Indian insurance firms launching mobile apps for customers and agents

With mobile-commerce picking up, insurance companies are coming out with mobile applications offering customers the comfort of choosing products at their will.

Companies like public sector New India Assurance, one of the largest general insurers, and private Cholamandalam M S General Insurance, part of the Murugappa group, have already launched their mobile apps that enable customers to renew their policies or buy new ones.

According to industry experts, 65 percent of mobile users in the country access the Internet through mobile phone and 40 percent of them are "active" data users.

A senior official of New India Assurance said the company had launched two applications - one for the customer and the other for the agent - on operating systems including Blackberry, Android and Windows.

"We launched the applications two weeks ago on a pilot basis. The New India Customer app is for customers who can get new policies or they can renew their current policy. We have already launched lot of mobility solutions", New India Assurance, Deputy General Manager, K Ravi Shankar said.

Stating that there was good response to the initiative, he said the app had been downloaded 20,000 times so far.

Besides this, the company is also focussing on creating awareness among rural people on insurance products by launching a mobile van to reach the prospective customers in their place itself.

New India Assurance Chairman and Managing Director G Srinivasan said the mobile van was flagged off from Madurai last week.

"Our objective is to offer insurance policies even in a tier-4 towns. This mobile van will travel to remote places and offer our services", he said adding the plan was to extend the service across the country.

Noting that at present bulk of business was contributed by major towns and cities, he said the future of general insurance was expected to come from rural areas and from micro, small and medium enterprise segments.

Cholamandalam MS General Insurance and Japan-based Mitsui Sumitomo Group recently forayed into the mobile application space enabling customers to buy or renew their current health insurance policies.

The Chennai-based company launched 'Chola MS Wellness', targeting people using mobile phones that run on Android.

The company has allocated Rs. 25 lakh towards this initiative and appointed an "external agency", Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Managing Director S S Gopalarathnam said.

Cholamandalam, which has insurance products across accident, health, liability, motor, property, travel and rural segments, was initially offering medical insurance through the mobile phone space. Soon, the app would be offered for other operating systems.

"Initially we made a soft launch on February one and so far 235 people have downloaded the application.", Cholamandalam MS General Insurance, Senior Vice-President (IT and Operations), Sundar V said.