Aviva uses CRM to insure success

The insurance company has integrated its customer-facing departments using Talisma’s e-CRM suite, says ABHINAV SINGH

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

AVIVA Life Insurance has made its mark in the Indian insurance industry in just two years. It has been aided in this endeavour by the deployment of Talisma’s e-CRM suite that has helped it launch new products and services to differentiate itself from competitors.

The reason

There has been an influx of private life insurance companies in India after the liberalisation of the Indian insurance sector. When Aviva entered India in 2002, it was one of the last players to enter the market. The key to success lay in knowing potential customers better, and in bringing out products and services tailored to customer requirements. To do this, it went in for an enterprise-wide deployment of Talisma’s e-CRM suite even before it launched Indian operations in June 2002.

Picking the best

A stringent assessment exercise took place, during which four vendors, including Talisma, were evaluated by a team of 10 people. This team had representatives from the IT department and also from customer-facing departments such as sales, marketing and customer services.

Says 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 customer-facing departments [sales, marketing and customer services] within the organisation.”

A smooth roll-out

The implementation of the CRM suite was a smooth affair. The implementation 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 CRM suite has been deployed in marketing, sales and service as well 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.

Advantage Aviva

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 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 the 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.

New version

Talisma is upgrading its e-CRM product and Aviva plans to roll it out by May 2004. Pandey says, “We have already evaluated the new version of Talisma’s e-CRM, which is likely to be released in May or June this year, and since it has enhanced features matching our requirements we will go for it.” Besides going for a new version, Aviva is planning to go in for the chat module of Talisma’s e-CRM suite so that customers will be able to chat with Aviva’s representatives if they have an inquiry.

Benefits for Aviva

Aviva’s entire sales and marketing operations have been integrated through the deployment of the e-CRM suite. The customer service team at Aviva has successfully leveraged it to provide superior service across multiple channels. Aviva can share real-time customer information across its customer-facing departments across locations. It has facilitated the timely analysis of the company’s sales and marketing initiatives, thus helping Aviva modify its products and services to the tastes and requirements of customers.

e-CRM at Aviva in a nutshell

Aviva decides to implement a CRM suite even before it commenced its Indian operations. The idea was to have a better interface with customers. It also wanted to integrate its customer-facing departments. It picks Talisma from among four vendors after a stringent evaluation exercise. Aviva takes six months to implement the e-CRM suite. It implemented all the e-CRM modules barring the chat module. Today there are 450 users of the e-CRM suite at the company. Aviva Life Insurance enters the Indian market in June 2002. Thanks to the e-CRM implementation, Aviva is able to tap the potential of the Indian insurance market by tailoring its products and services, and quickly analysing and adjusting its marketing initiatives. The company has evaluated the next version of Talisma e-CRM suite and plans to roll out the same towards the end of this year’s AMJ quarter. This time around, Aviva intends to implement the chat module.

IT set-up at Aviva
Hardware/software	Type
Server	Dual-processor IBM xSeries machine
Storage	Aviva has a mix of NAS and SAN. It uses tapes for back-up
Database	Microsoft SQL Server 2000
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 2000
Bandwidth	Aviva has taken multiple leased lines from Bharti

abhinav@expresscomputeronline.com