OREANDA-NEWS. March 30, 2010. Allianz Eurasia Agent School has been solemnly opened in Nizhny Novgorod. Povolzh’e became the first of Russian regions, where the division of the leading international insurer Allianz launched a unique project contemplating trainings for professional financial consultants.

Initially, the regional agent schools will prepare specialists for ROSNO, and, subsequently, it will become a training site for the new employees from all over Allianz Eurasia Group. The School’s educational process is organized not in the usual lecture format, but, rather, in form of trainings, which provide maximum of practical solutions and skills, i.e. exactly what will be most needed for financial consultants in their future work. Apart from product trainings, much attention is paid to the sales techniques. The graduates of the Allianz Eurasia Agent School will be capable of offering a client an individual financial and insurance solution from among the existing classical insurance services, life insurance and asset management.

The company has developed a special software technology, Salesman’s Terminal, and it will supply successful agents with the mobile equipment required in their work — laptops with internet connection and printers. The new system will enable agents to have online access to any information, practise prompt underwriting and expertise, and issue insurance documentation. Thus, agents will be able to work in a high-tech environment, acquire additional mobility, intensify their work, significantly improve productivity, and appreciably expand their operating field.

Opening the Allianz Eurasia Agent School in Nizhny Novgorod, Mr. Elnur Suleymanov, ROSNO’s Deputy CEO and Sales Director, noted: "Today, we are laying foundation to the future success of professional agents operating in the Russian insurance market. Life generates new requirements in terms of qualification and professionalism of insurance employees, and our shareholder, the international conglomerate Allianz, is willing to share its vast expertise and transfer state-of-the-art technologies to those who ponder over their professional development and would like to work in a large and solid company. In our educational program, we have also used the techniques developed by ROSNO’s most successful salespeople in course of their longstanding work. The software „Salesman’s Terminal“ developed by ROSNO to make the agents’ work much simpler has no rivals in the Russian insurance market, and the trainings conducted across the extensive product line of Allianz Eurasia boosts their professionalism and efficiency."

"We are implementing a whole new approach to training insurance professionals — the one that is more large-scale and strategic, explains Mr. Vladimir Parshakov, head of ROSNO’s Privolzhskaya Directorate. — In fact, we are bringing the profession of an insurance agent to a new level, using Allianz’s potential and expertise to create an innovative site to start forming an institute of professional financial consultants, similar to that which has existed abroad for a long time. I hope that the opening of the Agent School in Nizhny Novgorod will promote the company’s leadership in the region."

The basic course for those who have no insurance background will take 3 weeks; the special course for retraining of agents from other insurance companies will run 1.5 weeks, and the professional development course for ROSNO’s existing financial consultants/managers will comprise three days. The basic training program has been agreed with Allianz.