SMS Insurance - Press Release

2008-03-19

Turnkey unveils SMS functionality in TurnQuest Insurance Suite

Text messaging is already used to buy and sell insurance products in other parts of the world

For the first time in history Kenyans can now access their insurance policy information from their mobile phones. Local technology company Turnkey Africa today revealed the revolutionary technology that allows insurance companies to deliver updates and queries from customers direct to their mobile phones.

Turnkey Africa Managing Director Kizito Makatiani said that the new technology was a response to the need by the public to know various aspects about their insurance policies, a task that is currently arduous as they have to visit their insurers’ offices in person.

“Insurance up take has grown in recent times and with virtually every policyholder possessing a mobile phone they should be able to send text messages to their insurers and get information on their policies,” he explained adding that text messaging was already an avenue for buying and selling insurance products in developed countries.

The SMS insurance technology has been built into Turkey Africa’s TurnQuest Suite of insurance products to make it a part of a larger company wide automation process.

Mr Makatiani said that it was time the insurance industry went in tandem with the rest of the financial services sector which was adept at adopting automation technologies that improved and simplified their customers’ experiences with their services.

“Today’s range of insurance products also dictates that customers have a large number of policies and it is paramount that they be able to monitor their status with the utmost ease. In the competitive environment that the local insurance industry is, customer retention will be paramount and this is a definite plus for any company that wants to keep its client base,” he said.

Banks have led the way for utilizing mobile phone technology by delivering SMS banking services, allowing their customers to access some information directly from their mobile phones.

With the technology landscape changing so that many facets are being integrated, the use of various medium such as personal computers and mobile phones is being exploited by the service sector.

Turnkey Africa was the recipient of the 2007 award for Outstanding ERP Solution Provider for the Insurance Sector category from the Computer Society of Kenya. The award recognized Turnkey Africa’s TurnQuest Suite enterprise wide software solution for insurance businesses. The solution, which covers more functionality for composite insurers, is the result of a decade of experience and research whose end result is a modern product that matches any that is available on the global market.

It allows for the integration of all the functions in an insurance business yet once its installed at the head office, it does not require a new separate investment at the branch level as it is web enabled. It also gives the company a better assessment of its client base thus enabling easy cross-selling of products to exiting clients. The product is well suited for a broad range of mainstream enterprise applications in both large enterprise data centers and small- to medium-size businesses.