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ICICI Lombard Online E-Commerce Portal

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Binesh
New Update

While ICICI Lombard always had an online presence, they needed a more sophisticated online platform that would provide consistent and fantastic user experience to users. Also, the existing platform did not allow a quick "time to market" for any new feature that was being added. A new platform was required that could be dynamically updated and provide enhanced productivity for all stakeholders. Since the number of online users in India is expected to exponentially grow, a scalable and flexible platform was needed that could provide efficient capacity for user growth.

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The Implementation

An integrated online solution, with a backend engine to support quotes, policy issuances and servicing features was created. This system includes 350+ screens, 620+ tables, 44 integration services, 500 stored procedures and over 120 GB of data. Almost all OTC/pre-underwritten products are available for direct sale from the website. The system provides a direct channel for policy issuance and renewal for 10,000+ agents and brokers across India. The front end was designed with a consistent user experience in mind, and a mobile architecture allows use across various platforms. A key feature added is the monitoring of usage behavior patterns online, which provides real-time reports to call center about leads who drop out at any stage of policy buying.

Company Scenario

Before deployment: A single integrated online portal which was available 24*7 and provided a terrific user experience was not available through ICICI Lombard. Owing to the larger % of users online in India, online methods for policy issuances and performing claims needed to be provided to customers. Hence, a platform that would last at least a decade was needed.

What was deployed: An integrated online platform with a website, back end engine to support quote, policy issuances and all policy servicing features, end to end integration with 7 systems across the organization. By performing user experience sessions before requirements, ICICI was able to understand the needs of the customers and create functionalities that satisfied them.After deployment: 15 lakh active online customers use the new platform, and www.icicilombard.com now is the single largest insurance ecommerce website in the country. Productivity gains of over 50% have been observed due to lesser footfalls at branches.

Implementation partner: Tata Consultancy Services

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The Challenges

First, the scale of the project itself was tremendous, and a challenge to complete it within 10-12 months. User experience sessions, and an agile development methodology helped to reduce the overall risk, cost and time-to-market for the project. Also, balancing the functionality needs on each page of the website against the server performance was difficult. While the team wanted to provide as much functionality as possible, business users wanted a flow which was simple and required minimal amount of clicks. The rollout of the platform was also challenge, as there was a lot of internal debate on how the rollout should be handled in a phased manner.

The Result

A single online 24*7 platform was established, and this integrated the entire policy issuance & servicing lifecycle for 15 lakh online customers, agents and brokers. With over 10,000 transactions a day and 60,000 new policies a month, www.icicilombard.com is now the largest insurance ecommerce website in India. Productivity gains of over 50% have been seen due to the minimization of manual paperwork and issuances done over the counter at branches. It has also seen a reduced "time-to-market" for any OTC products being issued, as everything can be sold online through the new platform with ease. Most of all, a simplified customer experience was ensured, as turnaround time for real-time policy issuance was drastically reduced using online channels.

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