9DECEMBER 2021the 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' mentalityThe starting point was to deliver an exceptional customer experience that satisfies and even exceeds customer needs through the development of digital touch points. 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 ­ the myUNIQA app und 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 become a digital and agile organization. As 95% of the complete workforce started to work from home within days of the first lock down 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. 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
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