Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company

Enterprise organization Chart 

Enterprise organization diagram

Introduction

Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company (ADNIC) was founded in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 1972. It is a leading multi-line regional insurance company providing insurance services to individuals and corporates. The company has an extensive network of branches, and sales and service centers across the country (ADNIC, 2018). ADNIC also has a representative office in London, under the name ADNIC International Ltd. ADNIC is publicly owned and listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX). It transacts both life and non-life insurance and provides a range of innovative insurance products that are customizable and scalable (ADNIC, 2018). This flexibility enables the company to meet the unique needs of individuals and corporates in the UAE and the broader Middle East and North Africa region. ADNIC is committed to making a positive contribution to the communities. ADNIC is proud to work with the government to encourage UAE nationals to work in the private sector. The company’s current level of Emiratization is amongst the highest in the UAE insurance sector (ADNIC, 2018).

Mission

To serve our customers by offering quality and innovative, regional, and international insurance and reinsurance solutions (ADNIC, 2018).

Vision

To be the leading insurer of choice across the Middle East and North Africa region.

Core value (ADNIC, 2018).

Business Case

Background of the Business

It is quite interesting to learn that the Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) segment is more extensive in Dubai as compared to other Emirates, and that is considered in ADNIC’s approach to this market (The Business Year, 2020). Although there are large segments of the market in which price is the only driving factor for customer decision-making, ADNIC remains competitive by playing separately from other companies. In an interview with the Business Year media group, Ahmad Idris, CEO of ADNIC, said that they are not likely to be the best with regards to price. However, they compensate for those challenges by catering to clients who consider both price and service delivery (The Business Year, 2020). These clients, including corporate business and individual customers, can pay more for superior service. Of course, service expectations are continuously changing. ADNIC strives to continually enhance the customer experience and service offering (The Business Year, 2020).

The main challenge ADNIC encounter is the severe level of unhealthy competition and price warring in the market, which, unfortunately, the company expects to continue for some time. Just like others in the region, the Dubai market is driven more by price, and the margin for loyalty is smaller in most of the cases. New technologies allow ADNIC to explore and apply new delivery methods (The Business Year, 2020). For example, it has been observed that the clients’ patience diminishes through time; if one year they are happy to wait 10 minutes for a service, the following year, they only expect to wait five minutes. Automation allows ADNIC to shorten this time for walk-in customers (The Business Year, 2020). Moreover, the company regularly update their mobile app, as clients benchmark them against peer insurance companies as well as the major banking apps in the market (Business Year, 2020).

Objectives and Goals of the Business

ADNIC seeks to improve customer experience and service offerings endlessly. This is the best option the company has to focus on to enable it remains active in the competitive market (Maceda, 2020).  ADNIC’s objectives and goals are derived from their seven strategic pillars. The first pillar focuses on the modernization of the company’s processes, facilities, and infrastructure. The second pillar entails the expansion of the company’s suite of products and services. The third pillar aims to make the company employer of choice within the insurance industry. The fourth pillar focuses on developing products to ensure solutions are created to address the customers evolving business needs. The fifth pillar is concerned with the distribution of our products and services to the customers’ door-step. The sixth pillar focuses on customer service, and it aims to ensure that each interaction with our customers is useful. Finally, the seventh pillar entails innovation and technology to ensure solutions are offered efficiently (ADNIC, 2018). The realization of these pillars will help the company maintain their commitment to providing reassurance using customizable insurance solutions.

Current Situation

The UAE tops the list of the largest insurance markets in the Middle East due to the compulsory cover, which was mandated in 2005 (Maceda, 2020). This has led to the saturation of the local market with most companies, which in turn led to fierce and sometimes unhealthy competition. As a result, the insurance companies have either been recording substantial financial losses or declining net profit. Chart 1 shows ADNIC’s financial position as for the first quarter ended 31st March 2019. The 2018 and 2019 comparison shows a declining trend to be expected in the future unless appropriate measures are put in place.

Chart 1: ADNIC’s first quarter of 2019 financial results

(Source: Zawya, 2019).

Problems

• Crowded market.
• They are losing customers to competitors.
• Crippling the ADNIC’s financial muscles

Effects of the Problems 

Unhealthy competition in the insurance industry has led to the decline in net underwriting income, net technical profit, cash balances, net investment and other revenue, net profit, and primary and diluted earnings per share. On the other hand, stiff competition led to increased general and administrative expenses and gross written premiums (Zawya, 2019).

Solutions 

• Adopting robotic process automation for claim settlement and data management.
• Explore and apply new delivery methods to attract more customers.
• Launch an interactive mobile application for the customers.

Effect of the solution 

• Attract new customers and retaining existing customers.
• Increase the company’s income.
• Reduce total expenses.
• Robotic process automation will enable ADNIC to execute their services very fast.

Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise Architecture has emerged as a discipline that can help steer the ‘ship’ of the enterprise through both quiet and turbulent waters, charting a course from its current location to a future position in a safe and streamlined way (Sparx Systems & Stephen, 2017). Enterprise Architect has several powerful features to model and visualize the alignment of the architectures and the strategic plans. These visualizations can be used when assessing which Information Technology initiatives are contributing to the strategic business goals and objectives. Enterprise Architecture has many useful facilities for guiding the implementation projects and evaluate their level of compliance, including the Team Review facility and the definition of how principles are applied in the context of the solution architectures (Sparx Systems & Stephen, 2017). Well-articulated enterprise architecture defines the business drivers, the business strategy, operational models, goals, and objectives that the organization needs to achieve to transition in a potentially competitive and disruptive business environment (Sparx Systems & Stephen, 2017). Therefore, enterprise architecture can be seen as the steering wheel, guiding a business towards achieving its set goals and objectives.

TOGAF OR the Open Group Architectural Framework

The TOGAF is a proven Enterprise Architecture methodology and framework used by the world’s leading organizations to improve business efficiency (The Open Group, 2020). Like other IT management frameworks, TOGAF helps businesses align IT goals with overall business goals while helping to organize cross-departmental IT efforts. TOGAF allows companies to define and organize requirements before a project starts, keeping the process moving quickly with few errors (White, 2018). According to White (2018), TOAF is intended to:

• Ensure everyone speaks the same language
• Avoid lock-in to proprietary solutions by standardizing on open methods for enterprise architecture
• Save time and money, and utilize resources more effectively
• Achieve demonstrable return on investment.

Figure 1: The TOGAF framework

(Source: The Open Group, 2020)

Implementation of Enterprise Architecture

New technologies will enable ADNIC to explore and apply new delivery methods. Currently, the company has the ADNIC Mobile App that can be downloaded and be accessed through smartphones from any GPRS / 3G / wireless (Wi-Fi) network (ADNIC, 2014). This app is a menu-driven, user-friendly solution, which helps customers manage and track their medical insurance claims while on the go. It offers safe, easy, fast, and complete access to our medical insurance services with a simple touch (ADNIC, 2014). In 2017, ADNIC launched a new innovative plus mobile app with additional features such as e-services integrated with social media, information on the medical service providers’ network, ADNIC branches and service center locations, medical insurance benefits, and connect with emergency services. Members can also generate medical insurance travel certificates on the go (ADNIC, 2017).

However, there is a need for ADNIC to shift from manual claim processing to robotic process automation (RPA). The manual claim processing requires the patient to fill the claim form and send them to the ADNIC head office before waiting for the response takes a lot of time. Therefore, to attract more customers who still mind saving their time, it would be advisable for ADNIC to automate the claim settlement process to save time and enjoy easy data management. With the digital database, the customers’ data will be stored in the mobile app, and therefore there will be no need to rewrite information such as the patient’s name and health card number, which are always required when filling the claim form.

Robotic process automation (RPA) in the insurance industry automates the ordinary routine tasks and thus reduces the workload and cost of operations and also saves time, money, and improves customer satisfaction (Saxena, 2019). When it comes to claims settlement, the RPA reduces the claims processes by automating the data collection process. Imaginea Technologies’ experience with the RPA shows that automated document processing and information extraction from claims forms can significantly reduce the average processing times (Saxena, 2019). Moreover, manual data collection and entry used at ADNIC is a difficult task and could lead to inconsistencies and errors in data management. Robotic process automation can also help to automate and simplify the data management processes and that too at high speeds (Saxena, 2019). Figure 2 shows the implementation plan of the enterprise architecture.

Figure 2: Implementation plan of Enterprise Architecture

Benefits of the Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise Architect has several powerful features to model and visualize the alignment of the architectures and the strategic plans. Through innovation and technology, the company will be to come up with ensuring solutions that will provide each interaction with their customers is effective (ADNIC, 2018). To achieve this, advancements in enterprise architecture, particularly regarding the management of information technology is essential. For example, adopting robotic process automation for claim settlement and data management will help to meet the needs of customers, which continuously evolve due to technological advancements. Moreover, the concept of saving time with the introduction of robotic process automation will attracting more customers who are time conscious. With the stiff completion in the insurance industry due to overcrowding of insurance companies in UAE, automation of claim settlement and data management will help ADNIC remain at the top of the game.

How the system works

Adoption of robotic process automation during claim settlement will start with the patient sending an insurance request to the ADNIC office. The robot will read the request then store its content in the database. After that, the robot will compute old claims and furnish insurance quotes. If the claim is accepted, ADNIC will proceed to settle the claim. If rejected, the robot will compute a new insurance quote by modifying conditional variables. How the system works is shown in figure 3.

Figure 3: Robotic process automation

Conclusion

The main challenge ADNIC encounter is the severe level of unhealthy competition and price warring in the market. This is attributed to the compulsory cover, which was mandated in 2005. Manual preparation work for data entry and e-filing is tedious and prone to errors. This has led to ADNIC incurring huge expenses, declining income, and taking along duration to process insurance claims sent by the patients. The solutions to ADNIC’s problems include adopting robotic process automation (RPA) for claim settlement and data management, explore and apply new delivery methods to attract more customers, and launch an interactive mobile application for the customers. Effective implementation of these solutions will result in attracting new customers and retaining existing customers, increase the company’s income, reducing the total expenses, quick insurance claim settlement.

References

ADNIC. (2014) ADNIC mobile application [Internet]. Available at: https://www.opengroup.org/togaf [Accessed March 11, 2020].

ADNIC. (2017) ADNIC launches new innovative plus mobile app [Internet]. Available at: https://www.opengroup.org/togaf [Accessed March 11, 2020].

ADNIC. (2018) the 2018 annual report. Available at: https://www.adnic.ae/en/about-us/annual-reports/ [Accessed March 11, 2020].

Business Year. (2020) Customer-centric strategy [Internet]. Available at: https://www.thebusinessyear.com/dubai-2020/ahmad-idris-ceo-abu-dhabi-national-insurance-company/vip-interview [Accessed March 11, 2020].

Maceda, C. (2020) fierce competition, rising medical cost drain profits of Saudi, UAE insurers [Internet]. Available at: https://www.zawya.com/mena/en/business/story/Fierce_competition_rising_medical_cost_drain_profits_of_Saudi_UAE_insurers-ZAWYA20200225061233/ [Accessed March 11, 2020].

Saxena, P. (2019) 5 technology trends transforming insurance industry [Internet]. Available at: https://www.imaginea.com/5-digital-trends-transforming-insurance-industries/ [Accessed March 11, 2020].

Sparx Systems & Maguire, S. (2017) Enterprise architecture [Internet]. Available at: https://sparxsystems.com.au/resources/user-guides/guidebooks/enterprise-architecture.pdf [Accessed March 11, 2020].

The Open Group. (2020) the TOGAF® standard, version 9.2 overview [Internet]. Available at: https://www.opengroup.org/togaf [Accessed March 11, 2020].

White, S. (2018) what is TOGAF? An enterprise architecture methodology for business [Internet]. Available at: https://www.cio.com/article/3251707/what-is-togaf-an-enterprise-architecture-methodology-for-business.html [Accessed March 11, 2020].

Zawya. (2019) ADNIC announces first quarter 2019 financial results [Internet]. Available at: https://www.zawya.com/mena/en/press-releases/story/ADNIC_announces_first_quarter_2019_financial_results-ZAWYA20190501065532/ [Accessed March 11, 2020].