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BNP Paribas Cardif


in Japan: Leading
the industry with
customer care
BNP Paribas Cardif
in Japan: Leading
the industry with
customer care
Written by Nell Walker Produced by James Pepper

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Joel Edgerton and Colm Kennelly
explain how BNP Paribas Cardif has
struck the balance between technology
and customer experience to dominate
the insurance market in Japan

W
hile the world of insurance Joel Edgerton, COO, and Colm
is ostensibly centred Kennelly, CIO, have been fronting a
around human experience, technological transformation of the
it’s amazing how often that focus Japanese arm of the business. With
falls by the wayside, particularly as backgrounds in business, finance,
technology becomes ever more of and engineering between them,
a priority. BNP Paribas Cardif, the the pair boast a powerful grasp of
insurance arm of BNP Paribas, is both technology and economics in
working tirelessly to buck this trend. order to lead this transformation.

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BNP Paribas Cardif
head office

“We are very committed to the was with customer experience.


Japanese market. We have been That started our transformation.”
growing faster than the market for As a result, BNP Paribas Cardif
about 14 years,” says Edgerton. “We’re in Japan has stormed ahead
not a normal insurance business – we of other businesses and shed
work with partners on bank insurance competition, upgrading along the
which distribute our products. Facing way without negatively impacting
strong competition, we realised that customers. According to Kennelly,
the best way we could compete the technology transformation

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in Japan was a mountain to climb as opposed
to a hill, but the payoff has been huge.
“The real battle in Japan is generating buy-in
and building momentum and trust in terms of the
vision, the mission, and the direction, which involves
a healthy degree of change and disruption,” he
explains. “Once you get to that point, you mold it
all to Japanese values and culture which results in
a team player mindset. It’s a very steep mountain
initially, but the wonderful benefit is that when
you do, you get a conveyor belt-type delivery
mechanism where you can churn out quality
delivery whilst building on trust and delegation that
I don’t think you get in many other countries.”
Edgerton and Kennelly worked on creating
the most amount of flexibility in the business
transformation whilst catering to the requirements
and culture of the nation they serve. BNP Paribas
Cardif wanted to introduce more products and
distribution channels, leading it to deconstruct core
systems and rebuild them in a more modular way,
ensuring a data-driven process and infrastructure.
“We can reuse our business logic and reuse
data while moving in a way that’s flexible and
agile,” says Edgerton. “We’ve got the architecture
mapped out for the next five years to develop, in
close coordination with our head office. We’ve
Inside a already started building out pieces of it that are in
Cardif office place, and as we add new business functionalities

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they’re built into the new architecture. fit-for-purpose insurance solutions
Data is core to that, but the real to improve the risk management
impact is not so much on the and quality of life for our customers.
technology as much as how we Technology isn’t the be all and end
implement change. In particular, all, because there will be cases where
what is the customer experience we have customers who are very
impact of any given change?” receptive to and demanding of high
“We’re not a technology company, technology, and customers who are
we’re an insurance company,” adds the exact opposite. It’s very important
Kennelly. “We’ve got a laser focus that we have a real and accurate sense
on the fact that our mission is to of what our customers are looking for.”
deliver tailored, best-in-class and BNP Paribas Cardif utilises data to

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Cardif is part of the BNP Paribas Group

better understand customers, first and foremost. “Our mission


This extends from the most basic point of contact
at the call centre, where BNP Paribas Cardif
is to deliver
puts no limit to how long an operator stays on tailored, best-
the line, to the most complex elements of any in-class and
relationship between a customer and an insurer.
“We see a lot of possibilities about how
fit-for-purpose
we can create new and better interactions insurance
with customers,” says Edgerton. Kennelly solutions to
adds: “What’s very important in Japan is
trust, respect, sincerity, and commitment.
improve the risk
Delivery of superior product is the result, management and
but it’s about the journey for us.” quality of life for
“You hear customer experience buzz words
our customers”
all over the place,” Edgerton continues, “but we
don’t want to do the same as everyone else.” Colm Kennelly, CIO
As such, the business organises its own

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version of customer experience organisation provides a safety net if
around a Japanese concept called things go south, but there’s also an
‘omotenashi’, which translates understanding of a level of support
directly into English as ‘hospitality’. from the collective,” he states. “That’s
“In Japan, the word for ‘customer’ what generates the belief, the trust,
and ‘guest’ are the same,” says and the commitment. If anything goes
Edgerton. “The assumption with wrong, the team will try to solve it with
omotenashi is that you know your transparent communication and try
customer so well that you’re able to make decisions based on data.”
to fulfil their needs without them “The characteristic I’m looking for in
asking. There is no difference new employees the most nowadays is
between you and your customer.” curiosity,” Edgerton adds. “Employees
No longer needing to compete that are willing to ask questions: ‘why
on price or product specifications, is the customer happy or unhappy?
BNP Paribas Cardif concentrates Why are we doing it this way? Why are
on competing with this omotenashi we not doing it another way?’ In the
concept, which is long-running and same way, we do not want suppliers
ever-evolving. Taking the time and but partners that are willing to learn
effort to create strong relationships and grow together with us. It’s that
ensures a unique level of loyalty. curiosity combined with technology
Kennelly is keen to point out that that’s really going to take us forward.
the audience any business needs to “For the companies adapting to
get on board first is its employees, technology change, the ones that will
long before customer partnerships be successful are the ones keeping
can be forged, and that the unique their core beliefs and focus on the
way in which Japanese people customer, and use technology to
work as a team is invaluable. benefit them. Otherwise you either
“The expectation is that the rush to get the technology in place
senior individual at the top of the to survive, or get wiped out.

w w w. c a rd i f . c o . j p 11
“In Japan,
the word for
‘customer’ and
‘guest’ are the
same. There is
no difference
between you and
your customer”
Joel Edgerton, COO

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“We want to be in the first group.
We want to be an innovator, a pioneer,
and not be scrambling for survival. We
want to add value to the customer.”
For Kennelly, the customers must have
a “meaningful and aligned experience
with BNP Paribas Cardif” in order for the
business to thrive. Currently, it appears that
this mindset has been wildly successful for
BNP Paribas Cardif, and allows the business
to bask in confidence for the future while it
moves ahead with advanced technology.
“We’re looking at what we do in terms
of AI, in terms of business automation, IoT,
mobile, cloud, social, and how that’s all
underpinned by being a truly digital process-
driven company,” Kennelly concludes. “We
also need to challenge ourselves naturally
in terms of whether what we’re doing is
adding real value from the customer’s
perspective. If not, apart from the mandatory
topics which we have to do regardless
of whether the customer sees the value
or not, we shouldn’t be doing them.”

Transparent
communication is an
important feature of
Cardif’s company culture

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CARDIF (BNP Paribas)
Infoss Tower, 9th floor, 20-1 Sakuragaoka-cho,
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 150-0031 Japan
T: +81 03 6415 8275
www.cardif.co.jp

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