UK insurer Allianz Cornhill has increased quotation-to-sales success rates by 20 per cent following the introduction of on-demand customer relationship management (CRM).

The web-based CRM system replaces manual collection and distribution of sales data.

The technology provides Allianz Cornhill’s 200 underwriters with easy access to real-time customer information, and its 50-strong sales force with access to online data and communication applications accessible when away from the office.

The previous process for converting leads into sales took the company’s 200 underwriters about four weeks to complete.

‘We didn’t have good controls on the activity of our salespeople in the field so we looked for a technology solution and chose an on-demand system,’ said John Warburton, head of strategic innovation at Allianz Cornhill.

‘The attraction of the CRM system is that it is a relatively modest business-led project needing six people at the most, instead of engaging an integrator in a multimillion-pound deal.

‘From a business point of view it is great, but from an IT point of view there is some scepticism.’

The system, provided by vendor Salesforce.com, was rolled out to 300 staff six months ago.

‘More than 90 per cent of users log on to the system every day, and customer satisfaction puts us at the top of our industry,’ said Warburton.

Gary Mason, head of application development at Allianz Cornhill, said: ‘This is the first time we have used an ASP model and it has been really easy to interface with and log on to.’

Mason says although speed of implementation was the main benefit, the system’s functionality also contributed.

‘It creates a history of conversations with potential customers that we can then use to increase our responses efficiency,’ he said.

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