The insurance industry (and particularly the employee benefits industry) has been going through an undeniable digital revolution over the last decade, as insurers look to offer the best digital experience to customers and speed up previously manual administration processes.

We caught up with Rina Novianti, Head of Group and Pension Business at our local member insurer Astra Life in Indonesia. They told us all about Astra’s recent, customer-focused digital transformation journey.

Hi Rina, you’ve recently launched your new e-card… can you tell us about this and how it benefits clients?

Thanks – of course I’m happy to tell you about the e-card. We’ve been looking to fully digitise the customer journey here and the e-card is the final stage in that process. It isn’t a greetings card like you might think – the e-card is actually part of our Buddies app and means that the entire claims experience is handled when a patient goes to a hospital – it handles everything from enrolment to claims submission.

You’ve had a fascinating digital transformation journey over the last few years, can you tell us about it?

Like everyone around the world, COVID-19 and lockdowns have disrupted our normal way of life. We were on a digital transformation journey before this, but the pandemic has meant we have accelerated this so we can keep customers at the heart of how we conduct business. Patients wanted to know how their healthcare worked under COVID lockdown restrictions and being able to make this easy via our Buddies apps and Halodoc apps was an important part of this. 

We were also able to offer telemedicine and digital claims reimbursement via the Halodoc app too, which was a huge relief for many stuck inside during the strictest COVID restrictions. Here’s a summary of our digital journey over the last 18 months.

• December 2019 – we integrated our EB customer portal with our Buddies app.
• April 2020 – we partnered with the Halodoc App to allow teleconsultation and claim reimbursement.
• October 2020 – we enhanced our Buddies app to add the “nearby hospital” feature. 
• January 2021 – we made cashless claims available via the Halodoc app.
• May 2021 – we launched our new e-cards. 

It’s been an exciting digital journey and we are pleased to have received really positive feedback from our clients – at the end of the day, making life easier for them in a difficult time is the most important thing for us at Astra Life.

Thanks very much Rina for this interesting look at your digital journey. If you want to find out more visit the Astra Life website.