CIOIN

Srinivasan Iyengar, Director-IT and Change Management

Aegon Religare Life Insurance

“We had to deliver three systems within five months. That was quite a challenge.”

Executive summary

CIO 100 Winner: Srinivasan Iyengar saw a need to build agility and adaptability into both process and technology. The BPM project was the first of its kind in the industry. This was for the first time in the industry that select peripheral systems like sales management system and procurement management system were being automated.

Aegon Religare Life Insurance is a JV between Dutch insurance major Aegon, Bennett, Coleman & Company, and Religare one of the leading integrated financial services groups in India. The insurer launched operations in July 2008. As a late entrant in the market, Aegon Religare faced stiff competition from other well-entrenched players.

It aimed to launch operations across 25 locations at once. The IT team had to deliver three systems within five months.So, Srinivasan Iyengar, director-IT and change management, Aegon Religare, saw a need to build agility and adaptability into both process and technology. "We wanted a BPM solution to streamline our sales management process and the dissemination of information on the agency and customer portals," says Iyengar.

However, implementing the BPM project was going to be difficult. It was the first of its kind in the industry. Also, the vendor did not have a prior experience of implementing this solution in the Indian life insurance industry. This was for the first time in the industry that select peripheral systems like sales management system and procurement management system were being automated.

And the project had to be delivered within a very tight timeframe. "We had to deliver three systems within five months. This was quite challenging," says Iyengar.

The first project to be implemented was the sales management system to increase sales productivity, and track all agents. The second project was creating an agency portal - a single window for all agents' activities that includes tracking new business proposals, alerts and information regarding policy servicing, etcetera.

The incidence management system, the third project, was devised with the aim of extending ROI using a single system to monitor all user complaints, helpdesk support and queries.

The projects helped business alliance partners keep track of the latest status of proposals, enabling them to get their work done without having to follow up with the company. The collection window, which used to close by 5 PM so that staff could reconcile accounts, now stays open for an additional two hours everyday. The extra two hours could make the company over Rs 6 lakhs a year. Also, all agency related requirements are now met from the portal, saving between Rs 12 and 15 lakh.