Agile: driving customer-centricity in trade credit insurance

Agile is an iterative project management methodology, and I’ve been a proponent of it ever since I first started using it as an IT project consultant in 2010. It’s an alternative to the traditional linear approach: it involves delivering work in small increments for testing and approval.

We’ve seen multiple positive outcomes since adopting Agile, including error reduction and faster turnaround times. But most notably? By increasing the number of touchpoints we have with customers, we’re driving the client-centric approach that we promote at Allianz Trade.

Over my career at Allianz, I worked in several roles before being named Group Head of Organization and Change, including Functional Architect and Head of Claims and Collection. In the latter, my experience building an Agile policy management structure for our multinationals business helped me see the versatility of the methodology – outside the IT sphere. When I moved to my current role, I was excited to use Agile not just to improve the digital platform but to streamline process change.

Working in two-to-three-week sprint cycles has greatly improved the change request process. At the end of the sprint, updates are shown to our business user, who then has time to perform tests. This method has enabled us to increase the volume of testing, reduce the margin of error, and deliver a usable solution more quickly. Ultimately, it means we iron out any misunderstandings early on in the process.

We also apply the methodology to the design of our backend systems. Pioneers like Amazon have revolutionized the user experience in the B2C industry through two main factors: simplicity and speed. Now, B2B customers essentially want the same things. This need for faster turnaround times has led to the development of our state-of-the-art customer portal, Allianz Trade Online, but has also generated massive requirements for our backend systems.

Thanks to increasingly intelligent – and numerous – application programming interfaces (APIs), we’ve built a flexible, reactive platform. Clients can exchange information more simply and directly with us, whether they are making a request for coverage, declaring claims, or seeking information about the debt recovery process. Taking an Agile approach in this context means we can deliver improvements more quickly and generate more value for the end user.

Digital interaction with clients eliminates manual work for them and enables us to process information faster. And while the higher level of automation requires us to streamline our policies to account for country variances, there are benefits to this. Learning from the best practices of our local offices means we can improve our products and features to provide the best client service possible.

Through an Agile approach, Allianz is blazing the trail toward digitalization and automation, streamlining work in our sector and inviting other industry professionals along for the ride.