Generali is renowned for innovation and the introducing of new trends in all areas of insurance, advancing its products and services, while it is also known as a leader of digital transformation that always has two goals: improving its business results and improving its relations with clients
This company was the first to launch a mobile app for insurance sales and the first to introduce many tools, as well as the Salesforce platform.
The Generali team is very proud of the path they’ve traversed in the company’s transformation to date, but they are aware that they are still awaited by constant transformation that’s even faster and more comprehensive.
Leaders are those who always make the needs and expectations of their users the top priority?
— We have been striving for many years to listen and respond to what our clients really need, and then our team comes together quickly and devises a way to satisfy those needs in the fastest and best possible way. Whether it relates to products or sales methods, or communication with the client, our ambition is to create and lead trends on the domestic insurance market by monitoring global principles and technological advances in other industries, in which the Generali Group represents an excellent guide for us, but also provides us with support in implementation.
Our ambition is to create and lead trends on the domestic insurance market by monitoring global principles and technological advances in other industries
It was almost 10 years ago that we introduced a system for measuring client satisfaction with regard to all of our processes – NPS (Net Promoter Score), which enables us to hear what clients expect, what irks them and what they feel grateful for. With these kinds of recommendations from clients, our team has developed an awareness and willingness to think innovatively and, with the support of management, the only possible result is for us to be leaders of innovation.
Are you satisfied with the results of your transformation to date?
— We have been in a process of constant transformation since Generali first arrived in Serbia. However, the intensity of those changes has been more drastic in recent years, because we have been monitoring world trends continuously and have implemented changes on the domestic market even before they were needed at the local level. An excellent example of this is the possibility of working from home, which we already introduced at the start of 2019. We were the first company to provide users with a fast and reliable digital experience available 24 hours a day, and that was back in 2016, when we were the first to launch a mobile application for insurance sales, and since then we have been adding new tools and functions, both on the app and our portal for clients.
We have also transformed our organisation in parallel with these changes, introducing and replacing many tools and services that are used by our employees, but our clients and our people have always remained at the top of our list of priorities.
Generali Osiguranje Srbija became the first financial institution to use the Salesforce platform on the Serbian insurance market. What has that brought for your clients and employees?
— Salesforce is yet another in the series of confirmations of who has the “decisive say” in decision-making at Generali Osiguranje – and that is the Generali client, who demands the best solutions and a swift response to address growing needs. This is one of the most significant projects that we’ve completed successfully over the past two years. And the Generali Group is currently in the process of introducing Salesforce to many countries, and in that process we are recognised as one of the best examples of fast, agile implementation, but also – and most importantly – the adaptation of our employees to ensure that that both they and the clients can enjoy the possibilities that are now available.
Modern technology has brought us process automation, shortened procedures, the digital contracting of policies, the digital identification of clients etc. Can you envisage what the future and the increased applying of AI will bring us?
— Without going back too far into the past, looking only at the last few years, we have digitalised the compiling of a good part of the policies, wherever that has been possible, and enabled not only the digital reporting of claims, but also self-assessments and the complete comfort of our clients, while the next step is enabling remote client identification, which will enable us to largely overcome the current legal challenges to the full application of digitalisation. We are also happy to have been among the first to introduce electronic invoices successfully, while we take extensive advantage of the electronic exchanging of documents and electronic signatures, and we are ready for eArchiving that will arrive on the market in 2024. As such, our administration is already in the “future”, which is often a priority for our corporate clients when choosing an insurer.
We have digitalised the compiling of a good part of the policies and enabled not only the digital reporting of claims, but also self-assessments and the complete comfort of our clients
Applying artificial intelligence is already a present reality for us, and its increased use over the coming years is precisely what will confirm how smart and “intelligent” the moves and decisions we’ve made over previous years were – not only in terms of the modernisation of the technological aspects of our system, but also in terms of our people’s awareness, openness to change and hunger for innovation, because all the improvements that we introduce, and especially AI solutions, will relieve our colleagues of the need to do repetitive and tedious work and give them time and space to devise, create and construct new and better systemic solutions for our company’s further modernisation. I believe that natural and artificial intelligence aren’t “competitors” to one another, but rather that they form the ideal alliance that leads us further into the future and once again places people and their needs at the centre of everything, whether we’re talking about our clients, employees or ourselves.
Did you establish cooperation with Comtrade System Integration in response to the growing risk of attacks by hackers?
— Cybersecurity is certainly the area in which we’ve made the most progress in recent years, both in terms of investments in the tools that we use and in raising awareness of the importance of prevention and the intelligent use of all these tools that we apply, develop and make available to our clients and partners. From the modest role of just one or two security experts, we’ve created an entire sector that today includes eight experts and the support of 1,600 “IT security associates”, or employees who understand and stick to the recommendations, and thus protect the system on a daily basis. Our cooperation with Comtrade is an additional advancement, one that relates specifically to the offer of insurance against cyber risks for our clients, in which we want them to leave it up to professionals to handle the concerns and risks to which they are exposed. It was precisely this client-centric focus and the constant need for progress that proved decisive in Comtrade becoming our partner, and we are extremely satisfied with this cooperation to date.
And to conclude this interview, we would like to congratulate you on receiving the 2023 “Oscars Quality” award. Generali Osiguranje Srbija has been declared the 2023 Champion of Excellence, while your CEO, Dragan Filipović, has been named the 2023 Leader of Business Excellence.
— Thank you for congratulating us on these accolades that we received recently and that are important for both our company and our CEO, as a leader of business excellence. Accolades and awards weren’t our primary motivation when it came to the establishing of all processes, but they certainly represent a great responsibility and even greater motivation for us to be even better with each subsequent step, because in today’s world both clients and the public gauge and evaluate quality harsher and more frequently, and our strategy of establishing lifelong partnerships with clients is enough of a promise that we won’t let you down.