Being connected with B Connect— SLIC’S newest...

Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation, the Stateowned insurance giant is gearing up to meet the expectations of customers in the digital era. Through the B Connect mobile app, SLIC wants to connect internal stakeholders via one communications platform that delivers real-time information to their fingertips. SLIC recently rebranded their image to match their present modernizing drive, to reflect energy, strength and speed. The new SLIC logo in turquoise conveys the organisation’s mindset to adopt new trends. Being big is often challenging and poses difficulties in adapting fast. Agility and speed is the motivation behind this change. With reputed international players in the game, SLIC wants to enhance its services through well-informed stakeholders. Their initial objective in digitizing their processes is to enable their sales force in their sales drive and to revolutionize SLIC to keep up with global standards in insurance. Mirror Business recently met with Aloka Jayawardena, Chief Information Officer at SLIC to find out more.

SLIC recently launched the B Connect App. Tell us what’s it all about and what triggered the idea?

The B Connect app was launched this October. With around 9000 insurance advisors, our sales force is spread across the country. The major drawback was communication between the head office and the sales force. We have a centralized communication system where the sales force had to communicate with the head office manually. They had to visitthe relevant branch or the head office and obtain information via hard copies. Also, there were certain gaps in this physical communication. So the requirement for utilizing technology arose from a strong need to be mutually connected and to stay up-to-date. It is vital to have real-time information in providing insurance services today.

We wanted to utilize technology to enable our sales force to access realtime information. Before B Connect, they pursued their sales targets based on the previous month’s MIS data and real-time information was not available to them.

The Insurance industry is a very competitive one. Sales perks are connected directly to a rep’s performance. Lack of real-time information was the main drawback when planning their sales effort.a sales person can miss their monthly target by a narrow margin and this app it was almost a blind game, because the target keeps moving. It has also been a cultural change since then, now that agents have direct access to real-time information.

So the need had been there for some time, and we had searchedfor suitable solutions. After a thorough analysis we decided that the internal IT team would come up with the bestsolution, as we knowthe business intimately.

What is an insurance advisor’s role and how does this app help the advisor to fulfill his or her role?

This app has several features. In the insurance industry there are certain internal stakeholders. The sales person, the customer, the backoffice support staff, calls center representatives, the assessor, and so on. This app connects all these stakeholders. For example, if a customer has been hospitalized, the sales person will already be aware of that by the time the customer calls to inform him. The trigger would be the support process, and the customer needn’t repeat their problem to each person they talk to. This enables our sales force to be ahead of the situation, and places the customer in a less frustrating position. Insurance is largely about selling a relationship. Everything in Insurance is on a document, but B Connect reverses the situation and helps develop the relationship.

The B Connect App is seen as a pioneering step in the local insurance scenario. How exactly does it revolutionize the local Insurance Industry?

This is a good example of adopting Blockchain principles in connecting all stakeholders together through one platform. B Connectwill connect all the stakeholders internally and externally and digitize the entire organization, starting with the sales drive.as the market leader in Sri Lanka, SLIC is competing with international players. This will revolutionize SLIC image as a stateof-the-art insurance service provider.

How do the different stakeholders - customers, advisors and the organization - benefit from this app?

The process would be transparent to all stakeholders.in future our customers will get the full benefit,where they will see the status of their request and claim etc.they will also access value added services through the platform.

Sales force would have real-time information and be connected to the back-office operations. Soon we will also introduce product manuals and videosthat help advisors in their job and create an elearning environment. SLIC has many strengths.

B Connect will communicate these strengths,which areunique selling points,to our sales force. An advisor should be able to say why a customer should select SLIC to secure their interests. Thiswill be effectively communicated through B Connect.

How ready were the users to adopt technology and what were their feedback?

Since B Connect is an intuitive and user-friendly mobile app, there was no special need for readiness from the part of the users. The feedback to B Connect has been excellent. The sales force is delighted, asneeded this facility for a long time. Our sales competition is running on this solution now. Now that advisors can see their real-time position, it helps them to compete proactively. The team rankings are displayedalong with the targets to be achieved. Information being available to everyone, there is no room for complacence. It has created a constructive and win-win environment creating a change in culture as well. The sales force earns more, and the organization also benefits in return.

Was any re-engineering necessary to fit the app into the organization’s business process?

Instead of documents being mailed as hardcopies, they are now transmitted as soft-copy via B Connect. We expect to see many resulting productivity improvements in future. The app will trigger reminders, and there is a digital diary to support daily schedule of a sales agent. As for internal business process, there was minimum change, except for the digital conveniences offered by B Connect. This is the first step, and we will be looking Aloka Jayawardena at business process improvement as the next step.

Are there any savings to the organization?

There is a huge saving on paper and snail-mailing cost. There is no more need for hardcopies, as the sales agent has all the information theyneed on B Connect. The organization spent a very large sum of money on mailing a lot of documents. Now money is saved for better use. In addition, this will make a definite positive environmental impact in reducing our carbon footprint

Can you give us an idea how the global insurance industry uses technology to disrupt the industry, and how Sri Lanka can adopt those scenarios for our benefit?

At the moment there is a major project underway to migrate our core insurance system to a latest industry-standard product and we are evaluating solutions. This is a definite signal that we are looking for new technology. If you look at the global scenario, there is use of disruptive technology like AI. Usage based insurance, for instance, which studies an individual’s habits is already a reality. For example, a person who follows a regular exercise regime can get a premium benefit for his good physical record. In future we will see AI facilitated call centers, where customers will chat to a robot without realizing it. They will be available around the clock. There are many developing technologies. For the time being, we want to go to the next level of integrating all key stakeholders to the B Connect platform and also initiate loyalty point schemes where SLIC customers will get special benefits from thirdparty service providers.

Can you share some technical details about how B Connect was developed, who developed it and how long it took to implement the app?

Our internal team developed the B Connect app within a period of just three months. It was an amazing experience because we started with a blank slate. The team had to do a lot of research which they took on willingly. The result was that we had B Connect for zero extra cost to the organization. We take pride in the fact that we took on the challenge, and we appreciate the support from everyone in the organization.

What were the challenges faced by the organization and development team in developing and implementing this app?

We got 100 percent support from the entire sales force. It was extraordinary. The real challenge is that they want more and more features. Keeping upat that speed is a real challenge. But we are more than willing to take it up. Another remarkable thingwas the sales unions did all the training outside Colombo. Rather than us convincing them to use the app, they took matters into their own hands. So this is a case study ofeveryone pulling together and doing something for benefit of the organization.

What is the next step after B Connect, for SLIC?

Right now B Connect is in English. So we will be facilitating local languages in future. The customers will have the facility to see their policies and status of their claims, and be directly connected us. For instance, in the case of roadside accident support, the call center personnel will be able to assist the customer much more proactively. We will also introduce third-party value added services to the platform. In the case of our business processes, we need to review and improve them to meet up to the challenge, when stakeholders have more information and visibility into the process. We need to streamline our processes to meet the digital revolution and rising customer expectations.