Multi-tasking on the Internet

Just the other day in office, we were debating the positioning of our soon-to-be-launched Website. To randomly check the penetration of the Web, we asked everybody what they did on the Internet. Within three minutes, we got a list of more than 120-odd things that the team used the Net for, from searching names for a baby to planning holidays and blogging.

This made me realise that the Internet allows us to multi-task. It helps us manage errands like banking at night, which is otherwise limited to working hours. This is Convenience@Click. According to recent statistics from the Internet and Online Association of India, leading search engines get six million requests for insurance every month. Combine this with the Nielsen Global Online Survey, released in January 2008, which ranks India as the third biggest e-shopping nation, and we see a disruptive trend moving from brick and mortar to bricks and clicks. With 81 million Internet users and five million broadband connections, this trend will accelerate.

The second insight is that the Web offers customers Simplicity@Click. Complex products like stem cell banking are selling via the Web today. In the next year or so, we shall offer such simplicity in our transactions that customers will be able to buy policies, say, for travel, on a mobile phone. With a subscriber base of 427 million, two million active users of mobile Internet, and 3G around the corner, this is bound to happen.

Then comes Interactivity@Click. Not only is it convenient for the customer to locate a hospital (on the insurer's network) or an agent close to his place, renew his policy, lodge a claim and check his claim status at the click of a button, but it will also offer an opportunity to the insurer to interact with a customer on a one-on-one basis.

This brings us to the final question: what happens to the traditional channels that sell insurance, be it agents, brokers or banks? The answer lies in what happens to the neighbourhood dhaba when the Pizza Huts of the world open shop. Both players co-habit and you see more people eating out. This is what will happen to the insurance sector. We can expect co-existence and collaboration, which will lead to higher penetration and better choice for the customer. All in all, we can safely bet that the days of click-easy insurance are here.

S.S. Gopalrathnam is CEO, Chola MS General