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AXA Poland: Digital transformation in the Polish insurance market

AXA Poland: peoplefocused digital transformation in Polandâ€™s insurance sector WRITTEN BY

MARCUS LAWRENCE PRODUCED BY

JAMES PEPPER

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AXA POLAND

Olivier Schemberg, Head of IT (CIO) at AXA Poland, discusses the people-led strategy that is defining its digital transformation success

s an insurance provider with global reach, the digital transformation of AXA Group positively benefits its customers at every

stage of their lives. The company’s decentralised model for particular countries and territories has enabled it to maximise its relevance and competitivity wherever it hangs its cap. AXA Poland is no 04

exception and, as part of AXA’s International and New Markets (INM) group, comprised of over 25 countries in emerging and high growth markets, it benefits from shared best practices that serve as accelerators in greenfield projects. In tandem with the augmentation of tried and true practices from elsewhere in the group, and strategically applied Agile and Scrum methodologies, AXA Poland’s digital transformation has been influenced significantly by a focus on catering to the Polish market. “Since the 1990s, there has been an acceleration of the economy in Poland, and so it’s quite an active adopter of digitalisation,” says Olivier Schemberg, Head of IT (CIO) at AXA Poland, highlighting the prevalence of mobile first as a leading digital option for the company’s customers. “We have observed that, as its banking

“ One of our key challenges now is reinvesting in our people, in IT education, and skilling people differently” — Olivier Schemberg, Head of IT (CIO), AXA Poland

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AXA POLAND

industry is already quite digitalised,

the transformation’s potential success

Poland is one of Europe’s faster adop-

is limited. “A few years back, we were

ters of new payment methods, such as

moving forward with technology –

contactless credit cards and phone-

there was clear progress also from

based payments. In fact, whatever the

methodologies like Agile – but we

age category, mobile is first in Poland.”

were missing one big element: how

While this focus on the market and

to reskill at the same time and pace

customers is crucial for defining the

our people. In fact, with technology

appropriate strategy for AXA Poland’s

accelerating, we had to question why

digital transformation, Schemberg

we were not changing how our people

places pivotal importance on both

operate,” says Schemberg. “One of

methodology and change management.

our key challenges now is reinvesting

Without establishing a potent and

in our people, IT education and skilling

efficient basis of operations, he says,

people differently.” In recognising the

importance of doing so, AXA Poland is

and 85,000 IT specialists, and the

reaping the benefits of a transformation

universities cannot produce this

where its staff can take full advantage

volume at the rate that is needed.”

of the new solutions. “Because of

In addition to addressing this challenge

these changes there is much more

by providing specialised training,

empowerment on the business side,

AXA Poland has begun training non-IT

and this is where many companies

people in Java programming. AXA

today are lagging behind.”

Poland has also partnered with Indian

Schemberg notes that this is not

IT outsourcing specialist Hexaware.

solely a strategic issue: the global

“Looking at the big lack of IT profes-

shortfall in data specialists and

sionals in Poland, Hexaware decided

associated experts is no less appar-

to create a new model of nearshoring

ent in Poland. “If you look at the Polish

in Warsaw, blending the Indian team

market, we’re lacking between 50,000

and Polish team to fit local customer 07

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AXA POLAND

needs,” says Schemberg. “One model

productivity, efficiency and quality,”

doesn’t fit all, so it is important to partner

he says, adding that it also enables the

with a company that has the capacity

firm to leapfrog development of some

to adapt its model of execution, such

legacy systems by simply infusing them

as with Hexaware reinventing the near

with automated capabilities. “It’s been

shoring concept.”

quite successful,” says Schemberg.

With strong, people-oriented

“We already have two operational RPA

foundations laid, AXA Poland can

solutions, and we have between 10

maximise the value of its digitalisation

and 15 that are still in development.”

projects. One such example that

This cutting-edge technology is

Schemberg highlights is the application

joining Tia Technology’s solutions

of robotic process automation (RPA)

on the back-end of AXA Poland’s

to many of its back-end processes.

operations. The Danish company

“RPA offers a mix between added

has accrued a significant share of the

market, with its solutions found across

discussions about how the firm will

all major insurance players in Poland.

support the upgrades of its local

“Tia’s platform is our key asset for the

installations, as well as managing

Policy Insurance system for P&C Retail

cloud strategy evolution in the Polish

and Commercial Lines,” explains

market whilst taking all requirements

Schemberg. “Tia has a very solid

defined by our local Authority of

architecture with a strong back-end

Control. Understanding local challenges

platform, and it is developing additional

is a clear advantage for shaping the

capabilities to offer front-end, process

role of core back-end operations’

design and Business Intelligence

evolution to a very open architecture

solutions. This will be very interesting

model.” Schemberg notes that

for the greenfield operations and for

Poland’s cloud infrastructure is highly

consideration in the upgrade strategy.

regulated, with requirements including

We held the Tia Polish User Group in

backup capacity in case of service

June, allowing us to have very candid

disruption necessitating on-premise

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Olivier Schemberg Schemberg has 30 years’ experience in IT in various positions, having spent the last 10 years as CIO in Insurance and Direct Business in Europe and Asia. He is passionate to understand the acceleration of technology and how this is transforming the way we his firm can support and cooperate with businesses as one team, whilst also understanding how it is influencing and transforming its target operating model and moving to Agile at scale. After almost five years spent in Japan, he is experienced in change management in a country well known for evolution without strong disruption. Schemberg has strong interpersonal and communication skills across diverse languages and cultures in Europe and Asia.

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Automate Everything, Cloudify Everything, Transform Customer Experience Leading Transformation Initiatives for Global Insurers Insurers around the globe currently face unprecedented challenges: interest rates jeopardize life business, insuretechs disrupting the non-commercial markets, user expectations of new customer generations clash with most monolithic operating and selling models of traditional insurers, to name a few. However, also a large amount of insurers comprehend this almost stuck situation as a chance: creating a total new customer experience through embedded mobile solutions and next-gen products, fully renovating the

core insurance systems and processes, connecting the new eco systems into the legacy world via API strategies and gaining back agility through massive (robotics based) automatization and cloud first strategy all across infrastructure, applications and even business processes. Together with almost 20 insurers of all sizes around the globe Hexaware has innovated and helped its customers achieving significant both top-line as well as bottom-line improvements, leapfrogging

their competitive edge. We drive shortterm gains through automation with hundreds of bots, unleashing a new potential of human resources into digital projects, transforming core business as a partner of Guidewire, the de-facto platform for transforming P&C business. With cloudifying and automation of IT operations and developing and testing applications in bizdevops environment we give back the highly needed agility to our customers, enabling them to instantaneously react on market changes.

WATCH: DIGITIZATION OF INSURANCE VALUE CHAIN

Learn More

AXA POLAND

2006

Year founded

1,600

Approximate number of employees

Warsaw Headquarters

Solutions at the speed of life We address the needs of insurers who want to bundle and market services for more efficient customer engagement - swiftly reaching customers in their daily life. www.tiatechnology.com +45 7022 7620 tia@technology.com

13 resources. That being said, the Polish government is taking steps to strengthen cloud environments for enterprises undergoing digital transformation. “The Polish government is building the ‘Polish National Cloud’, a new environment located in Poland that will offer the capacity for services to move to the cloud whilst simultaneously answering key requirements defined by the local Authority of Control.” In terms of leveraging digital transformation for the benefit of its partners, Schemberg says AXA Poland has taken a similarly conscientious

“ Since the 90s, there has been an acceleration of the economy in Poland, and so it is quite an active adopter of digitalisation” — Olivier Schemberg, Head of IT (CIO), AXA Poland w w w. a xa . p l

AXA POLAND

“ In a digital transformation, you need to deliver what will be adopted by the customer” — Olivier Schemberg, Head of IT (CIO), AXA Poland 14

approach. “We can see that the evolution

Poland and a digital-focused player.

of the digitalisation is not only for the

It’s very interesting to work closely

benefit of the customer, but also for

with such an organisation, because on

the partners. For Property and Life

one hand you have traditional resist-

businesses, partners expect a digital

ances to moving to digital, and on the

integration with their system,” explains