportunity No, The Tech

Skills Shortage Doesnt Exist By Frank Meister, Bill Chambers, Joe Fenner, Doculabs
MAY 31, 2001 For insurance companies today, focusing on the customer is more
important than ever. Getting closer to customers and effectively responding to their
needs is a great way to boost their loyalty and encourage deeper business
relationships and additional spendingand it is also a much more strategic route to
success than cutting costs and improving efficiency.
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with Cloud Computing: Amazon EC2 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Insurance buyers
have many more options for the ways in which they purchase insurance and
interact with their insurance suppliers. They can work through agencies. They can
work directly through insurance companies or brokers. They can purchase insurance
through online sites or exchanges. And, no matter which approach is used,
customers are now demanding multiple channels through which to interact with
their providersincluding face-to-face contact, phone, Web sites, e-mail, mobile
devices, etc. This new business climate has elevated the role of customer
relationship management (CRM) technologies into a highly strategic position within
the insurance industry. CRM technologies focus on managing all interactions that
the organization has with its customers, maintaining contact information and
customer status in order to leverage the data in a variety of business applications.
Clearly, vendors of CRM products are in a great position to capitalize on the
customer service opportunity. Insurers know that if they can' t get their customer
service acts together, they'll lose customers to the competition. And there's no
shortage of CRM products to choose from. The problem is, the CRM marketjust like
the definition of the term "CRM"is so broad that all sorts of different software
products fall under its umbrella. For example, sales and field force automation,
marketing analytics, e -mail response management, campaign management,
personalization, and customer service are all legitimate application areas, and there
are a va riety of CRM products on the market that handle one or more of these
functions. Prioritizing Customer Service Of these areas, customer service is the
biggest priority for many insurance organizations. While many CRM technologies
can handle a range of applications, including sales force automation and marketing
analytics, those that handle customer service applications are worth special
attention because they are at the center of the customer's interaction with the
business. Channels Are Expanding

Customer service is a tough area to tackle, especially as the channels of customer

interaction have expanded from face -to-face or phone contact to include
automated telephony systems, the Web, fax, e -mail, and even wireless devices and
voice-over-IP. Consequently, many organizations are transforming their customer
service centers from call centers into "virtual contact ce nters" that handle the
myriad channels of contact in an integrated fashion. The goal is for the customer to
have a consistent experience across multiple channels, and for the organization to
have a common view of each customer's interactions and contact histories. Call
centers are labor-intensive environments that have traditionally struggled with
providing their customer service representatives with access to all the customer
information and related information needed to quickly service incoming requests.
For example, a customer service representative (CSR) may need access to customer
records, policy information, billing systems, and other information that may be
stored in disparate back -end systems and data sources. What's more, many
customers now want to help themselves to that information. CRM products can help
insurers serve their customers better by allowing CSRs or the customers themselves
to access any information they need, whenever they need it, via whatever
mechanism they choose. Customer service should be viewed as a comprehensive
process applied across multiple e -business applications, rather than as an isolated
process. Success depends on how well a customer service application enables an
insurance company to change customer centric processes as emerging trends,
customer demand, and requirements change.

From a CRM product perspective, these customer service needs translate into a
wide variety of functional requirements, including: Support for multiple contact
channels, with the ability to create a common view of the customer across all
channelsFrom the CSR's perspective, it is important to have a single view of the
customer. This means tracking the various channels through which the customer
interacts with the carrier, understanding the information requests at each point,
tracking the current status of any pending requests, and reporting on contact
histories. With a common, unified view of the customer, the company can ensure
consistent service and follow-up, no matter which combination of interaction
channels the customer chooses to employ. Support for customer self serviceMany
customers want to help themselves to information rather than talk with a customer
service representative. These users need access to a wealth of content to satisfy
their requests, such as frequently asked questions (FAQs), recent bills and
statements, policies and product documentation. By providing rich content around
customer transactions and self-service activities, organizations can increase the
value of their customer service operations to their customers. Many CRM systems
provide a central online "knowledge base" to support customer self-service, while
others rely on integrating the disparate back-end systems that may exist within the
organization (see table on page I14). Integration with back-end systems and

repositories of content and dataThe content that customers may require often
resides in disparate systems or repositories. A good CRM solution should provide a
means to integrate this information for easy access by customers and CSRs alike.

Ability to automate the business processes required to deliver customer

serviceWhile many call centers already utilize technology for queue management
and routing in order to effectively handle incoming inquiries, such capabilities must
also be provided for the myriad electronic contact channels that customers may
choose to use. A good CRM system should provide a unified mechanism for
automating customer service processes and workflows across all channels.
PersonalizationCustomer service applications should provide customers with
content that is related to their current activities or navigation. For example, a
customer that has recently moved and is looking at information for a new
homeowners insurance policy should also be presented with information about a
new life insurance policy. Personalization enables organizations to reach their
customers with more impact, and to generate new revenue through cross-selling
and up-selling. Detailed reporting and analyticsThese capabilities allow
organizations to leverage the information contained in their back-end systems, as
well as in the CRM system itself, to identify key data such as customer trends,
demographics, tendencies, and preferencesdata that can be leveraged in
personalization and marketing efforts Reducing program implementation cycle by
almost 50% for a CRM package The client Our client is the world's leading insurance
broker and strategic risk advisor The challenge The client's offices in different
locations used diverse methods and applications for carrying out business processes
like underwriting, policy management, claims management, etc. The result was
fragmented data on multiple applications that required a significant level of manual
intervention, This, in turn, led to human error, reduced productivity, increased
turnaround time and employee dissatisfaction. The solution To improve performance
and agility, our client decided to consolidate applications across offices with
standardized packaged software that would support all core business functions. As a
strategic partner, we have played a crucial role in the entire standardization
process. This includes requirements gathering and gap analysis, defining
configuration and customization needs, product configuration, integration, testing,
quality assurance, data conversion, generation of custom reports, user training and
post-implementation support. We also developed websites for each program and
integrated them with the product in order to capture application data on the
website. The new system supports the following core functions:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Application Creation Policy Marketing Rate, Quote, Quote Comparison Policy Generation Document Generation

Notes & Diary Maintenance Claims Management Accounting Production Tracking

Standard Reporting

The benefits

Our robust project management capabilities helped define a planned approach for
program implementation. Extensive process documentation resulted in faster
turnaround of all project deliverables Our domain expertise meant that we were
able to quickly and efficiently gather requirements as well as provide business user
training. In fact, our training modules help to train a person with no product
experience in just 1 week. This has also helped reduce our client's dependence on
the product vendor. The program implementation cycle was reduced by almost 50%,
leading to increased employee productivity and customer satisfaction. We have now
established an Extended Delivery Center (EDC) for this client

Aviva uses CRM to insure success What happens when you're late for a party and
the fun has already begun? You catch up, as Aviva did. Helping it was Talisma's eCRM suite, which the insurance company used to integrate its customerfacing
departments According to TARUN PANDEY, Aviva went in for Talisma's suite primarily
because it offered integration with the company's call centre operations-which no
other vendor was offering There has been an influx of private life insurance
companies in India after the liberalisation of the Indian insurance sector. When
Aviva entered the country in 2002, it was one of the last players to enter the
market. The key to success therefore lay in knowing potential customers better, and
in bringing out products and services tailored to specific customer requirements.

A common platform

To do this, Aviva decided to go in for an enterprise-wide deployment of an e-CRM

suite even before it launched Indian operations in June 2002. A stringent
assessment exercise began, during which four vendors, including Talisma, were
evaluated by a team of 10 people. This team had representatives from its IT

department and also from customer-facing departments such as sales, marketing

and customer services. Recalls Tarun Pandey, manager, applications, Aviva, "After a
thorough evaluation process, we went in for Talisma's suite primarily because it
offered integration with our call centre operations, which no other vendor was
offering. The suite promised a common integrated platform for different customerfacing departments [sales, marketing and customer services] within the
organisation."

Module this The implementation of the CRM suite was a smooth affair. The exercise
began in December 2001 and went live six months later. Pandey explains, "Since we
went in for the CRM suite before launching our business in India, the
implementation was smooth. If an organisation is already in business the
implementation exercise can be a prolonged affair." The suite has been deployed in
marketing, sales and service, as well as in the partner and sales ecosystem
(comprising bank assurance partners and insurance agents). Aviva has
implemented several modules of Talisma e-CRM, such as marketing, sales, servicing
and contact centre. The only component it hasn't used is the chat module. Today,
there are 450 personnel using the e-CRM suite at Aviva. Multi-step campaign Pandey
explains, "The implementation of Talisma e-CRM has helped us share real-time
customer information across different customer-facing departments across
locations. This has helped departments track customer details and respond to
queries at short notice." The implementation has also facilitated quick analysis of
Aviva's sales and marketing initiatives, which has, in turn, helped the company
modify its products and services before offering them to customers. This has helped
it win more customers and retain existing ones by offering them products and
services that fit their needs. It has also helped Aviva develop multi-step marketing
campaigns. Based on the type of response at each stage of an advertising
campaign, appropriate processes can be triggered automatically in the e-CRM suite.
Aviva's entire sales and marketing operation has been integrated through this
deployment. The company's customer service team has successfully leveraged the
suite to provide superior service across multiple channels. Aviva has made its mark
in the Indian insurance industry in just two years. It has no doubt been aided in this
by the deployment of Talisma's e-CRM suite that has helped it launch new products
and services to differentiate itself from competitors. he Kotak Group has initiated a
group wide implementation of Siebel CRM. The solution is expected to go live in the
next six to nine months. "Kotak Life posted a hundred percent growth rate in the
last financial year. We also see a huge business potential as eighty percent of
Indias population is still not insured. As a result, to cope up with the increasing
scale of operations we are deploying the CRM solution," says Dhiresh Rustogi,
executive VP-IT, Kotak Life Insurance. Siebel Proved To Be A Functional-Fit For Kotak
As part of strategy, instead of running multiple applications and then integrating
them with the CRM, Kotak Life decided to go for a system that will not only fulfill the
integration needs but also serve as a single repository for data. Additionally there is
also a possibility of failure in case of integrating small applications. The application
integration will not be pointto-point but through an EAI layer, changing the way
different applications communicate with each other. So how is Siebel a functional fit
for Kotak? Rustogi expresses "Kotak Insurance is a part of a large group. We were
looking for a CRM that can cater to non-life insurance productsservices offered by
Kotak Securities and Kotak Bank." Siebel will facilitate the Kotak Group

to focus not only on customer prospects but also agents and external vendor
prospects, thus the solution is configured to fit into any customer relationship and
prospect management needs. Coupled with this Siebel will enable Kotak to capture
typical data about cold leads, existing, former and prospective customers, and Sales
Force Automation. As a result the solution offers wide scope for interaction not only
with the existing customer but also with former and prospective customers and
agents. Standardization Of Processes Is The Key Benefit As of now the business
processes are mapped to fit into the individual systems and applications in place.
The challenge before Kotak is to chart a standard set of processes for handling
customer, agent, marketing and campaigns, however the sub-processes can be
different in the standard processes. Standardization of processes will be the key
benefit after the solution goes live. "The customer experience will be standardized
across all the group companies. Financial benefits will start rolling out after we
initiate the analysis of all the data captured in the system because we are looking at
this product from a long term perspective," Said Rustogi. "We are also looking to
buy additional applications that would equip further automation, as and when the
need arises they will be integrated with the CRM," concluded Rustogi.

MANTRA MANTRA CRM MANTRA FOR LIFE INSURANCE INDUSTRY R. Baba

Krishnamohan & K. Muralidhar Business Consultancy Group VBU Insurance Satyam
Computer Services Ltd As the Indian economy is quickly integrating with the global
economy we are seeing a number of multinational companies begin their operations
in India. This scenario unfolds the kind of competition that was not experienced by
most of the Industries including Insurance. It is quiet evident from the success of
these multinationals, that the key factor distinguishing them from others is the
sophisticated customer service standards and practices that they meticulously
adopt. Not to be left behind in the race, a number of Indian companies are moving
forward and have identified the magic mantra - CRM CRM the acronym for Customer
Relationship Management is a strategic business initiative, which goes beyond
traditional selling and customer contact programs. It is an integration of technology
with activities of employees and business associates to deliver faster, more
customized service to customers. CRM is a method for long- term management of
customer relationships, which is backed by a defined and focussed business
process. CRM solutions not only offer value to businesses, but importantly the main
attribute " scalability", ensures that it can be implemented in various stages of
increasing complexity and value. While total CRM solution is desirable, the
insurance companies can also deploy the solutions at different stages in line with
their growth and yet the same can be a part of the total solution. Life Insurance and
the need for CRM Life Insurance is a service business, which is highly data
dependent and sensitive. The winners in this business are those who ensure
customer delight. As competition opens up, this sector poses immense challenges
and provides varied opportunities. Listed below are some of these challenges and

opportunities. The Low penetration of Insurance vis a vis the huge insurable
population The plethora of policies (in the case of some companies)

and a few policies with many options and riders (in the case of most of the new
insurers) The necessity to deliver policies and service them across wide and
geographically spread locations. The complexity of pre and post sales operations
like generating product awareness , policy management, claims management and
agency administration The necessity to control costs in marketing and
administration Converting a one time transaction into a long term relationship To
meet these challenges the Life insurer must implement the following processes
Online linking of the various distribution channels upto post sales service which
gives an edge over competition. Online help desks and communication assistance
to respond to the demanding customer and his information requirements. Net
working the various offices and transmission of various statistics and financial
returns on a real time basis to enable prompt and efficient service as well as data
integrity. Controlling costs and avoiding delays due to the large geographical spread
of offices and population in a subcontinent like India The following components of
CRM would enable achievement of these parameters Networking Data warehousing
Data mining E enabling Call centers Phased implementation in the above order or
complete implementation and integration of all these components would result in
highly effective customer centric approach, substantially improving the business
bottomline and ensuring customer delight. Let us look at the important features of
each of these components and see how their implementation would impact the
functioning of a Life Insurance organization. Networking Full-fledged
Datawarehousing and Datamining process can be accomplished only by having
proper Networking in place. Networking is a process, which ensures the connecting
of all the offices through delivery media such as leased lines, Internet, VSAT, and
DSL lines. This will enable data capture and retrieval from different access points. As
the communication infrastructure is growing day by day and the cost of
communication is coming down, an efficient networking should no longer be difficult
to implement Data Warehousing In Life business, the data required to be captured is
substantial from the proposal stage to settlement of claims. It is not only the
capture and storage of data from various sources, locations and data bases but also
retrieving the same in the desired output formats. The complex aspects of the
business make this difficult because of the legacy of data, data integrity, wide
distribution of data and need for collating the entire data as per the requirements of
the Insurer. Further the data is to be maintained throughout the life of the policy. It
is also mandatory to comply with regulatory mechanisms, which stipulate the need
for maintaining data for a specific period. In the case of Life business
Datawarehousing typically captures different data including those of the
policyholders and agents/advisors spread across geographic locations to one
centralized database. It also enables more sophisticated analysis of various
performance parameters such as business growth, claims settlement and
profitability. The carefully collected information is finally consummated by the
policyholders either through Internet, Call centers or Servicing offices. DataMining
Once Datawarehousing is implemented, its offshoot Datamining enables a Life
Insurer to utilize the data to achieve the essential objective of maximizing sales and

ensuring customer delight. Data Mining entails looking for patterns in the customer
data. The data for data mining can come from the insurers transactional history of
customers. It enables drawing correlation and patterns from easily accessible data
on all the functional areas including the trends in customer preferences, payment of
premium, queries from customers, performance of agents/advisors. This not only
simplifies but also puts an efficient process in place for the managers. Call centers
greatly benefit from Datawarehousing and Datamining and quickly attend to the
customer requirements. Data centers can be located at various places to provide
support to the call centers and functional offices. E enabling Internet is emerging as
one of the key marketing and distribution channel with a vast potential, wide reach,
and long term prospects. It creates a strong, powerful idea and is

impacting people. It also ensures brand loyalty to be fostered by reflecting the

organizations core values online, and enables quick and convenient transactions. By
e enabling their key functions, Life Insurers provide greater visibility, rapid access to
data and quick service to new prospects, policyholders and agents/advisors.
Internet enables interactivity and interoperability by offering product information,
comparative analysis, advisor/agent location, service corner, and premium
payments for people across the country. The benefits are enormous as the
prospects can access product information and other relevant details "Any Time, Any
Where". The life of agents/advisors would become easier as the prospect is well
informed and the time to close the transaction is extremely minimal. The Service
corner helps the policyholders obtain information / status to most of their queries.
Few value adds like auto responders for queries, risk profiling, investment and tax
calculators, email alerts for premium payments, new product information, and
gestures like birthday/anniversary wishes can be easily implemented enhancing the
image of the organization and also bonding the ties with the customers.
Agents/Advisors can also be trained through e learning modules and product
information can be quickly disseminated. Agents can be quickly accessed on the
net. Call Centers Finally successful Call centers are the benchmark for the total and
proper deployment of customer relationship management. They help in providing
"single point access that ensures " customer delight" the focal objective of a Life
insurer. It is imperative that a well-planned and defined road map is worked out to
open and operate call centers in all strategic locations. These will be the primary
access points for all the policy holders/prospects to call for their queries and
requirements. Tele marketing is also a major utility provided by Call centers. Action
Plan Following are the suggested action points for the implementation of CRM
solutions Finalization of the Technology strategy which is aligned with the Life
insurers goals Stage wise plan with time lines Identification of a competent IT
end to end solutions provider with a strong insurance domain competence , quality
processes , and proven technology alliances Clear documentation of the
requirements and ensuring adequate understanding of the business processes
Enabling Wide area and Local area Net working Appropriate and cost effective
networking support systems like, communication, hardware and uninterrupted
power supply Identifying strategic locations for Datawarehousing and Call centers
To conclude what else could be the right strategy than the "CRM Mantra" for it can
revolutionize the business and customer service approach and ensure that the Life
insurer is not only visible but is distinguished and sought after. As a testimony to its
requirement we have the example of the Life insurance leader, the Herculean LIC,
who is implementing CRM at all its offices. It is to be seen how the competitors
would meet this challenge.