title: Insurance and automotive : innovation in claims management
Creators: name: Hinterhofer, Jürgen
Publisher: name: TU Wien
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: Insurance
subject: Automotive
subject: Digitalisation
subject: Internet of Things
subject: Autonomous Car

description: Imagine, the Moment of Truth, an accident happened. In case of an insurance claim intelligent parts and cars will organise all further steps autonomously. Beginning from ordering replacement parts from the plant or wholesales organisation. Organise a tow truck according to the shape of the car and customers preferences. At the same time automatic FNOL and automated coverage check, claims calculation, availability and appointment with repair station were conducted by the car, completely by an Internet of Thing. What do you think about it? Is this an innovation? Indeed, claims management is currently far away from the author's example. But could it be a possible future scenario? Probably it could, but therefore insurance needs innovations. Thinking out of the box, will create new business possibilities and innovative claims management will be a relevant part of it. If insurance coverage would be feasible everyone would see it in every part of our life. According to Austria and Germany it is a fact that every car, every building, every enterprise and mainly every person is assured in some kind. There are different branches within the insurance industry that affect everyone such as life insurance, health insurance, reinsurance and property and casualty insurance, and motor insurance as part of property and casualty Insurance. Motor insurance is in fact the branch of property and casualty insurance with the highest premium volumes. The current situation is that motor insurers are faced with limited growth opportunities due of market saturation and high competitive pressure. For these reasons profit margins in motor insurance decreased while the costs for motor insurers in the field of claims management and claims settlement increased. Very often the insurance industry does not recognize or cannot use their leverage and furthermore does not use the power of their organisation for pro-active claims management. It is also a fact that the manner how claims are managed had historical origin and due to existing business rules worked more or less until today. But pro-active claims management and claims settlement is a need for future business success in the field of motor insurance. Moreover it is a chance for the insurance companies to gain market share, for improvement of customer satisfaction and for decreasing loss adjustment costs. It is also a chance to make insurance ready for future challenges with possibly new competitors, e.g. Google. But insur3 ance has a great chance too, because new very big players from other branches entered the automotive aftermarket, specially the highly interesting market of spare parts, keyword "Amazon". To think outside the box is a necessity for future and sustainable business development. Claims management will also have a key role in future business development of Allianz. Due to this background the author has chosen this topic "Insurance and Automotive - Innovations in Claims Management". The automotive industry with its high sophisticated development and the deep integration with its suppliers and vendors is the perfect model for this Master thesis. Structure of Thesis: The first part analyses the current situation in claims management and gives a brief overview of the fundamentals of claims management regarding motor insurance. The thesis is segmented into the claims management business processes in Austria - differentiation in usual NON-APS and APS claims management processes to give the reader an insight of the motor insurance claims processes of insurance industry with dependence to Allianz Austria. The main research part focuses general trends and innovations in insurance industry and automotive industry regarding to the topic with Allianz-point of view. In the section 3.1 and 3.2 the author argues the trends and innovation steps of insurance and automotive industry (regarding claims management). The thesis is concerned with how to use the experiences of this MBA-Program "Professional Automotive Industry" for innovating the claims management processing within the Allianz Group Austria and its partners in the next five to 10 years. The author was inspired by the way automotive industry managed their business in the last decades, especially the development of OEM´s supplier-, sourcing-, procurement- and vendor management strategies. Therefore it is concerned with new innovative solutions according the Allianz claims-strategy in the field of motor insurance as part of a holistic business strategy. The final step, chapter 5, concentrates on already realized steps and new solutions within Allianz with practical examples and an outlook for possible solutions regarding autonomous car and insurance.