Generali Global Corporate & Commercial brochure – February 2019

Delivering service beyond policy

Generali: 02

A customer-centric insurance provider fuelled by digital disruption WRIT TEN BY

L AUR A MULL AN PRODUCED BY

NATHAN HOLMES

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Generali has made a name for itself as one of largest global insurance providers. Now, it’s taking on one of its biggest digital transformations yet to sustain its customer-centric reputation

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orldwide, it seems the insurance sector is on the cusp of momentous change and nowhere can this be seen better than at

Assicurazioni Generali. Offering everything from corporate insurance to life and health insurance, Generali has quickly become a household name, often cited as being Europe’s third-largest insurer, the leading insurer in Italy and the second largest in Germany. Now, it’s earning its stripes for another key facet of the business: the further innovation and digital transformation process, as stated in the new Group Strategy.

At its Global Corporate & Commercial division, a specialised unit within the company, Generali provides services such as property and casualty insurance to complex multinationals and large domestic commercial entities alike. Hayden Seach, Head of Global Corporate & Commercial Asia, is convinced that this digital transformation is not only

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helping the company better manage its portfolio and relationships, but it’s also helping it deliver more informed risk management to its clients.

Historically, insurance has been associated with a product or contract between a customer and their insurance company covering risk. In stark contrast, Generali believes it offers services beyond this, going the extra mile to deliver a service-orientated experience for its customers. “We focus on providing service-led propositions,” Seach explains, “therefore we position w w w.ge ne ra l i gl o ba l c o rpo rate. com

“ At Generali, our focus is on being agile, flexible and adaptable so we can meet the needs of our clients” Hayden Seach, Head of Generali Global Corporate & Commercial Asia

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ourselves as a company that responds to customers’ needs as a partner, rather than selling them an insurance policy or product.” Technology has undoubtedly been a key part of this strategy, and so Generali has devised a careful digital transformation plan to ensure its customers get the top-class service they deserve every time. “At Generali, our focus is on being agile,

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘THE EMERGING RISK – GENERALI GROUP’ 07 flexible and adaptable so we can meet

a global level. Generali is also using

the needs of our clients in a timely

a customer relationship management

manner,” adds Seach.

(CRM) tool from Microsoft Dynamics

At GC&C, digital tools involve data

which allows it to manage and maintain

consolidation, business enablement,

customer relationships, track engage-

customer service and business

ments and sales, and deliver actionable

management. When it came to data,

data. Because Generali also provides

Seach says that the company “recog-

loss prevention and risk engineering

nised it had an enormous amount of

services to its customers, it has also

data available to it” as a multinational

utilised Maximo by IBM to make the

insurer but that it wasn’t effectively

related reports, actions and results

“leveraging this to its full potential”.

electronically available.

To promote data consolidation and

But data consolidation is only the

portfolio analytics, the business rolled

start. With its digitally-savvy mindset,

out a Corporate Data Warehouse at

Generali also plans to enable the w w w.ge ne ra l i gl o ba l c o rpo rate. com

Trusted Digital Advisor We help insurers connect the dots across the globe and region – becoming customer-led, operationally smart Connected Enterprises

Anticipate tomorrow.

Deliver today. kpmg.com/cn

Š 2019 KPMG Advisory (Hong Kong) Limited, a Hong Kong limited liability company and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative ("KPMG International"), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved. Printed in Hong Kong.

business further with a home-grown

Underwriting Workbench which

system called Gen-e-risk, short for

supports the full underwriting process,

Generali eRisk system. “Providing

from request for quotation to the

multinational insurance solutions is

binding stage. In turn, Seach says this

a very complex process,” observes

will allow the firm to “deliver technical

Seach. “This system enables us

pricing, risk assessment and portfolio

to provide multinational insurance

management as well as offer geoloca-

solutions to large and complex

tion and tracking information”.

customers, across multiple territories,

Today, insurance businesses face

compliantly.” As part of its digital

a new hurdle: how to become more

transformation journey, Generali has

customer-centric. However, this seems

developed a new system called

to be a challenge which Generali is 09

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E

Hayden Seach I current hold the position of Head of Asia; for Generali Global Corporate and Commercial. I am also a member of the Board of Future Generali (India) Insurance Company Limited.

I have worked in the Insurance Industry for 25 years, holding various global and country leadership positions.

Other board memberships I’ve held include: Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance (Oman) SAOC. ( June 2010 — March 2011), Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance (Middle East) Limited EC (alt) (February 2009 — March 2011), Glencairn Group (South Africa) (August 2005 — December 2007).

w w w.ge ne ra l i gl o ba l c o rpo rate. com

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tackling with ease. “We take the data-

and premiums status. Additionally, the

driven insights that we have from the

business is launching an Electronic

Corporate Data Warehouse and we

Policy Insurance service. Aligned with

present it back to the customer, allowing

its green strategy, this roll-out also

them to view the performance of their

aims to “promote better policy

business,” notes Seach. “This enables

documentation management for the

them to create better risk management

customer”, according to Seach.

of their own business.”

“We are also just about to launch

The fourth component of Generali’s digital transformation journey lies in

a Client & Broker web portal,” he adds,

business management. By consolidat-

highlighting how the service will offer

ing its data, Seach says it helped to

a documentary repository and will also

bring “full transparency” to the busi-

provide details on service delivery

ness, allowing it to better manage and

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“ We position ourselves as a company that responds to customers’ needs, rather than selling them an insurance policy or a product” Hayden Seach, Head of Generali Global Corporate & Commercial Asia

track the performance of areas of the business like production, underwriting and finance. “Internally it provided us with a much better portfolio management capability,” he says. “The transparency of our portfolio has really enabled us to focus on profitability and portfolio performance. We’ve got a whole customer view, which has enabled us to deliver better results for our shareholders.”

“I think another thing that I’m really proud that we’ve managed to deliver w w w.ge ne ra l i gl o ba l c o rpo rate. com

is a more informed risk management to our customers,” he adds. “Our customers are able to get the claims data analytics that we provide.” This has had real-life, tangible impacts for customers, he asserts, citing a major multinational hotel chain as one key beneficiary. “We were able to analyse and present to them incidents which were happening within their hotels around the world. So, for example, one hotel had a slip-and-fall problem at one of their buffet lines. Using data 12

analytics, we were able to isolate the cause of the problem and help them design a risk management control.”

In this instance, it meant implementing a service attendant rather than having a self-service model to prevent spillages.

Indeed, Generali Global Corporate & Commercial has taken a forwardthinking approach to innovation, tapping into some of the latest technology trends shaking up the market.

However, when the pace of innovation progresses at a rate of knots, how does the company keep up? “At GC&C Asia we’ve leveraged partners like KPMG who have been a fantastic supporter to us throughout our

journey,” Seach observes. “I think leveraging partnerships have really helped us drive our agenda as fast and effectively as the market requires.”

But this isn’t the only challenge facing the company. Seach points out how his division also had to contend with legacy systems, the scale of change and the challenge of implementing this strategy worldwide. “It really requires a strong leadership focus to cascade this approach to the relevant teams within each of our businesses,” he says.

It’s this strong guidance which will help the company it navigates a realm of new emerging technologies and strategies. “Leveraging robotics and other

“ We’ve leveraged partners like KPMG who have been a fantastic supporter to us throughout our journey” Hayden Seach, Head of Generali Global Corporate & Commercial Asia

emerging technology is the next phase,” notes Seach. “Our value proposition requires a lot of analytics and feedback to our customers and we can’t underestimate the amount of work that goes into that. This technology will reduce the turnaround and customers will be able to receive more live-time data feedback on incidents so they can manage their own risks and exposures more effectively.” In the world of insurance, compliance is paramount and whilst Generali is already using w w w.ge ne ra l i gl o ba l c o rpo rate. com

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160

Countries completed insurance solutions 14

71,000 Employees

1831

Year founded

tools like its CRM system and constant reviews to safeguard this, Seach highlights how the company is also exploring the use of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) for the future.

Change is underfoot at Generali: the company is investigating the use of trailblazing new technologies and is working hard to nurture the right culture necessary for change but ultimately, for Seach and his team, the most important thing is to remain laser-focused on its service-led customer experience. “Our service beyond policy approach is something that we’re really proud of within Global Corporate & Commercial,” Seach reflects. “Looking forward, if we can continue to be the best deliverer of corporate insurance to our customer that would be something that I would be delighted with.” In order to do this, technology is set to be a vital part of Generali’s future strategy, but when the end-goal is customer-centricity, it’s by no means a silver bullet. Seach affirms that whilst technology is a “clear enabler” which can help make the company more customer-centric, it won’t ever “replace the face-to-face environments that we’ve prided ourselves on here at Generali”.

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Generali Global Corporate & Commercial Piazza Tre Torri, 1, 20145 Milan, Italy T +39 0 2482 48749 www.generaliglobalcorporate.com