Sustainability Report 2012 - Generali Versicherung AG

DIRECT CHANNELS, with no intermediaries, developedthrough a series of innovative business models.“Classic” direct sales through companies thatdistribute products primarily through contact centresand the web. In Italy, the Group operates through thehub comprised of Genertel and Genertellife, and inGermany CosmosDirekt is the market leader in on-linesales.Direct channel developed by traditional companieswhich support the direct channel with distributionchannels in local areas, such as in Switzerland andin Spain, where in 2011 the Canal Cliente distributionproject was launched to supplement the service offeredby traditional channels.Cooperation with partner portals, as in France,where E-Cie Vie (Generali France) is the leader in directsales, offering life insurance products on several highlysuccessful financial portals.Business development via on-line aggregators,web applications that gather information which, inresponse to specific requests from users, can searchthe internet for offers concerning a specific product andaggregate all of them for the end users to compare.This distribution method is used in Germany, Spain andSwitzerland, for example.Multi-channel strategies are implementedoutside the Sustainability Report scope.Specifically:Other European countries: Genertel.hu,launched several years ago on the Hungarian market,is the leading insurance company in the country,focused mainly on motor products. In 2010, thecompany also launched Genertel.sk, an innovativecompany for the Slovak market, which uses Genertel.hu’s IT platform and process. In Poland, Generali PPFhas entered into an agreement to acquire Proama,which features multi-channel platform distributionmodel which offers policies via internet, telephoneand through multi-firm agents. The Group uses thedirect sales channel also in the Netherlands and, in atest phase, in Belgium, Bulgaria and Slovenia.Latin America: La Caja in Argentina andBanorte-Generali in Mexico are two companieswhich use multi-channel strategies to distributeproducts in South America, mainly targeting bankingclients.Asia: the Group has launched the direct distributionchannel as part of a multi-channel model in Thailandand, recently, in China, using a telemarketingapproach.Barcolana, Trieste, ItalyFor distribution through direct channels, the CanalGrande programme was launched, coordinated bythe Head Office. It aims at increasing and improvingthe customer service through the development ofnew distribution models that provide direct accessto insurance company services through innovativechannels. The programme will be developed throughthree main lines: supporting existing initiatives of theGroup, also through the constant exchange of bestpractices, developing feasibility studies to launch newmodern distribution initiatives, and promoting the launchof new direct sales activities. In this context, new types ofdistribution were tested, such as kotelezo.hu in Hungaryin 2009 and mefirst.be in Belgium in 2010.Bank sales networksThe banks in the Sustainability Report scope usedifferent methods to distribute financial products, basedon the type of clients they target. The traditional channelis sued by Banca Generali in Italy (43 branches) andby BSI in Switzerland (13 branches), supplemented byother contact methods in both banks. All banks operatethrough financial advisors, and a total of 645 brokersare used, specifically in Austria by Generali Bank, and inGermany by Deutsche Bausparkasse Badenia.To meet the needs of all types of clients, Banca Generaliand Generali Bank also operate through call centres andinternet sites, while BSI has set up an e-banking systemfor BSI-Connect clients. These three banks provideon-line home banking services and the option to sendrequests for direct advisory services.sales force | 73