Auto & General Drives Insurance Transformation With Avaya

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA--(Marketwired - July 20, 2016) - Australian insurance provider, Auto & General, has selected Avaya to integrate communications into all its business processes to enable a seamless experience for its customers. Through this transformation, Auto & General will be better positioned to provide the omni-channel, anytime and anywhere expectations of consumers today and into the future.

Auto & General provides and manages insurance products on behalf of brands including Budget Direct, Australia Post, Virgin Money, Aussie and 1^st for Women.

According to professional consultancy Accenture(1), the Australian insurance industry continues to evolve on the back of changes to consumer and behaviour and a competitive landscape. Well-established insurance providers are under significant pressure from new entrants to the market, subsequently empowering consumers with an increasing number of easy-to-access options.

Having expanded from a four-person team in 1999 to 1,300 employees with an 800-strong contact center today, Auto & General has constantly evolved its services to suit the contact preferences of consumers. While telephony remains core to Auto & General's business, there has been a significant increase in volume of email, web chat and social media-based engagements as customers demand an omni-channel experience on their own terms. Amid the contact center transformation, Auto & General foresees smart chat bots and artificial intelligence (AI) complementing the services its team provides.

As a result, Auto & General is using Avaya Breeze to build communications applications that integrate with its core contact center platform based on Avaya IP Office. Breeze is a collaboration environment and app development platform that allows Auto & General to design and develop bespoke communications applications within Avaya's cloud-based developer sandbox. It also provides a series of pre-built Snap-in applications which can be customised so the insurance provider can take its services to market much faster.

The transformation will see Auto & General equip its team with advanced tools to resolve enquiries more quickly and effectively. Auto & General expects the tools will help increase first call resolution rates, allow staff to resolve more queries per day, generate a higher return on investment, and may improve brand loyalty from consumers. It will also help prepare Auto & General to adapt more quickly to emerging trends, including AI.