How Did UNIQA Save $21 Million Within 2 Years
Customer
UNIQA Insurance Group AG (UNIQA)
Challenge
Future-proof growth and improved customer experience through digital transformation. Management steering of group-wide Anti-Fraud activities to measure savings, process and monitoring through one standard Fraud Detection Solution.
Solution
FRISS Claims Analytics
Results
Total fraud savings of $21 million within the first 2 years of being live
Quick, 4-month implementations on average in each of the 15 countries, delivering instant ROI
Increase in fraud savings per investigator from $550.000 to $2 million
Enabled move towards SaaS/digital processes in a secure and automated way
Better serve their sincere clients, enabling fast-tracked claims for a superb customer experience
Recognized with the Celent Model Insurer Award for Data, Analytics, and AI
Customer
UNIQA Group is one of the leading insurance groups in Austria and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The group’s mission is to enable its customers to live a safer, better and longer life. With a GWP of 5.1 billion euro and a 22% market share, UNIQA is the second largest insurance carrier in Austria. Operating in 18 countries, it is also one of the largest insurers in the CEE region. Around 20,000 employees and exclusive sales partners serve 10.1 million UNIQA customers. Managing both UNIQA and Raiffeisen Versicherung, the UNIQA Group represents top brands with a strong position in their respective markets.
Challenge
UNIQA noticed a fundamental change in consumer expectations and responded by focusing its growth around digitalization. The main focus is to transform from a pure provider of insurance products into an integrated 24/7 service provider. Therefore, the organization is investing in a complete transformation of its business model, building up staff expertise and renewing IT Systems to enable a move towards digital processes based on secure SaaS solutions.
UNIQA aims to significantly improve the customer experience both in digital and traditional touchpoints. Irene Reihs, Project leader UNIQA Group, emphasized that “fraud detection was considered a vital part” on the group’s agenda. UNIQA stresses that over 99% of their clients are honest and the company is certainly not assuming claims are fraudulent. Still, there are always a few bad actors and those need to be identified.
UNIQA was looking for one solution that enabled central monitoring from their headquarters in Vienna. Seamless integration of an automated fraud detection solution within the core system was therefore a strong requirement.
Solution
Before the implementation of FRISS, there was no common way to communicate and coordinate fraud-fighting efforts across the many countries and disparate systems used by UNIQA. Workshops for each of the countries confirmed that FRISS could be linked to UNIQA’s internal claims handling system. Clear processes were defined, and the entire anti-fraud operation is compliant with all legal requirements, including the General Data Protection Law (GDPR).
Improving the customer experience was just as important for UNIQA as fighting fraudulent claims. With FRISS, UNIQA can serve its honest clients even better. The insurer is now able to put claims from those customers on a fast track for claim handling and payment.
According to analyst firm Celent, UNIQA made a great technology partnership decision to work with a vendor who offers proven specialized solutions. In this case, it’s important that they could quickly implement across multiple claim systems over many lines of business, languages and operating countries.
Celent Award Winner
Celent acknowledged UNIQA’s Strategic Group P&C Anti-Fraud Initiative as Model Insurer for Data, Analytics and AI. Celent sees UNIQA as an adapter of best practices by implementing a strong industry partner solution with FRISS, whose workflow solution and analytics make handling all claims more efficient and more transparent. Celent applauded UNIQA for serving their best clients better and mitigating fraud effectively across their many countries and lines of business. The fact that the initiative was group-wide and was implemented over disparate IT systems, various cultures and a variety of international boundaries, made this solution stand out as a unique accomplishment to achieve a common goal of fraud detection and mitigation.
Results
With the FRISS Solution for automated claims fraud detection, UNIQA has standardized its group-wide processes into more efficient and profitable operations, with tangible results:
Total fraud savings of $21 million within the first 2 years of being live
Quick, 4 month implementations on average in each of the 15 countries, delivering instant ROI
Increase in fraud savings per investigator from $550.000 to $2 million
Enabled move towards SaaS/digital processes in a secure and automated way
Better serve their sincere clients, enabling fast-tracked claims for a superb customer experience
FRISS exchanges data with core claims systems and enriches it with third-party data. Claims are then analyzed and scored in real-time. Expert knowledge rules and AI-based models are combined with network analytics and other proprietary analytics techniques to provide an accurate and continuous risk indication of the claim.
UNIQA now benefits from FRISS’ global experience with holistic insights into international fraud patterns. The group established a true fraud fighting culture, cross-border cooperation and knowledge exchange. UNIQA is able to take precautionary measures to detect and prevent fraud before it is paid.