Bajaj Allianz General Insurance plans to open offices in 500 towns by this financial year.

All its offices will be connected to the head office and can access all their business applications in order to make information available at their fingertips. Thomas Varghese, head, IT, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, talks about the company's expansion plans and technology requirements. Excerpts What were your pioneering efforts that assisted customers? As our CEO often says, IT in Bajaj Allianz means insurance and technology and that is how closely the business and IT is integrated. In our company, business runs IT and not vice versa. This philosophy and our aggressive approach have led to many of the firsts in the insurance industry. Bajaj Allianz was one of the first private insurers to pioneer instant issuance of policies at PoS locations of all registered intermediaries, integrate policy issuing software with diverse bancassurance partners who had their own banking software, online buying, or renewal of policies, SMS alerts on progress of claim status from claim intimation to final claim cheque, etc. Bajaj Allianz has developed a robust IT system, which is Internet based and where MIS and key business information is accessible everywhere with real time management interaction. Every morning, automated SMS alerts are sent to top management and office heads on key information about premium collection the day before, which often serves as a wake up call. These pioneering efforts did not go unnoticed as Bajaj Allianz was accorded the Center of Competence in Asia Pacific by Allianz SE. Bajaj Allianz has developed software for Allianz companies in Thailand, China, and Russia. Additionally, Bajaj Allianz also offers the first level support for OPUS users (the operational software platform used by all Allianz companies) of Allianz companies worldwide besides maintenance and support for Web-enabled OPUS (WEO) applications. What are your expansion plans? Bajaj Allianz is set to grow at a fast pace and open offices to augment our panIndia presence. We are currently present in over 200 towns and expect to increase it to 500 towns by this fiscal. All our offices would be well connected to the head office and can access all our business applications in order to make information available at their fingertips.

Thomas Varghese head, IT, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance

IT forms the backbone of operations at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance. Hence, whatever is required to automate, connect, and integrate is expected from IT. This also includes interface with business partners, distribution channel partners besides the all important-customers. We use state-of-the-art technology, including hardware, in enabling our IT needs. We have mission critical applications, as IT is the backbone of our business infrastructure. In simple language, all internal divisions like marketing, sales, policy issuance, claims management, human resource, accounts, and CRM are automated using IT.

Bajaj Allianz is on an expansion spree. What are your IT investment plans for 2008-09? Bajaj Allianz has set aside a significant part of its investments for IT to upgrade and maintain the IT requirements as and when the need arises. Bajaj Allianz is committed to embrace all possible technologies, be it in IT or telecom or networking to lower the transaction costs and provide seamless service to our customers. We periodically review the IT investments and the progress of business goals. Any new IT investment is initiated and driven by business goals. Hence, the RoI is calculated before the start of the implementation. What were your main investments during the current fiscal? Our main investment has been in the areas of data center upgrade, software, call center solutions, IVR implementation, and CRM development. Recently, we upgraded our data server to take care of the growing business and generate quick and accurate MIS reports as well as support a whole lot of other applications necessary to issue and process policies. The processor can take the load of over 5,000 concurrent users without affecting speed and connectivity. Which technology is going to be the key driver in your industry in the days to come? What new technologies are in the pipeline that can make a difference to the industry? Wireless technology, PoS services for policy issuance, and claim settlement would definitely be the key drivers of success in the market. In fact, any technology and its adaptation that will offer a hassle-free experience to our customers will be used. We feel that this approach would be the key differentiator in the insurance industry. The emerging wireless technologies are definitely a boon for every business and they are the future. We widely use wireless applications such as providing information on mobile and acknowledged to the user at PoS. In order to provide faster claims services and settlements, we use wireless technology. We are committed to embrace all technologies and the emerging convergence benefits to streamline our systems and simplify them to benefit the ultimate customer. What are your main concerns? IT risks like data security is a growing concern and we do ensure adequate security to review and mitigate the risks as we follow the Allianz Global security standards. We follow stringent security standards. However, we have initiated formal certification on ISM and are in the process of receiving the same at the earliest. Accessibility issue in remote locations is a major concern. We are trying to simplify the process to address this issue. What approach do you follow in outsourcing? Who are your main vendors and focus areas? No, we don't outsource IT work except network management. We follow a well-defined process in evaluating our vendors. Baburajan K