OREANDA-NEWS. December 18, 2015. Two digitisation projects at the Talanx Group each received an award in the sector competition “Digital Lighthouse Insurance 2015”. In the category “Integration of Online and Offline Channels”, the new “HDI bAVnet” of HDI Lebensversicherung AG, which can be used by employers to administer the employer contracts of occupational retirement provision (bAV), was awarded first place. The app for claims settlement used by the Polish Talanx company WARTA received an “Honourable Mention” in the category “Integration of end devices”. The competition is run by publishing house Suddeutscher Verlag in partnership with Internet company Google. Awards are conferred for outstanding digitisation projects in the German insurance sector. “We are delighted with the awards for our projects,” commented Herbert K. Haas, Chairman of the Board of Management of Talanx AG. “This confirms that we are getting a lot of things right as we embark on the process of digitising our Group.”

The HDI bAVnet Online Portal enables employers to keep their documents on occupational retirement pensions in a kind of digital filing cabinet, and manage them in an environment where the data is backed up and legally secure. The portal bundles the documents of a company so that all those involved – employer, insurer and, at the request of the employer, the intermediary as well – can access them at any time. This means that lots of administrative processes can be dealt with in a paperless procedure, quickly and cost effectively. HDI makes the online portal available to all corporate customers as a service package free of charge. HDI Lebensversicherung AG offers advice and solutions in the areas of risk protection and retirement provision. The company generated gross premium income of around 2.2 billion euros in the business year 2014 and this makes it one of Germany’s biggest life insurers.

The newly developed app “Affiliate Inspection Point” from Polish insurance company WARTA can process a claim immediately. Customers install the app on their smart phone or tablet. A loss adjuster from the insurance company can assess the damage in real time through the camera on the device. The compensation sum can then be immediately fixed on the basis of the videos and photos that have been taken. Transfers in Poland are carried out in real time and the money is available immediately in the customer’s account. After the phone call has finished, the claim has been entirely settled. Customers and insurer also use the app to exchange documents.

Particularly in the case of small claims, the processing costs are frequently higher than the actual compensation sum. Conventional methods of settlement involve the customer registering a claim with the insurer and an assessor is then sent to the location. Afterwards, the appropriate documents are sent to the Office Service, which again checks the case and fixes the compensation sum. The procedure generally takes a number of days. The entire process with the app, including downloading and claims analysis, only takes around 15 minutes.

The WARTA Insurance Group was taken over by Talanx and Meiji Yasuda in 2012 and merged with the local HDI company. In Poland, WARTA is the second biggest insurance company in the property and casualty business with a market share of 14 percent.