EXCLUSIVE: Allianz to target new markets through digital push

Allianz is working on simplifying products and processes and on developing technologies and platforms to fully digitalize the business. Altin has headed up the new unit ‘Digital Transformation’ since January 1 to foster the digitalization of the group.

Through a number of digital initiatives the insurer hopes to reach a sustained increase in productivity of at least €1 billion per year by 2018 while positioning itself as a ‘digital leader’, as revealed in the group’s three-year plan presented in November 2018.

The advantages offered by digitalization will be used to optimize Allianz’s risk-adequate pricing and to streamline and speed up claims processing. The company also seeks to increase growth and effectiveness in its business with medium-sized enterprises and commercial firms, according to its 2015 annual report.

The digitization process will also facilitate market expansion as it significantly reduces required investment for such an endeavour, says Altin. “Nowadays, with cloud services one can acquire computing power and storage capacity as needed for comparatively low prices,” he explains.

“While this makes it easier for potential competitors to enter a market, this also applies to Allianz and will allow us to enter new markets.”

Such market expansion is an opportunity for launching greenfield projects and testing innovative solutions, he notes. “Allianz is currently developing its strategy to target new markets,” he said.

Allianz defines its core markets as being Germany, France, Italy and the US but it has operations all over the world. However, quite a few blank spots can be found particularly in Africa, in the Middle East and Latin America.

In November 2015, Allianz unveiled a joint venture with Chinese internet search provider Baidu and Asian equity investor Hillhouse to establish a nationwide digital insurance company in China. The aim is to create digital insurance solutions and distribute them online. The three partners want to design innovative approaches in travel, ecommerce, internet finance, short-term health, lifestyle and potentially also motor insurance in the future.

The initiative is supported by market research which expects that digital premiums in China are set to grow from €25 billion in 2015 to €107 billion in 2020.

Trying to grow by disrupting new markets is an opportunity for a traditional insurer to grow organically, which is otherwise fairly expensive, said Pia Tischhauser, senior partner and global head of BCG's Insurance Practice.

But such a strategy may only show meaningful results in a five-year time frame and it’s similar to a start-up, which also has the potential to fail, Tischhauser noted. But, “for the long-term strategy it’s absolutely the right thing to do,” she added.