VIG companies in Poland

The Vienna Insurance Group operates with six companies and four different brands in the Polish insurance market. The Vienna Insurance Group companies include Compensa Life and Non-life, Benefia Life and Non-life, InterRisk and PZM. Compensa Non-life also has a branch in Lithuania. VIG also signed an agreement to purchase 75% plus one share of the life insurance company Polisa. The acquisition is subject to receipt of the necessary official approvals. The Polish companies earned 10.7% of the total Vienna Insurance Group premiums in 2011.

The Vienna Insurance Group’s market share of 6.9% puts it in fourth place in the Polish insurance market. In the non-life market, its 10.1% share puts it in third place. VIG grew faster than the market in both the life and non-life segments in the first three quarters of the reporting period, recording the fastest overall growth among all groups.

The two companies Compensa Non-life and Compensa Life once again recognised and took advantage of how helpful and virtually irreplaceable IT applications are in day-to-day insurance business. Compensa Non-life used its “C Portal” sales portal to start a pilot project on customer relationship management in November 2011 with six offices participating. The new module shows each advisor additional sales potential for existing customers and allows a statement to be prepared showing their current sales status.

Compensa Life began the process of gradually replacing old IT modules with SAP. The work will continue over the coming months. The company also added an application form to its “mojaCompensa” online portal for allocating and converting units of unit-linked life insurance policies.

InterRisk is mainly focused on developing its distribution network in 2011. The company used its “Klub Milionera InterRisk” to strengthen relationships with its most productive agents. The Klub Milionera InterRisk is a group of agents who satisfy very high requirements in terms of premium volume generated and the quality of their insurance portfolio. Club members are invited to joint meetings, conferences and discussions with important figures in the business world.

Greater sales support and leaner processes are just two of the benefits of the new distribution portal for agents, iPortal. Products were added continuously to this electronic solution during the course of the year, such as the “Bezpieczny Dom w InterRisk” homeowners’ buildings and contents insurance policy. Implementation was preceded by a large-scale campaign to promote the product to agents and offices. This was a great success, causing the number of new policies to rise significantly.

The two Benefia companies introduced a new incentive system for distribution and management, two new online services, and a host of successful products in 2011. Benefia Non-life introduced a new Internet application, “Audanet”, for motor vehicle claims processing. Settlement is now faster and process quality has also been improved. The “My Policy” application implemented by Benefia Life is aimed at unit-linked and index-linked life insurance customers. Policyholders can use this service to request policy changes and obtain information on the current status of their policies.

Vienna Insurance Group is planning to streamline its business activities in the non-life segment of the Polish insurance market by merging InterRisk and PZM. The two companies will use the shared InterRisk brand to market their products nationwide in the future. The merger is expected to be completed in the first half of 2012, subject to receipt of formal and official approvals.