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Specialty insurer learns business continuity from adversity

Asia-Pacific CIO explains how Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty remained in operation during last year's Japan earthquake.
Written by Eileen Yu, Senior Contributing Editor

One of the world's most recognized insurance company, serving over 76 million customers in 150 countries, Allianz obviously places great emphasis on the need to be prepared for any unforeseen circumstances.

Its corporate and industrial arm, Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, for instance, was able to migrate its IT system to a backup location when the devastating 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit Japan last year. The company specializes in large corporate and specialty risks such as aviation, marine and property. It counts half of Fortune 500 companies as its clients.

In an interview with ZDNet Asia, AGCS Asia-Pacific CIO Christophe Niellez discusses the company's business continuity strategy and how it learnt from adversities to establish a strong, responsive team to react during a disaster. He also talks about unique requirements it faces in supporting customers from specialized markets.

Asked if there can ever be too much insurance for IT, Niellez said: "From our perspective, we have to focus on efficiencies [and] be able to deliver services for our clients, and ensure for every euro invested, we have the maximum added-value and returns on investment."

Given a chance to purchase insurance of any piece of technology, the CIO pointed to the company's efforts to expand its activities in new markets such as small and midsize business. "I think in the near future we will need to invest more in mobile platform because we'll be dealing with the end-users, who may be interested to declare a claim through their mobile device."

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