The country's largest insurer, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), has begun implementing a new back-office system as part of its technology intervention initiatives to tackle the enormous customer base and sustain growth.
Madurai has become the second centre in the LIC's south zone, which comprises Kerala and Tamil Nadu, to implement the new ‘Metro Area Service Hub' (MASH), J. Chakrapani, Senior Divisional Manager, Madurai Division, told The Hindu here on Thursday.
The details of all the 40 lakh policy holders of Madurai Division have already been digitised under Enterprise Document Management System, a four-year nation-wide project. The division comprises 25 branches and 16 satellite offices in Madurai, Dindigul, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram, Theni and Virudhunagar districts.
First phase
All the policies of a customer would be consolidated using MASH.
The customer would get only one notice for various payments such as renewal premium, pension due, status reports, revival and other campaign letters, besides other related customer contact programmes.
This was the first phase of the MASH implementation in Madurai and it would be completed by September.
In the second phase, payments for all policies of a customer would be done at one go using cheques initially and, at a later state, utilise electronic transfer of funds, after which the customer would be alerted via SMS (short messaging service). This phase would be completed by December, he said.
Cost efficient
Apart from ensuring timely settlement of claims, this would also be a cost-effective operation and also prevent duplication.
The MASH is currently operational at eight locations in the country and would be expanded to 30 other within this fiscal, including Coimbatore, Ernakulam and Thiruvanathapuram, said Mr. Chakrapani.
The new system would also deal with survival benefits, which form nearly 80 per cent of LIC's claim operations. Its processing was fully customer-independent and automated. It would also eventually deal with dispatching Unit Linked Insurance Plan (ULIP) statements.
