EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Recent advances in information technology are changing the insurance business. Some
of the changes are hidden away in the back office, invisible to the public. But dramatic
changes are coming in the most visible part of insurance, its sales or distribution
function. The technological advances place in the hands of insurance companies and
agents the tools to bring new savings and better service to consumers. That opens the
door to rapid shifts in the winners and losers in this highly competitive business.

These developments challenge state insurance regulation as much as they challenge

insurance management. State regulation is based on small geographical jurisdictions.
Insurance regulation is based on old definitions of the financial service being regulated.
Information technology leads to the breaking down of familiar limitations, geographical
and functional. It is beginning to do so already. The aspect of insurance regulation likely
to be hit first by today’s and tomorrow’s technological change is the licensing of
insurance agents. It is perhaps the oldest kind of insurance regulation. If it is not
modernized quickly, it will become a needless impediment to the implementation of the
new technologies. It will not for long stand against changes so profound. But even a
brief delay will harm the public and, ironically, the segments of the insurance industry it
is presumed to be protecting. This report describes what is going on today in the
intersecting areas of information technology and agent licensing and the unfortunate
consequences – for the public, the industry and the regulatory agencies – of applying to
an emerging twenty first century business a regulatory structure carried forward nearly
intact from the nineteenth.

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 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY :-

 Understand the basis of classification of insurance business and types of

insurance products.
 Understand the basis of classification of insurers how they can be
incorporated.
 Understand the functions performed by insurance companies,
departments in an insurance company.
 Impact of Globalization on insurance and risk management business.
 Role of Government in regulating insurance sector and areas of
regulation regarding investment of premiums.
 Familiarized with the legislations and enactments related to insurance
business in India.

Chapter 1

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 INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN
INSURANCE SECTOR

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Insurance, in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used

to hedge against the risk of a contingent loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable
transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for a premium, and
can be thought of as a guaranteed small loss to prevent a large, possibly devastating loss.
An insurer is a company selling the insurance; an insured is the person or entity buying
the insurance. The insurance rate is a factor used to determine the amount to be charged
for a certain amount of insurance coverage, called the premium. Risk management, the
practice of appraising and controlling risk, has evolved as a discrete field of study and
practice. The developments in IT are the working wonders in all the fields of activity. It
has become possible to send and receive information almost instantaneously. If circulars
do not reach the agents on time or doubts are not cleared quickly, or the agent does not
have details of the new plans announced in the press, the agent may face awkward
situation with the prospects. These problems can be totally avoided with the use of IT.

Insures traditionally have been quickly to adapt latest advances in the technology.
This is happening in the areas of IT as well. The extent of IT application will vary
between insures. The information technology has always played a very important role in
the operations of every life insurance company. In fact of all the business organizations in
the service sector, the life insurance companies were the first to adopt
‘MECHANIZATION’ as an inalienable part of their operation all over the world.

This becomes necessary because of two important reasons namely:

1. The nature of services to be rendered to the policyholders.

2. The need to evaluate the liabilities under the policies in vogue at the time of valuation.

1.2EVOLUTION OF POLICY BOND

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 The first service rendered by a life insurance company to the policyholder is the
issue of policy bond. In the olden days, every policyholder was ‘Narrative type’. All the
policyholder documents and conditions applicable had to be typed out separately. But the
number of policy sold was limited: it was possible to continue that method. But as the
business grew, it became humanly impossible to continue that method of preparation of
policy bonds.

The life insurance companies switched over to ‘schedule type’ of the policy
documents. Here the form of policy bond was standardized and as most of the condition
and privileges were similar, pre- printed stationery was prepared. The only work left was
to fill up the details of each individual policy, viz. policy number, plan and period of
assurance, sum assured, mode of payments of premiums, installment premium, date of
last payment of premium, date of maturity of the policy, age and whether admitted or not,
name address of the policyholder, name of the nominee, etc. In order to complete the
schedule of the policy bond with these particulars, addressograph machines were
introduced.

Policy particulars were embossed on Zinc or Aluminum plates and these plates
were used to print the particulars in the schedule part of the pre- printed policy bonds.
These plates were then used to print advance premium and default notices, premium
receipts with counterfoils and final lapse intimations sent to the policyholders. The
companies also had ‘Unit Record Machines’ otherwise called ‘Power Samas Machines’
which were operated using punch cards. These were parallel records in which policy
particulars were punched in the prescribed fields.

There were two types of cards, namely:

1. Premium Master Cards Premium Master Cards were utilized to account for the
premiums received and then for generating lists of lapsed policies.

2. Valuation Cards Valuation Cards were prepared to be utilized for the valuation of
Liabilities under the policies.

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 There was one-on-one correspondence between the adrema plates and premium
master cards. With the advent of the micro processors, the addressograph machines along
with the adrema plates and the ‘ unit record machines’ along with the premium master
cards became redundant and went out of use. Both were replaced by a new kind of record
called ‘Policy Master’ for each policy, integrating both adrema plate and the premium
master cards. Apart from the ease with which servicing of the policies could be rendered
through micro processor operations, the speed with which the same can be undertaken.
The speed was necessary because of the tremendous increase in the volume of the new
business and much larger increase in the number of service operations.

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1.3 IMPORTACE OF TECHNOLOGIES IN INSURANCE SECTOR

Introduction of technology in the insurance sector has improved every aspect of the
industry. Technologies play a major role in data management process of an insurance
agency by providing flawless services from underwriting policies, producing documents
to collating various ratings and data. The state-of the-art implementations offers
instantaneous accurate information about different insurances to the clients. Insurance
firms regularly spend a part of their yearly premiums on modern technology that aids in
enhancing the overall performance of the organization. Insurance technologies help the
insurance agents to immediately respond to the requirements of the customers and
technology has managed to cut back the annual expenditure of the organizations.

The basic purpose of insurance technologies is to reduce the paperwork of proposals

and policies and address the customer services effectively in a shorter time than any other
traditional methods. Information technology in insurance has made it easier for the
customers too. Online availability of the insurance agencies allow the clients in dealing
with application procedures, signing proposals and policies as well as in receiving quotes
without even visiting the insurance office in person.

The best part of technology in insurance is that it helps the firms in reducing the
costs by eliminating the mail rooms, paper files as well as the data entry clerks. The
elaborate underwriting, data processing and the rating take place online and the
customers or brokers receive the emailed policy documents within no time. This online
advantage, however, comes with a price. The system requires a substantial initial
investment in its primary stages but the owner certainly gets his returns on investment
over the years that come equipped with superior services and response timings.

Various innovative technological applications allow the insurers to recognize the

risks and opportunities easily. The modeling device examines the loss histories and
compares them with the risk characteristics while it searches for correlations. Such
insurance technologies help the insurance companies to charge higher prices for the
higher-risk client base and lower prices for the safer opportunities.

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There is a variety of insurance technologies available in the market. The hardware and
the insurance software should be chosen depending on the business necessities of the
insurance agencies. Different insurance management systems and comparative rating
systems enable the firms to generate more revenues by decreasing the span of output and
input procedures.

Insurance technologies have made insurance services mobile with the availability of
smart phones and such devices. Insurance companies use these devices to provide faster
services like view policies, obtain quotes, and report claims through live chat application.
Such improvements would have been impossible if there were no insurance technologies
available within the industry.

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1.4 NEED FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN THE
INSURANCE SECTOR

The rapid innovation in the field of information and communication technology has
posed serious challenges for the insurance industry in India. The use and application of
information technology in wide variety of insurer’s operations has now become strategic
in the sense that it has direct impact on the productivity of resources, and a sweepening
impact on reducing the case of various activities. With the arrival of private insurance
players, the competition has become more intense and an important role is being played
by the insurance sector. Even though the use of information technology is not new to the
insurance sector, yet we may find tight compartmentalization regarding the use of
information technology in various departments of the insurance companies including the
major players since last 50 years. The most visible of these departments are accounting,
policy issue and servicing, claim processing, sales management etc.

Therefore the imperative for all the insurers, especially LIC and GIC is to build up an
efficient interface between the various departments and segments. This would reduce the
paper work, improve efficiency of service delivery and provide competitive advantage to
the insurance companies.

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 Chapter-2

APPLICATION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

2.1 INTRODUCTION

As awareness of quality service began growing among policyholders in India also,

LIC of India had to think of many applications of information technology. Up gradation
of technology was undertaken on a huge scale. All the 2050 branch offices, which were
serving centers, were equipped with computer systems. Training of employees also was
organized on a large scale. Several software packages for different servicing operations
were introduced. A cash module was introduced, operating with, the cashier, while sitting
at his desk, is enable to print and issue official receipts on the spot to the policyholders
when they tender money towards premium, the entire operation take a few minutes.

A new business module was introduced which enable even underwriting operations
to be computerized. It brought a complete integration of all activities connected with the
processing of policy documents Similarly, loans and surrender value module, policy
revival module, claims module were also introduced. Now revival quotations, a policy
quotations or maturity claims intimation letters are generated on the Computer. All these
gave tremendous boost to the efficiency in rendering service to the policyholders Up
gradation of technology also helped in another direction. Several reports which could be
used as MIS get generated for use by managers at all levels. This helps management to
review performance against prescribed indices and to take appropriate corrective actions
where necessary. To bring out the revolutionary changes in communication to
policyholders, several steps were taken.

Inter-Voice Response Systems have been introduced which policyholders ascertain

several types of information about their policy like policy status, premium position, loan
amount, maturity / next survival benefit due , accumulation of bonus , etc. over
telephones language in language of his choice. The policyholder can also get the
information on fax. MAN is installed in several cities, which enables policyholders to pay
premiums or get their status reports, revival, loan, surrender quotations in any of branches

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offices convenient to them in the cities. Now, many of the cities with MAN are connected
by WAN, which enables policyholders to pay premium anywhere in the country. E-mail
connections have been established in many of the offices and internet connections has
been given to all the divisional offices, all department in all the zonal offices and central
offices.

A website {www.licinda.com} was set up to give information on the Internet about

the organization, products, service. The web pages has been made interactive with the
features like online Premium Calculation”, “On-line — Bonus Calculation”, “On-line
Forms” etc. The site includes features on ‘Frequently Asked Questions by Non Resident
Indians’. The corporation has also set up interactive touch screen based multimedia
Kiosks in prime location in the metros and major cities for dissemination of information
on the product and services. The corporation has plans to redesign these kiosks to provide
policy details and accept premium payments. All these applications have definitely
brought a great amount of satisfaction to policyholders.

The steps taken by LIC of India during the past 5 to 6 years are an indication of the
importance role that information technology can play in ensuring a very high quality in
the serving operations of a life insurance company. Several private life insurance
companies are also utilizing the latest technology available including creating their own
web sites. A few private web sites like ‘Bima online ‘also have been established
Technology is the most important tool in another very important area of life insurance
functions. It is valuation. The process by which the values of various polices of insurance
existing at a point of time are obtained is called valuation’ of liabilities of an insurer was
small, policy values used to be calculated for individuals policies. But when the number
of policies runs into several lakh or crore, as a present it is extremely inconvenient to
calculate the value of each contract separately. Methods have, therefore, been devised to
collect data for each plan of insurance in a form suitable for valuation in groups having
some common characteristic like age, duration or term to run to maturity and like.
Grouping is done only if there is sufficient number of policies to make the group of a
reasonable size. For a sufficient large life insurance organization, this work is possible

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only through application of technology. It is a legal requirement today in our country for
a life insurance company to conduct an actuarial valuation every year.

This adds to importance of IT application. With increasing complexity of products

both life insurance and pension entering the market, the field force, especially the agents
needs a large support from the company represent. While discussing life insurance
program with potential customers, agents need sophisticated information including
benefits, comparisons, , needs and matching products , rates and impact on the
customer’s budget , returns, etc,. Like in Japan, life insurance companies in India may
also supply ‘Palm — Tops to their sales force.

This will be possible only through extension of concepts of information

technology. Market research is another area where information technology has a great
role to play. Today’s, the customer has become the center around the entire market
revolves. The world is fast moving towards market driven economy. Organizations,
which were merely based on ‘sales concept’, are eagerly aiming to convert themselves
into marketing organizations’. Life insurance companies which primarily deal with the
financial needs of the people cannot ignore these realities.

The life insurance has become very dynamic. The needs, aspirations, attitudes,
buying behaviors, standards and quality of life are changing. The perceptions of what
constitutes standards and quality of life are changing. The perceptions of what constitutes
standard of life is also undergoing a metamorphosis. Different types of product are the
need hour. The demand is more for ‘flexible’ rather than ‘packaged’ products especially
in the service market. To certain its share and to improve it, there is no alternative for any
life insurance company than to have a continuous market research. The company should
know the demographic changes taking place in the society. They should know what is
selling and where. They should know the pace of sales on the day to day basis.

They should not only know the emerging customer profile but also the size of the
market. All these need a scientific market survey and research either done in house or
outsourced. A typical market survey report is appended which shows the enormity of the
job. Without the support of technology, this will be an impossible task for the company.

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2.2 IT APPLICATIONS IN FUNCTIONAL AREAS

Even though the information technology has wide application in all the spheres of the
insurance business, yet following are the most important ones in respective functional
areas: Marketing The scope for use of Information Technology in marketing function is
tremendous. It may start from the consumer acquaintance to an insurance product to
claims settlement or further selling of new products or developing consumers for the
products. Information technology can be integrated with almost all the P’s of marketing.
It may help in formulation and implementation of various marketing strategies including
pricing, promotion and customization strategies.

Some of these areas are discussed below:

a) Consumer Awareness:-

The use of Information Technology may be path breaking for the insurance companies
since conventionally the awareness of the insurance products in India is low. With the use
of Internet the information about the products and pricing policies can be made available
to the public in few seconds and much transparency in operations can be established.
There are numerous websites available which can help the prospective customers to
compare the insurance products of various issuers and decide the product suited to his
needs. Also, the information about the new’ products changes in the existing ones and of
course, the information on various discounts and incentives can be provided at a much
faster rate and lower cost.

b) Customer Services:-

The insurance being a service needs high concerns in terms of services. Customer service
requires maximum attention and should span the entire gamut of activities in the purchase
of a product i.e. right from the dissemination of information, documentation to policy
administration and claim settlement. The service quality standards of the new private
insurance players have posed a threat to the-then giants viz. the LIC and GJC. The
investments in the personnel and knowledge systems have helped private player’s
companies build significant domain expertise.

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The emerging areas of IT applications are:

(1) Market Research

(2) Consumers targeting and segmentation

(3) Customizations of products

(4) Easy procedures like premium payments, claims settlements, tracking of brokers and
agents

(5) Complaints management! grievance handling

(6) Intermediary analysis Finance

Information technology can be effectively used for internal management viz.

Accounting, treasury management, financial performance reporting etc. and as well as in
resource mobilization, portfolio management, investment planning etc.

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2.3 IT APPLICATION IN HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

Application of IT in Human Resource Management is obvious. It can be effectively

utilized in:

(1) Recruitment and selection,

(2) Training,

(3) Performance valuations etc. Research and Development R&D has been made an easy
task with the increasing use of IT. Surveys and research on market potential, analysis of
markets, tracking with international norms and developments are the profound areas of IT
applications.

(4) Appraisal,

(5) Promotions, transfers and dismissals,

(6) Impact of Technology on Insurers Any new adoption needs time to get acquainted
with the users until they gain enough confidence & knowledge in that system.

Recent studies reveal that consumers lack passion for insurance because of its
complexity, but despite these push backs, a growing number of insurers are intrigued by
the significant cost saving & customer-retention benefits to be gained through online self-
service. Although carriers think that by encouraging insurers to do transactions by online
services, which would reduce operational costs vastly, they are very cynical of investing
in web technology with dot-corn collapse.

The trick lies in educating insurers about the concept and benefits of eservices in this
sector. Driving client to initial online self-service experience into something more
interactive by call services that would involve human interactions will certainly have a
greater impact. This balanced approach is how most insurers are enabling online self-
service that not only make sense for policyholders, but also provides support for
intermediaries and agents.

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 The main challenge for any health company’s website would be bringing all sections
of people to view their site. They should show some positive incentives to bring
customers to their websites. Online services have own advantages like accessibility of
information 24/7, visualization of information, providing interactive plan finder tools,
adding useful links to the websites, live chat technologies etc. An online activity helps to
give necessary knowledge to consumers, which is very positive, because it implies that
when people learn more they establish a deeper relationship and a broader dialogue with
the carrier. Agents and brokers also enjoy the efficiencies that come with writing new
businesses and servicing their customers on websites. About 55% to 60% of customers
take booklets electronically.

In order to enable efficient online self-service functions, companies typically have to

update their legacy systems. Despite the current limits to online self-service, as the
Internet continues to gain acceptance, customers probably will become more open for
using it as a conduit for insurance services. In the past year, the portion of insurers
offering customers service websites has been growing dramatically.

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2.4 TECHNOLOGIES FOR INSURANCE

There has never been a time when the effective use of information technology has
been more crucial to the success of the insurance industry. The insurance markets are
being revolutionized by technology at a high speed pace. IT and software solutions,
allowing cross-border trade to become electronic and paperless, are increasingly on offer
to importers, exporters, shipping companies and financial institutions.

Following technological advancements can really enhance the performance of insurance

companies.

a) Database Management Systems:-

The principles of tracking and measuring responses can pay off for the conventional
insurance industry. To find more clients, insurer needs to consider many factors,
including cash value, medium and competition. But the need to record and study the
characteristics of persistency- the length of time we retain policies, customers and agents
is most important in insurance companies. In order to find out profitable combinations of
households or clients, products and agents, a database with five to ten years’ history is of
immense importance. Such historical retention was prohibitively expensive in the past.

But clear advantages of new PC (Personal computer) and RISC (Reduced Instruction
Set Computing) technology gives companies power to keep tens of millions of policies
on a device with thousands of bytes of data per policy/client/agent. Analyisng a 1O-year
database is cost effective. Reviewing the database provides information on how many
clients have actually migrated not just how many policies have lapsed or surrendered.
Using database technology companies can get a comprehensive, performance, loyalty,
and lost opportunity.

b) Data Warehouse:-

Data warehousing technology is based on integrating a number of information

systems into a ‘one stop shopping’ database to achieve vision of making company
national in scope, but regional in focus. Traditionally, the sale of policies and the claim
settlement are two separate areas for the insurance companies. Data warehousing allows

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managing by profit levels with an integrated approach rather than by limiting losses. Data
mining can be used as a means to control costs and increase revenue resulting in
enormous earning for effective users.

c) Decision Support Systems:-

The path of business applications of computers, computer based information

systems (CBIS), encompasses many stages including the very early applications like
transactions processing systems (TPS) followed by the management information systems
(MIS). The computer applications like decision support systems (DSS), expert systems
(ES) and executive information systems (EIS) are still awaited in insurance business.
Office automation (OAS) happens to be a continuously ongoing, dynamic process for any
business. Such decision support systems will provide the insurance managers with a tool
for customized products and services that are more in line with what customers want.

d) Group Linking Software:-

Group-linking software enables sharing of information arid partieular1v suits

document heavy insurance business. Tracking of policy application shows how
information that is input and accessed from a number of locations can increase efficiency.

e) Imaging and Workflow Technologies:-

The proposal forms may be scanned into an imaging system. Data may be extracted
for update to computer and for automated underwriting workflow may be implemented.
Mapping Insurers to meet different needs, such as identifying loss prone areas or
geographic claim analysis, can use Mapping technology. It helps the insurer to analyse
the extent of its network i.e. the insurer can determine whether it has too many or too few
agency force in a particular area.

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f) Call Centre Technology:-

Good customer service is a crucial element for gaining, maintaining and retaining
profitable customers. Call centre concept based on interactive voice response services
(IVRS) is gaining importance in this aspect. Video Linking A video linking facility
between two remote units of an insurance company or between an insurer and a broker
allows underwriters at one place and brokers at other unit to discuss risk inherent in a
proposal face to face.

g) Cat Models:-

Catastrophic models use data from the recent natural disasters that helps develop
more predictions of insurers’ property exposures in future disasters. Using this data
curious “what-if’ scenarios of probable maximum loss (PML) using the best estimate
available at an insurer’s exposures are tested. Finally an underwriting policy that limits
the company’s exposure to catastrophic losses is implemented. Intranet is the network
connecting different offices of the same business to permit the internal data within the
business.

Extranet is a network allowing the business to communicate with business partners

like suppliers, vendors, banners, regulations etc. on the electronic channel. Internet is a
global network of many computer networks. Any user, who would like to exchange some
information with other user at a remote location, can log into the computer of Internet
provider via modem or an Internet access CPU (IAC). The Internet and online service
providers are providing opportunities to create new forums that can be utilized by
everyone worldwide. Insurers can browse through many useful sites on the Internet.

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2.5 TECHNICAL CHALLENGES

A host of tech accompanies the task of insurance fraud and abuse detection. An
abusive solution to the problem requires a comprehensive approach enabled by a variety
of technologies that addresses these technical challenges head-on. Some of these design
issues include;

a) Ongoing reassessment of fraud risk:-

Because fraud may not exist at the time the claim is submitted, or because evidence
of abuse may not yet be apparent, a system must each claim over and over on an
ongoing basis.
b) Understanding raw data:-
The starting point is the “raw mountain of data”. A thorough understanding of this
data requires careful analysis and domain expertise. Furthermore regardless of what
technologies are employed, careful engineering is required to address issues of data
being messy. missing or standardized

c) Behavior from ongoing transactional data:-

Characterizing claim activity involves the summarization of all transactional data
(e.g. payments or medical service details). This summarization must not lose key
aspects of activity.

d) Complex pattern in data:-

Identifying which claims are most suspicious requires a comprehensive analysis of
many different features characterizing the claim and its activity. A detection system
must be able recognize those patterns of behavior most indicative of fraud.

e) Limited examples of confirmed fraudulent claims:-

In many cases, only a small number of known examples of fraud may exist in the
historical data. One must be able to handle such situations when developing the
detection system.

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f) Prioritization of suspects:-
In order to match work level to staffing constraints, which may be different for
different customers and may vary over time, a detection system must allow for
prioritization of suspects. Scoring models provide a rank ordering of all suspects so
that attention can be focused on those deemed most suspicious.

g) Effective use of detection results:-

In order to effectively use the detection system’s results, explanations for what
makes a claim look suspicious should be provided, strategies for effective workflow
assignment should be determined (e.g., match resources with suspects that are most
beneficial to review) and tools to review the results should be available (these may
already exist).

h) System Maintenance:-
The system performance must not deteriorate due to changing patterns of activity
overtime. Because neural network models are built from data and automatically learn
complex patterns within the data, they can be efficiently redeveloped. Indeed, as more
examples of abuse become known, model performance can be expected to improve
over time

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 Chapter-3

TECHNOLOGIES AND CYBER INSURANCE IN INDIA

3.1 INTRODUCTION

The opening up of the Insurance industry in India would boost competition,

facilitate technology transfer and lead to new products, better customer service, deeper
and wider insurance coverage and many more opportunities for employment. As new
private sector entrants enter into India, opportunities in the insurance industry are up for
grabs. One important aspect of the insurance industry, which is gaining prominence tile
world over, is the development of technology and cyber-insurance strategies.

Cyberspace is a risky place. Companies conducting business over the internet are
exposed to a variety of new, unpredictable and serious exposures such as servers
crashing, computer viruses, destruction of data, emails disappearing and attack from
hackers for which there are few precedents in terms of risk management and even less
actual insurance coverage. Cyberspace presents unique challenges to risk managers for
several reasons; the foremost being that there is no Standard risk profile.

The wide variety of internet-related businesses, such as ISP’s, content aggregators,

certification authorities, online merchants and software developers, all contribute to the
difficulty of developing a single risk profile. Enacting appropriate insurance policies for
ensuring cover for security issues and intellectual property rights issues is vital. For safe
business transaction, what is needed is a secure legal environment and while legislation in
India is providing this environment with the enacting of laws dealing with the Internet,
Insurance companies in India should provide comprehensive protection policies for a
business against web-related risks, such as hackers and viruses, credit card and employee
fraud, business interruption losses, and legal action.

Essentially, the policy can fill the gaps in coverage that have opened up between standard
insurance policies due to the fact the way business is done has changed.

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a) Intellectual property infringements:-

Content providers who use content of others without permission can trigger these risks.
Errors and Omissions liability: these risks are typically triggered by the programmers,
web hosts & web-designers, who, through negligence in their work cause injury/damage
to a third party.

b) Personal injury & advertising Liability:-

As e-commerce grows, these risks can be triggered by worldwide web sites, and trade
publishers who publish illegal content or content which may be constructed as libel.

c) Director’s liability:-

Directors and officers often face the risk of litigation due to numbers of factors, such as
consumer protection laws, securities related laws, and certain provisions in the corporate
laws that place additional responsibilities on directors.

d) Employee liability:-

These risks would arise from the breach of confidentiality and rights of privacy arising
out of confidential client information stored on a particular system or website. In
addition, employee can initiate sexual harassment charges from an employee due to
disturbing e-mail content.

e) Legal fees:-

Fees incurred for litigation arising out of various claims, such as intellectual property.
Many businesses on the internet mistakenly think their internet- related exposures are
covered by their existing policies.

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 3.2 INTERNET & INTRANET

The Internet is a worldwide system, accessible through computers. Information

travels through the internet at incredible speeds. It cuts across national & international
boundaries. While the internet allows access for anybody from anywhere, the internet is
an in-house network, working on the same principle. The difference is similar to the
difference between a national newspaper & in-house newsmagazine, which is for private
circulation. If an insurer has an intranet system, the information in the intranet will be
available only to its offices & personal.

The policyholders will not be able to access the data in the intranet. Circulars meant
for internal circulation can be posted on the intranet & everybody will have immediate
access to it, however far away he may be located. In the intranet also, it is possible to
restrict some information to certain categories of persons, who will be identified through
passwords. Both internet & intranet enables users to do the following at any time (24
hours, 365 days)

a) Send & receive letters, which are called e-mail:-

Every person will have an “e-mail id”, which is his address in the net. Search, read &
retrieve data, files, and pictures.

b) Buy & sell of policy:-

If the insurer has an intranet, the agent can, sitting at his place of work, be attending
the insurer’s office, making enquiries about status of proposals or claims or
discussing with any other agent, for clarification or advice, whenever he wants to do
it. The physical distance between the agent & the office will not be of any
consequences at all.

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BENEFITS TO AGENTS:
The benefits to agents will be:-

He can receive all circulars & instructions issued by any office. All delays on
account of postal transmission, being forwarded from one level to another, dispatch
department absence of peons, wrong addresses, misplaced through oversight, lost in
transit etc., are avoided.

Any doubts with regard to proposal, benefit, premium, taxation, medical

examination, insurability etc., can be discussed & got clarified directly from the
person concerned. Communications to & from the office will be immediate through
e-mail & at a low cost.

BENEFITS TO POLICYHOLDERS:

l) Prospects: Prospects can get benefit through the internet in the following ways-
They can get details of the various policies, the benefits there under, the premiums
payable etc.,

 Prospects can get advice on the suitable insurance plan for themselves.

 Policyholders can get information with regard to the status of the policy, the
premiums due, the bonuses attached, the surrender values or loans available,
revival possibilities, nearest office for any further transactions.

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3.3 INSURANCE AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE -
E-INSURANCE

On a global basis, there is mad rush of companies willing to enable their business.
E-insurance is one of the growth areas in India. Enormous opportunities are being created
by the Internet’s new connectivity such as improving customer’s service, reducing cycle
time, becoming more cost effective, and selling goods, services, or information to an
expanded global customer base. As entire industries are being reshaped and rules for
competition are changing, enterprises need to rethink the strategic fundamentals of their
business in order to be successful.

Globally, insurance on the net has lagged behind other financial service products
such as banking and brokerage. Of the total online users only 5% used insurance service
online. This lag was due to lack of relevant and adequate content. Traditional insurers,
while leveraging on new information technologies, have been slow to utilize the Internet
as an alternative distribution channel. All the largest insurers have been focused on static
marketing presence online, encompassing product information, FAQ’s and quotes. Only a
few insurers have added the ability to submit applications online. This lack of
participation in the e-business revolution is seen across lines.

The insurance companies attribute two factors for the slow take off. First and
foremost, insurance is a product that is sold and not bought. The Internet is perceived to
be a buyer’s medium, with online customers able to search quickly and for the most
competitive prices and variety of products. Insurance is one product that cannot be easily
commoditized. The more personal the selling process, the greater the difficulty in using
the net as a medium for selling. Insurance is one product, which involves personalized
selling. The process of insurance sales requires a series of face-to-face interactions.

The convergence effect of IT is being felt by the insurance industry as well in

developed countries. The insurance industry is expected to lose market share to banking
and other financial institutions. Customers today expect enhance levels of service due to
increased competition. This customer demand is likely to result in non-traditional access
to specific information. The global online insurance market is expected to achieve an

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exponential growth in the near future. The Gartner Group in a study conducted by them
says that in a year 25% of all customer contacts and enquiries for enterprises will come
via the internet, e-mail and online forms.

Banc assurance customer service, which has been almost exclusively done via the
telephone (96% of all transactions), will become increasingly e-mail based in the next
four years; decreasing telephone related service by 28%. In response to these trends in
customer preference, insurers are mobilizing their online sales and customer account
management capabilities. This move towards building Internet based business solutions
benefits the insured by providing greater flexibility, greater customization of information
and improved customer service for the insurance company. This drastically reduces the
costs involved. Similarly, by essentially outsourcing administrative and cost intensive
processes such as policy administration to customers, the cost of administration and
servicing the insurance policy also decreases sharply.

E-Insurance in India The intriguing question before all associated with the
insurance industry is that will it be possible for private companies or even public sector
monoliths to sell insurance online in India in the near future? Insurance companies will
probably have to wait for Internet penetration to increase and the still ambiguous e-
commerce rules to take concrete form. However, what is not debatable is that new private
entrants will change the rules of the game for the Indian insurance business, both in the
life and the non- life segment, unfolding opportunities for software engineers and
professional agents. To peep into the possibilities and opportunities emerging out of the
integration of insurance and information technology, various organizations have
organized seminars and conferences in the recent past to explore the possibilities of
selling insurance on the Net and gauge the opportunities for the growing Indian software
industry.

According to T. Ramanan of Assocham, life insurers were among the first to go online
with informative content and features like actuarial calculators. However, according to
him, they have been relatively slow to embrace online commerce, which currently makes
up about 1 per cent of the total term life market. Only 12 per cent of insurance companies
globally sell policies online. Experts expect the percentage of term life sold over the

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Internet to increase from I per cent to 15 per cent by 2003, which in monetary terms
works out to $21 billion. Although traditionally term life insurance has been sold through
independent agents, the big shift will become manifest sooner than later. And more
importantly Indians cannot watch from the sidelines as this paradigm shift in the
insurance sector takes place. In the non-life sector, automobile policies are popular over
the Internet. Premium income, points out the paper, is expected to rise to $18 billion from
about $1 billion currently.

The growth of global online insurance business augurs well for the Indian IT
sector. The exponential growth in the online insurance business will unfold significant
business opportunities for software companies/consultants. The opportunities that rise out
of this will be both global and local, because new entrants will have to either fine tune or
prepare customized packages for the Indian market. Online insurance will also help
companies reduce costs and keep premiums low, a prerequisite in a price sensitive market
like India. The government, however, will have to address problems relating to
bandwidth on an urgent basis to make online insurance a reality in India. Other major
challenges to face Indian insurers will be to design and develop strategies for delivering
services to well segmented customers.

The third challenge lies in developing the right combination of customer segments
and applicable distribution channel strategies. Most Web sites offer contact numbers of
their branch officers where we can get further details of the products on offer. The Agent
locator feature, available on maxnewyorklife.com, iciciprulife.com and on
bimaonline.com help one locate an insurance agent most accessible to you based on a
search facility. One would expect downloadable proposal forms on insurance web sites,
but these are missing in most cases. Only Iicindia.com seems to offer downloadable
proposal and claim forms for a few of the schemes.

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3.4 BENEFITS OF ELECTRONIC INSURANCE

E-insurance provides multiple benefits to the insurer and the existing and prospective
insured:

a) Information collected is better and cheaper

b) Speed of response — Issuance of policy and settlement of claims is faster

c) Provides new ways of doing business in competitive market

d) Flexible pricing and customized services

e) Global accessibility i.e. lapse of physical boundaries

f) Increased sales without additional sales force

g) Immediate premium collection and funds transfer

h) Reduced cost per transaction 24x7 availability i.e. round the clock availability of
information

i)Real time knowledge base building

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3.5 MAJOR FACTOR AFFECTING E-INSURANCE

a) Growth of net:-
It is estimated that India would have about 150 million net users by 2010. These
figures represent a huge buying potential.

b) Competition pressures:-
Insurance companies because of competitive pressures would be driven into Internet
rather than a clear ROT justification.

c) Customer:-
The availability of net-based services will be a huge factor for customer retention.

d) Cross sells:-
When linked with other financial products, a portfolio approach to investment,
savings and risk coverage will increase cross sells and customer loyalty and retention.

e) Costs:-
In the beginning c-insurance will be a cost factor rather than a profit driver, but in the
long run it will be a cost reducing factor.

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3.6 E-INSURANCE BUSINESS CHALLENGES

Electronic insurance will not only provide many benefits but will also pose business and
technological changes.

I) Business Challenges

a) Disintermediation increases business:-

Study has shown that the cost of distribution decreases with the increased value
of connection. Products with relatively high fixed costs and low value such as travel,
credit or burial insurance are relatively expensive to produce. Customers pay a high
price per dollar of coverage for these products. The Internet allows the
disintermediation of this relatively high overhead for these low face value products.
This means that prices can be lowered and more insurance can be sold by reducing
the transaction costs of the exchange.

b) Reorganization of companies-Virtual Companies:-

Many insurers will be prompted by the opportunities presented by E-commerce to
restructure the packaging of insurance services. Insurance companies using c-
commerce may re-engineer, outsource, and/or streamline their management functions,
or marketing and distribution arms. To more efficiently deliver these services, some
insurers will be able to reduce their significant investments in physical facilities and
certain personnel. E-commerce will enable independent agency insurers to more
easily adapt their distribution mechanism to market competition and expedite their
transactions with intermediaries.

c) Insurance customers what do they want:-

Customers could get better and different service through the Internet. It is
possible to obtain quotes from a number of companies. In some cases, the Internet
provides rating agencies’ evaluation of insurers. The Internet and outsourcing can
provide additional cost savings to the consumer. Technology can bring the customer

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 closer to the insurance contract, by removing layers of inefficiencies. Consumers will
also obtain price comparisons for relatively generic contracts, such as life insurance
and rates for a standard set of auto insurance coverage for given vehicle and driver
characteristics. Consumers also could have access to internal records to see where
their claims are in terms of payment, when their next annuity payment is due, and
how their mutual fund is performing. This can be done without calling a burdensome
voicemail system, being put on hold, or finding a person who can give them the
desired information efficiently.

d) The Death of Insurance Agent:-

One of the reasons why insurers have been slow to use electronic commerce
could be the fear of swallowing up the agent’s business. The Internet does not
necessarily imply the death of the agent. Many insurers are examining their agent’s
role in the process and arc also developing direct contacts with the insured through
their web presence. Agents could enhance their advisory role to consumers as their
paper and money processing functions diminish.

II) Technological Challenges

One of the most prominent challenges of e-commerce is security. It is very evident that
many users are reluctant to do business on the Internet due to security reasons:

a) Database Security:-
The business database security is utmost important. This has to be monitored by
security of the web server and web access. Web Server Security: Security policies
should be defined as who is allowed access, nature of the access and who authorizes
such access, etc.

b) Password sniffing:-
Protection against password sniffing is to avoid using plain text user names and
reusable passwords.

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c) Network Scanning Programs:-
Automated tools should be used to scan your network. These tools check for well-
known security related bugs in network programs such as send mail and FTPD.

d) Physical Security:-
One can ensure physical security by having an alarm system that calls the police,
having a key-lock on the computer power supply.

e) Web Access Security:-

Host based restrictions can be implemented using a firewall to block incoming HTTP
connections to a particular web server.

f) Transmission Security:-
Encryption is a key technology to ensure transaction security.

g) Privacy:-
Privacy is likely to be a growing concern as internet-based communications and
commerce increase, Designers and operators of web sites who disregard the privacy
of users do so at their own peril.

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 Chapter-4

INSURANCE APPLICATIONS WITH ADOBE

4.1 INTRODUCTION

Break free of paper-based processes Insurance companies tell us that they are hindered by
slow, paper-based processes. Agents waste time and money shuffling forms, instead of
closing business and prospecting for new customers. Back-office burdens, such as re-
keying data and handling huge volumes of mail, further increase costs. As a result,
customers are put off by frequent poor service, causing them to look for other alternatives
or abandon the process altogether. The challenge is to find a way to streamline the
application process—driving down costs while helping to drive additional revenues and
profits—but it hasn’t been easy. Restricted by system silos and patchwork processes.

If your company is like most carriers, you have legacy system silos and patchwork
processes for various product lines. This lack of integration creates islands of
information, which necessitates extensive manual handling and staff paperwork. The
resulting inefficiencies dramatically impact your organization’s ability to put the
customer first and efficiently meet the needs of policyholders and agents.

 Applications for new insurance take an hour or more to complete.

 Customers have to supply the same information repeatedly
 A seemingly endless stream of paper flows from desk to desk and department to
department, often back stepping more than once.
 Frequent data errors and broken process steps require time—time that costs you
money. Studies have shown that paper-based processes are expensive—up to an
estimated $150 to print, scan, fax, copy mail, and process each insurance
application.

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 In addition, growing regulatory requirements add to the burdens that your
headquarters faces, forcing you to update systems and disclosures to remain in
compliance. All this leads to slower service, unhappy customers, and dissatisfied agents
and brokers—who just may decide to take their business elsewhere.

Adobe can help remedy the situation. The Adobe solution for insurance application
helps you improve service while reducing costs, meeting policyholder needs, and
increasing agent loyalty—so you can dose more business. Get faster, more accurate
processing The Adobe Intelligent Document Platform accommodates both paper forms
and electronic documents, simplifying the collection and sharing of information, and
minimizing time-cons tuning back-office tasks.

 Agents, customers, and call center representatives need to enter data only once.
 Renewal forms and other documents can be automatically populated, dramatically
reducing time-consuming and error-prone re-keying.
 Adobe Document Services simplify underwriting and risk appraisal by allowing
ratings and not to be made right on the form for review by all parties—without
altering the original document.
 Electronic distribution eliminates postal delays and costs, and improves response
times by eliminating back-office handling.
 Agents and brokers can present intelligent forms to clients—in an offline mode—
by using the free Adobe Reader.
 When wet signatures are required, you can print forms out and then easily revert
back to an intelligent, automated process while maintaining full integrity of the
original form data. Build data validation and calculations into all application
processes.

Support for extensible Markup Language (XML) and ACORD XML standards helps
efficiently integrate this information into your enterprise applications. Adobe Document
Services also offer a flexible front end, so you can adapt easily to the latest regulatory
policies, to minimize the business disruption and expense of compliance.

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4.2 Adobe PDF:

Key to streamlining the insurance application process Adobe Portable Document

Format (PDF) provides a secure, reliable way to distribute and exchange documents and
information. PDF files look like the original documents, offering customers and agents
the look of paper with the added efficiency of fill able forms. This familiarity helps to
increase the acceptance of your self-service channel and maintains better consistency
between online and offline processes.

Multiple policyholder documents can be dynamically converted and combined

into a single Adobe PDF file, decreasing document preparation time and expense, while
ensuring higher quality packages. And since Adobe PDF files are searchable, they are
ideal for archiving and retrieval. With free Adobe Reader software, your internal staff as
well as independent brokers and agents can access documents and forms as needed.
Reviewers can easily add comments without altering the original, and agents as well as
customers can see and respond to these comments, avoiding redundancy and saving
cycles. Password protection and other built-in security features can be added to control
access and ensure data integrity at every step.

This efficient workflow translates into to faster reviews and underwriting, and
improved service. The Adobe solution for insurance application improves the quality of
your service to agents, brokers, and customers—making it easier for agents to sell more
policies, decreasing abandonment rates, and enhancing your profitability.

 The application process is simplified and back-office tasks are automated,

improving cycle time and reducing the costs of acquiring and servicing customers.
 Revenues increase because you and your agents and brokers can efficiently
handle more business.
 Your headquarters gains better control over costly, disruptive compliance issues.
 Personal information gathered from policyholders is safeguarded, ensuring
privacy and maintaining transaction integrity with customers and partners.

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4.3 MICROSOFT AND THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY

For many drivers, the seemingly endless round of phone message and paper
work that follow traffic accident can make the job of resolving on insurance claim feel as
damaging as the accident itself. For insurance carriers auto claims processing which
involves handling estimates adjustments repairs billing, and more is no less time-
consuming, expensive, and frustrating.

Today, innovative technologies from Microsoft are transforming from the way
auto insurance claims are processed. Based on the power of the Microsoft.NET
framework these technologies open the door of integrated IT system that link programs
and applications built of any platform and written in any language. Streamlining the flow
of data and bringing new levels of efficiency to the business of claim processing. Process
claims is a leading software provider to the insurance industry, offering a broad range of
property and casualty solution that span heavy equipment, commercial, personal and
specialty lines. A Microsoft certified partner, process claims deliver solutions that
automate solution that automate communication and information flow, and yield rapid
return on investment. By harnessing the power of Microsoft .

NET framework and its own data transformation technology and industry
expertise, process claim solutions provide data transformation an d mining, business
intelligence, work flow management, assignment automation, appraisal management and
trading partner integration. Last year, process claims facilitated settlement of $4 billion in
claims. The issue of data integration is critical for all parties involved in resolving auto
insurance claims. In addition to insurance companies there are companies that depend on
data to provide rental car services, supply parts, facilitate salvage processing, determine
vehicle valuation, and more. Process claims’ end to end material damage management
systems provide the vital link between all of these parties.

Utilizing Microsoft visual studio, .NET, XML and web service programmable
application components that can be accessed over the internet with standard web
protocols-process claims enables its client to conduct business with greater speed and
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efficiency. Typically, when a driver reports an accident, the carrier assigns an adjuster or
refers the driver to an authorized body shop. Because process claims uses XML it can
take information from any claim system and instantly route the assignment to the most
appropriate appraiser. After receiving the claim the appraiser downloads is it to an
estimating application, writes the estimates, adds digital photos, and sends the package
back to the carrier through the process claims browser-based application suite. The ability
to utilize XML and web services has established process claims as a market place leader.
Not only does the solution streamline claims processes. It also extent and enhances the
value of existing legacy system functionality through seamless integration with outside
services. And because legacy system can access this new functionality transparently,
Training and support costs are minimal.

Process claims’ claims port system focus on areas of material damage to reduce
loss-adjustment expenses, increases efficiencies, and improve customer satisfaction, and
they are configured to meet the specific business requirements of individual insures.
Today, innovators are taking advantage of technologies like this to automate business
processes and transform insurance claim processing.

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 Chapter-5

ICICI Prudential

5.1 OVERVIEW

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company is a joint venture between ICICI Bank, a
premier financial powerhouse, and Prudential plc, a leading international financial
services group headquartered in the United Kingdom. ICICI Prudential was amongst the
first private sector insurance companies to begin operations in December 2000 after
receiving approval from Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA).

ICICI Prudential Life's capital stands at Rs. 4,793 crore (as of June 30, 2012) with ICICI
Bank and Prudential plc holding 74% and 26% stake respectively. For the period April 1,
2012 to June 30, 2012, the company has garnered total premium of Rs 2,385 crore and
has underwritten over 13 million policies since inception. The company has assets held
over Rs. 70,000 crore as on June 30, 2012.

For the past decade, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has maintained its dominant position
(on new business retail weighted basis) amongst private life insurers in the country, with
a wide range of flexible products that meet the needs of the Indian customer at every step
in life.

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 5.2 ICICI PRUDENTIAL LIFE INSURANCE

India's foremost financial services companies, and prudential plc, a leading international
financial services group headquartered in the United Kingdom. While ICICI retains 74% stake in
the joint venture, Prudential plc has the remaining 26% stake. ICICI Prudential began its
operations in December 2000. Today, this company has over 1,900 branches (inclusive of
1,074 micro-offices), over 210,000 advisors and 6 branch assurance partners. ICICI
Prudential Life Insurance Company is the first life insurer in India that received a National
Insurer Financial Strength rating of AAA (Ind) from Fitch
Ratings. ICICI Prudential has been voted as India's Most Trusted Private Life Insurer for three
consecutive years. This company provides various insurance plans that have been designed for
different individuals, as every individual has different insurance needs. It celebrated its 10th
anniversary on 12th December 2010. Given below is a list of plans provided by ICICI Prudential
Life Insurance Company:

All ULIPs
Unit linked insurance plans (ULIPs) are a category of goal-based financial solutions that
combine the safety of life insurance protection and long term wealth creation
opportunities. In ULIPs, a part of the premium goes towards providing you with life
cover while the remaining portion is invested in fund(s) which, in turn, are invested in
stocks or bonds.

 Retirement
 Wealth
 Child
 Health

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5.3 LIFE INSURANCE PLANS

Term Plans
Term insurance is the simplest and most fundamental insurance product available at
extremely affordable prices. In this type of a policy, an individual pays a fixed amount of
money periodically and in the unfortunate event of death of the policyholder, the entire
amount paid, along with some other benefits and interest, is paid back to the deceased's
family.

 ICICI Pru Protect

 ICICI Pru Pure Protect
 ICICI Pru Life Guard
 ICICI Pru Home Assure

Wealth Plans
Wealth insurance plans are essentially long term savings plans which are designed to help
you save enough for your long term goals, like owning a house or a car etc, along with
providing you the benefit of life cover and protection for your family.

ULIP Wealth Plans

 ICICI Pru Life Stage Wealth II

 ICICI Pru Pinnacle II
 ICICI Pru Life Time Premier
 ICICI Pru Life Link Wealth SP
 ICICI Pru Pinnacle Super

Traditional Wealth plans

 ICICI Pru Future Secure

 ICICI Pru Guaranteed Savings Insurance Plan
 ICICI Pru Whole Life

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  ICICI Pru Save ’n’ Protect
 ICICI Pru Cash Bak

Child Plans
Regardless of the rising cost of education in modern times, a parent never compromises
on the expenditure that goes into his/her child's bright career. A saving's plan that is
designed to provide money at key educational milestones and take care of your loved
ones future even if you are not around, is a wise decision to make. In this plan, you pay
premium periodically, or in lump sum, and during the key educational milestones of your
child, you can withdraw the money partially.

Traditional Child Plans

 ICICI Pru Smart Kid Regular Premium

Unit Linked Child Plans

 ICICI Pru Smart Kid Premier

Health Plans
predicting unfortunate medical emergencies is difficult. Bearing the expenses of the
costly treatment is not at all easy and therefore, ICICI Prudential has come up with health
insurance plans that insure you and your family against expenses arising due to medical
emergencies and uncertainties such as hospitalizations or onset of critical illnesses.

Hospitalization Plans

 ICICI Pru Health Saver

 ICICI Pru Hospital Care II

Critical Illness Plans

 ICICI Pru Crisis Cover

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Riders
ICICI Prudential gives you the freedom to form your very own comprehensive insurance
policy by adding the rider benefits to the basic life insurance policy. This increases the
scope of your policy, at a nominal cost.

 Critical Illness Benefit Rider

 Accident & Disability Benefit Rider
 Income Benefit Rider
 Waiver of Premium Rider (WOP)
 Waiver Of Premium On Critical Illness Rider

Retirement Plans
financial independence at all times is important but its importance is the most in the post-
retirement phase of life. After being self-dependant for a lifetime, the idea of depending
upon your children can be quite putting off. Retirement plans from ICICI Prudential Life
Insurance, ensure that you have enough flexibility to choose your retirement date and the
manner in which you receive the pension.

ULIP Retirement Plans

 ICICI Pru Life Link Pension Sp

Traditional Retirement Plans

 ICICI Pru Forever Life

 ICICI Pru Immediate Annuity

Group Plans
Group Insurance Plans from ICICI Prudential enable the employer to effortlessly provide
his/her employees with both, savings and security, so they can pass on the benefits to
their loved ones.

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Retirement Solution

 Group Gratuity Plan

 Group Leave Encashment Plan

Protection Solution

 Annuity Solutions
 Group Term Insurance Plans
 Group Term in lieu of EDLI Scheme
 Credit Assure Utility

Rural Plans
ICICI Prudential's rural business initiative has covered more than 2.5 million lives across
as many as 16 states in India. The plans offer Life cover, low and affordable premiums
and hassle free procedure.

 ICICI Pru Sarv Jana Suraksha

 ICICI Pru Anmol Nivesh

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5.4 RULES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

As an advisor, you would be the primary connect between the customers and ICICI
Prudential. Your main function would be to solicit life insurance business on behalf of
the company. At the same time, you need to gain trust of the prospect and advise him
suitably, keeping his insurance needs in mind. Thus as an advisor you would be required
to play the unique role, whereby, you would be trusted by the customer as well as Insurer.

You would be required to interact with individuals and families to

 Understand their insurance protection and investment needs.

 Identify and recommend solutions that best fit their requirements.
 Offer your customer a complete product portfolio.
 Complete the formalities necessary to get the policy issued.
 Keep in touch with customers to ensure that their service requests towards
policies are managed properly.
 Facilitate settlement of claims.

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 5.5 WELCOME TO PRUDENTIAL TECHNOLOGIES

Prudential tech HR management Services Pvt. Ltd., established in 2008, dedicated to

providing high quality Executive Search.
We are experienced professionals who understand business dynamics of IT organizations.
We use our expertise, processes and tools to identify the best talent in the industry and
help our customers to increase productivity and performance through these talents.

Vision
Prudential tech recognizes that human capital is emerging as the biggest asset in recent
times. Prudential tech is envisaging specific interest in talent and Learning Management
System (LMS) to efficiently administer and manage numerous regulatory training and
qualification requirement apart from providing platform for business transformation.

Goals
Identify and train the bright talents, set them up for success by placing them in the best
companies. Ignite growth of our clients by providing the best talent and technology
expertise.

Clients

We value our client’s time and work committed for every assignment. No matter how
complex your requirements may be, with prudential tech you can be assured of reliable
service and exceptionally qualified candidates.

Our clients include many of the elite privately held IT companies in the world. Our goal
is to provide excellent service to clients and candidates through uncompromising quality
and commitment on delivery. The fact that a majority of our clients have been with us
since our inception is testimony to their trust in us.

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Mr. KALYAN PRASATH- HEAD – INFORMATION TECHNOLGY.

Kalyan holds a Diploma in Business Management from ICFAI and Post Graduate
Diploma in Systems Management from NIIT. He has 23 years of experience across
industries like IT, manufacturing and banking & financial services. At ICICI Prudential
AMC, his responsibilities include overseeing the overall technology function i.e. business
application, information security and IT infrastructure & projects thereby contributing to
business excellence. Kalyan has a strong interest and flair for astrology.

Kalyan Prasath, VP, Prudential ICICI, said, “Within a year of first going live, registration
on our online transaction website has grown from just 2,000 users to a current 11,000
plus audience. That’s a significant achievement in itself. What’s more, the investments
through the website have touched the Rs 2 crore mark. A significant number of NRI’s
have registered on the website, and we receive traffic from the Middle East as well.”

“We purchased the entire web infrastructure for about Rs 6-7 lakh. The TCO has been
realized within a year of operation. The online model has become popular due to the fact
that it offers our customers the convenience of remotely logging on from their residence,
and make complete transactions online.” said Prasath.

“Registered users can simply select any of the six banks with which they have a valid net
banking account, and make secure transactions online. Payment is authorized online, and
the system directly credits the amount,” explained Prasath.
Prasath added, “KPMG has established concrete security guidelines and set a robust
framework for our organization by conducting extensive audits.

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 Annexure-I

FINDINGS ON QUESTIONAIRE

 Kalyan Prasath is the head of information technology of ICICI Prudential. The

headquarter of ICICI Prudential is in United Kingdom. The goals ICICI Prudential are
identity and train the bright talents, set them up for success by placing them in the best
company.
 Rules and Responsibility of ICICI Prudential understand their insurance protection and
investment needs. Keep in touch with customers to ensure that their request towards
policies is managed properly.
 The technology provided to client to get trust on ICICI Prudential like Interactive Voice
Response Services [IVRS]. IVRS is a technology which ascertains several types of
information about their policy like policy status, online premium, loan amount, etc.
 IT application are used in ICICI prudential are functional areas and human resources
management areas. In functional areas, there are consumer awareness and customer
services. In human resources management, there is recruitment and selection, training.
Appraisal, promotions.
 E-Insurance is given enormous opportunities are being created by the internet new
connectivity such as improving customers services, reducing cycle timing, becoming
more cost effective and to expanded global customer base. E-Insurance will not provide
many benefits but will also pose business and technological changes.
 Technical challenge faced by ICICI Prudential are ongoing reassessment of fraud risk,
understanding raw data, behavior from ongoing transactional data, complex pattern in
data, prioritization of suspects, system maintenance, effective use of detection results.

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 CONCLUSION

The technology in insurance has grown through their performance, restructuring

policy and their efficiency in providing the large amount of insurance services with the
help of technology as their technology as their tool. The supporting technology require
will be real time, rather than batch, longitudinal rather than episodic; will require
connectivity rather than be self contained; will be interactive; will rely on large relational
databases. Today’s consumers do not like to wait. Insurance companies that are enabling
to react to their customer’s demands will lose market share to their competitors that can.

The question now facing insurance companies is no longer if they should take
advantage of the internet, but now should they do it. Should you adapt your existing
products or create internet specific insurance products and brands? Do you focus your
efforts on distribution or service? Thus the insurance services without technology will be
like tea without sugar. Therefore both need to be integrated in order to provide quality
service & also to tap the insurance market.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Websites:

 Insurance & Technology – http://www.insurancetech.com

 Network Magazine India – http://www.networkmagazineindia.com
 Microsoft Corporation – http://www.mircosoft.com
 Adobe Systems Incorporated – http://www.adobe.com
 Wikipedia – http://www.wikipedia.com

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 QUESTIONAIRE

Name :-

Branch:-

1) Who is head of information technology in your company?

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2) What are the kinds of technology provided to client to get trust on icici
prudential?

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3) What are goals of ICICI prudential?

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4) What are rules and responsibilities of ICICI prudential?

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5) In which countries headquarter of ICICI prudential located?

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6) How employees increase productivity and performance through

information technology?

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7) What is an interactive voice response service?

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8) In which areas information technology applications are used?

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9) What are challenges faced by your company?

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10) What is E- Insurance?

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