United India Insurance Company (UIIC) plans a big digital push this year as it aims to more-than-double its profit to about ₹500 crore from ₹221 crore in 2014-15.

The public sector general insurer is looking at digital enablers to increase online sales and, thereby, improve its bottomline.

“It is not just going to be online push, there will be end-to-end offerings too. From sales and claims settlement to grievance redress, we plan to facilitate everything online,” A Hoda, Chairman and Managing Director (Officiating), United India, told BusinessLine .

While UII is reported to have built the necessary infrastructure for its digital push, the only missing link is a call centre to guide customers online. “It will be an outsourced project. The blueprint for a call centre is ready and we hope to finalise the service provider soon. We expect to start the pilot during the first week of July. Our target is to make this effective in Tamil Nadu and south India, and within six months our digital operations will be pan-India,” he added.

Though the share of online sales is in low single digit, the company hopes to increase it in the next couple of years. According to estimates, digitally-enabled sales make up about a fourth of retail insurance purchase in the market.UII is in the process of developing an app aimed at guiding customers who grapple with unexpected events such as accidents.

The digital push appears to bring some opportunities for the company. They include repositioning itself as a tech-savvy firm, improving revenues by increasing policy sales and reducing operating and distribution costs.

Premium target

Hoda said the company is confident of achieving the targeted premium of ₹14,446 crore this fiscal (against ₹12,250 crore in 2015-16), aided by improving underwriting and revising rates for some loss-making businesses. He sees strong traction in motor and health segments during the year.

The key highlight for this fiscal, according to him, would be the growth in UII’s bottomline, aided by hardening of rates and topline growth.

He asserted that the company is well-protected against any catastrophic events. Though the company received claims of about ₹1,500 crore for losses on account of Chennai floods, the net outgo was only about ₹50 crore as the rest of the amount could be recovered through re-insurance.

On the products side, UII is planning some add-ons in motor and packaged product segments. Some of the proposed options include long-term two-wheeler policy, cover for loss of keys of premium cars, such as Mercedes-Benz and Audi and car engine protection plan.

In the health category, it plans fixed benefit covers and critical illness cover with more benefits.

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