Leveraging technology for competitive advantage in insurance: the CRM way

Abstract

Post liberalization and after the IRDA opened the doors for the private players, Indian insurance industry has undergone a spectacular change. The private insurers are competing hard against the incumbents and are forcing significant actions resulting in rapid growth of market. Even today, there is a large portion of market untapped and every player is eager to get a bigger share of the pie. At such juncture it is imperative for the players to strategically define competitive advantages not only to build a leadership position but also sustain it over a period of time. From that perspective, use of technology has proved to be noteworthy enabler for sustainable advantage. In this project, we are trying to focus on one of the aspects of gaining competitive advantage with application of CRM and how technology can be leveraged to fullest in order to achieve customer leadership. The report is divided into different sections. Section I - covers the current competitive space for Indian insurers; what kind of different strategies are adopted by the players and how CRM brings in competitive advantage. Section II elaborates on the technical aspects of CRM - its architectural overview, implementation details and most critically how to analyze the returns on CRM technology investments. Section III provides the analysis, and proposes a CRM implementation model for Indian insurers. It also provides insights pertaining to specific issues and implementation challenges in the Indian scenario. In addition to the theoretical approach, the report discusses two Case studies. First one is on the emerging trend of Bancassurance as a distribution channel and applicability of CRM in that model. Later is on experiences of CRM implementation by the market leader-LIC. This report is useful for the ClO's, CTOs or technical managers to understand the business needs behind CRM. The implementation frameworks, models can be reused or customized to their needs. Though the report covers the CRM technology in-depth, it is also aimed at the top management to strategically define the CRM as a driver for competitive advantage and at the same time aware of implementation complexity.