Aviva to set up call centre operations in India

Wednesday, 12 February 2003, 20:30 IST
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BANGALORE: Aviva, the seventh largest insurance group in the world, Tuesday said it would set up a call centre and business process outsourcing (BPO) unit on a build, operate and transfer basis in India. The Indian back-office operation of Aviva, which will include launching a claims processing centre for its British general insurance business, would employ 1,000 people by the end of 2003, said a company statement. The Indian operation will give "extra flexibility and capacity while providing further scope to enhance efficiency and deliver a high level of service to customers," said the statement. Aviva, which is one of the top five life insurance companies in Europe, is the second major British financial services company to seek an Indian partner to set up BPO operations on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis. Prudential entered into a similar arrangement with the Bangalore-headquartered ICICIOnesource some time ago. "We are still in the process of selecting our suppliers for setting up our operation. The location will be dependent on the suppliers we select," said Hayley Stimpson, director (external affairs) of Aviva. "This process will be complete within approximately a month," Stimpson told IANS in reply to an e-mail questionnaire. "We will be operating on a build, operate, transfer basis, which means that we will work with experienced suppliers who will set up the operation for us. "They will use their local knowledge and expertise to establish the operation and get it running efficiently. The operation will then be later transferred to Aviva ownership," Stimpson said. Aviva, the new name of CGNU Plc, already has a life insurance joint venture in India and out-sources claims, administrative services and software development work to local companies. The India operations will form part of Norwich Union's general insurance network of call and claims centres. But, the company made it clear that the majority of jobs created in India will arise from staff vacancies and anticipated turnover in Norwich Union's general insurance business in Britain. The company's aim is to use natural turnover and internal staff transfers in Britain to minimise any compulsory redundancies. "We have not published any financial details relating to this announcement but it has been well documented that the cost of running a call centre in India is around 30-40 percent less than operating one in Britain," Stimpson said. "We are operating in an increasingly competitive environment and need to explore opportunities to improve our efficiency, while delivering high levels of service to our customers," said Richard Harvey, group chief executive of Aviva. "Developing administrative capability in India is part of this process," he said said in a statement. Aviva's principal business activities are long-term savings, fund management and general insurance. Its worldwide premium income and investment sales from ongoing business accounts for more than 28 billion pounds, and over 200 billion pounds in assets under management last year.
Source: IANS
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