A recent research conducted by ICICI Lombard-Google India highlights how online medium is gaining momentum when it comes to consumers purchasing/renewing health and motor insurance.

While the population in metros prefers to purchase motor insurance online, non-metros have seen more popularity in buying a health insurance policy online.

All age-groups have displayed preference towards usage of digital platforms in accessing the online purchase/renewal of the two types of policies. Take a look for at this infographic for more insights.

Some findings on the digital initiatives of ICICI Lombard and the survey report attached for your reference.

As per the IAMAI report, in the year 2001, there were approximately 7 million internet users in India. The number has grown by 25 times in the last 12 years at a compounded rate of over 30 y-o-y.

Today around 40 million Indians are online everyday, spending 40-45 hours over the internet per month. This is further set to rise exponentially in the coming years due to the advances in the internet infrastructure mainly being pushed by the government.

With online shopping and M-commerce gaining wider acceptance in India, buying financial instruments online as well as on your smart phone is not far away.

Earlier transacting online was seen cynical and users refrained from getting into online agreement. Now with heavy investments made by companies in their IT infrastructure, robust processes have instilled the trust among users to take a leap from traditional methods of buying products and services.

Though insurance penetration is very miniscule in India, insurance companies have started to adopt to new platforms like website, tablets and smartphones to reach out to larger base of population and cover them from daily risk pertaining to life and non-life.

ICICI Lombard has been leading the industry in this area through multiple initiatives.

1) The company has adopted technology solutions for its motor claims business and has empowered its motor surveyors with devices like Tablets to conduct survey on site.

97% of the surveyors are equipped with a tablet device to inspect damaged vehicles using the in-built features of the tablet and punch in details in the application created by the company about their report at the damaged site using internet connectivity.

The digital process has reduced the turn around time for inspection of the damaged vehicle and has provided more time for the surveyor to reach out to more customers in a day who are waiting for their damaged car to be inspected.

2) Further, the company has designed a self-service mobile application ‘IL Insure' for policy buying, renewal, claim intimation and tracking. The mobile application ensures existing and new customers have a seamless experience of buying and servicing their policy.

With the plethora of digital innovations by ICICI Lombard, 85% of insurance policies which are issued to customers are purchased without a customer physically stepping into a branch of the company.

3) The agent community of ICICI Lombard has been provided with a unique digital interface/platform called ‘iPartner' which is used by them for issuing and renewing policies to new and existing customer base.

The company is not only leveraging technology innovations for selling policies but also using technology solutions for fraud management and risk inspections to curb malpractices by anti-social elements.

With the PM of India launching Digital India project, internet infrastructure will ensure that essential risk mitigation tools such as insurance touch the lives of every citizen.

GoodReturns.in