UNIQA (VIE: UQA)

Barbara Liebich-Steiner

The 4 essential dimensions of digital transformation

The message is clear for anyone who cares to listen: "The pace of change has never been this fast yet will never be this slow again!" (Justin Trudeau, 2018). The exponential growth of technological possibilities versus the logarithmic development of large organizations is a huge challenge for stagnating and old-fashioned industries such as banking and insurance.

A recurring theme I observed while driving transformation and building state of the art digital solutions for the past 20+ years in the financial services industry is that technology – even the best and most innovative – always acts as a (powerful) enabler but is not the driver of real transformation and that change based solely on technology only takes you so far. When building the first corporate customer portal for a major banking group with headquarters in Vienna, Austria, and 18+ subsidiaries in CEE, I was in charge of the development of a state-of-the-art technical platform. We included exciting and innovative features such as straight-through electronic transfers, video chats, online conferences, etc., which were groundbreaking in 2001. However, the really remarkable and sustainable achievement was that we completely transformed the way the bank approached and communicated with its customers.

Now, as the Chief Digital Officer at UNIQA Insurance Group, one of the major players in the insurance industry in Austria & CEE, I have the mission to develop and execute a digital strategy, and in 2016 led the effort to completely transform and digitalize the way we do business in order to stay relevant in the digital world.

“As the automation and improvements of existing processes is incremental to a high-quality customer experience, the next step was to digitalize and simplify the most important customer journeys”

The replacement of outdated legacy technology was only part of this endeavor. Technology only works as an igniter of change; real transformation starts with cultural change. UNIQA planted the "digital seed" right within the core of the company. In summer 2016, we launched a new Digital Team within the existing organizational structures, endowing them with excellent talent, enough resources, and the guidance of our Group CEO and the Head of Group IT. We started the transformation from within. This was a risky path as the new, young, and innovative team had to face the forces of inertia head-on.

There were two options for how to move forward with this new Digital Team:

• Placing the team outside of the traditional business and aim to develop innovative services very quickly, adding new digital products and services as an additional stream of income to the existing business model, or

• Transform and reinvent the business from within.

The first option promised faster results and probably more innovative solutions. The second one had the potential for a profound and sustainable cultural change and a deep-rooted transformation across the entire organization. Back in 2016, the clear message was: we want to transform our business from its core.

The advantage of driving digitalization from the inside was that UNIQA was able to develop in all digital dimensions:

• Customer Centricity: Understanding customer needs and being able to address their changing and growing demands– a crucial factor for sustainable revenue growth and acquiring new customers

• Automation: Achieving simpler, cost-efficient and high-quality processes by providing much greater levels of integration, transparency, and IT/business collaboration

• Corporate Culture: Empowering employees through new ways of working, fostering a new team spirit and collaboration. Working in cross-functional and autonomous teams was vital to break up silos

• Innovation: Fulfilling innovation challenges in a large organization by encouraging a 'start-up' mentality

The starting point was to deliver an exceptional customer experience that satisfies and even exceeds customer needs through the development of digital touchpoints. We placed the interaction with our customers at the heart of our customer-facing applications. The possibility to gain deep data-driven insights enables us now to identify patterns, make predictions, and respond to important moments in our customers' lives. Our online touchpoints – my UNIQA app and customer portal - are constantly tailored to the needs of the users. MyUNIQA provides context-sensitive information and services and will be extended by the integration of third-party services. Direct communication channels such as secure messaging and video chat enable high contact availability and help to translate the high quality of customer experience established through our local sales agents into digital channels.

As the automation and improvements of existing processes is incremental to a high-quality customer experience, the next step was to digitalize and simplify the most important customer journeys. This is an ongoing endeavour which is only made possible through close collaboration between business and IT. As a necessary precondition, a new work style was homegrown based on agile principles but tailored to the needs of UNIQA. The goal was to significantly enhance our digital capabilities and foster business agility. Starting with the top management, these new ways of working were spread out through the organisation. A "garage" format was set up to explore new topics and business models, encouraging participants from different parts of the company to join and become part of the new movement.

With the growing digital mindset, cross-functional collaboration, and the usage of new technology, UNIQA was able to promote innovation, improve efficiency and time to market. The start-up mentality of small autonomous teams within the company facilitates fast-paced innovation cycles and the possibility of proposing new approaches and testing them right away.

The Covid-19 pandemic has increased the level of complexity and, at the same time, accelerated UNIQA's path to becoming a digital and agile organization. As 95% of the complete workforce started to work from home within days of the first lockdown in Austria in March 2020, there was no time for training and preparation. This was a true test of the corporate culture change initiated back in 2016. UNIQA's employees adapted quickly to the new rhythm and conditions of remote working. Internal surveys show that all groups of UNIQA employees report high job satisfaction levels in home office settings. We are proud to attribute UNIQA's ability to successfully deal with the rapidly changing environment to our digitalized culture.