Ben Telfer:
Welcome to today’s ICMIF webinar. We had so many people join us today from all across the world. So good afternoon, good morning, or even good evening to whoever’s joining us. There will also be people watching the recording of this, so delighted that you can catch up on what I hope is going to be a very interesting and entertaining session.
Today’s webinar, “Shaping the Future of Insurance with a Data-Driven Omnichannel Platform,” will showcase how ICMIF member in Italy, Unipol, has launched a new omnichannel retail platform, Unica Unipol, and how this is redefining the insurance experience with its customers, its agents, and the wider market. Today we’ll explore the strategic rationale, the innovative distribution model, and the seamless technology that has enabled a unified customer journey while strengthening agency-led relationships.
I’m very pleased to be joined by Alessia Marcotti, the project lead since inception and a senior leader at Unipol. Alessia will share more about the platform’s key pillars, business model, and impact on growth and customer engagement. As always with ICMI webinars, we encourage questions. You have two options: you can either type those into the comment box and I’ll ask them afterwards, or if you’d like to raise your hand, we’ll have the opportunity for you to ask your question directly at the end of the presentation.
Alessia, very pleased for you to join us today, and thank you for your presentation. I’ll hand over to you.
Alessia Marcotti:
Thank you, Ben, and thank you, ICMIF, for having me here. Hello, everyone—colleagues, partners, and insurance experts of the ICMIF community from around the world in any time zone as well. First of all, thanks for joining today’s webinar. I’m truly delighted to be here with you and proud to have the opportunity to bring all of you an up-close look at the Unica Unipol platform, our new data-driven omnichannel platform designed to transform the insurance landscape and empower both customers and our agency network.
Today I’ll guide you through our strategic vision, innovative features of Unica, our business model, and the operational logic that underpins our approach. I’ll also share how a key feature of Unica Unipol is its natively omnichannel approach, built on the seamless integration between digital channels and our agency network. This ensures that customers can interact with us through their preferred touchpoints, whether online or in person, enjoying a consistent and unified experience.
With Unica Unipol, we have the ambition to have taken a significant step forward and to have moved in a direction where the traditional insurance market had not yet ventured.
Let’s start by contextualizing Unica Unipol within our 2025–2027 industrial plan, aptly titled “Stronger, Faster, Better.” Our strategic plan is built on four pillars: stronger industrial profitability, faster integrating offering model (which will be the focus of today’s webinar), stronger distribution network, and better tech and people skills. I’ll go quickly through those four pillars.
The first, stronger industrial profitability, focuses on risk-based portfolio growth, product engineering, dynamic portfolio management, and sustainable health growth.
The second, faster integrated offering model, is the focus for today. Unica Unipol stands at the center of this strategic guideline. Our retail platform is data-driven, blending physical and digital channels, and we also work with this approach in our health offer, focusing on beyond-insurance services for customer-centric growth.
The third pillar, stronger distribution network, is strictly linked to the second, and we also focus on boosting bancassurance productivity.
The fourth pillar, better tech and people skills, is really important for us because we are evolving our tech platforms and driving massive adoption of AI-driven solutions, but always in a people-centric approach.
These strategic guidelines set the stage for Unica Unipol, our platform designed to deliver on these ambitions.
Stepping back a few years to when we first began designing Unica Unipol, the underlying strategic framework was built upon the ambition to drive forward three revolutions: offering model, distribution model, and operational model.
The first is a revolution in our offering, marking a fundamental shift in how we conceive and deliver insurance solutions to our customers. This transformation has allowed us to create a more diverse, flexible, and responsive offer tailored to evolving market demands. We did this with breadth and depth and information usability. Our retail offer is distinctive for its comprehensive coverage and customization, ensuring we address all the needs of customers and their households, providing solutions that adapt to every requirement. Information usability comes from leveraging data to enhance technical excellence and tailor solutions to individual needs.
The second revolution is intrinsically linked to the implementation of a fully and natively omnichannel distribution model. This enables customers to interact seamlessly across all channels, digital or physical, reinforcing accessibility at every touchpoint. Processes are fully omnichannel, with the agency network at the center and a distinctive customer experience. Customers can interact with us across all touchpoints, ensuring a seamless experience and feeling at the heart of the purchasing process. Agencies oversee and manage every stage of the purchase process to maximize commercial effectiveness.
Agencies remain central, empowered by digital channels and 24/7 system availability for both agents and clients. This has allowed us to capitalize on the valuable partnership we have built over time with our agency network, which remains our distinctive distribution asset thanks to the quality of advice and service it provides.
Distinctive customer experience comes from completely redesigned processes and user experience in response to evolving consumer behavior, resulting in simpler and more streamlined procedures for both customers and agency operators.
To support these revolutions, the third had to be an operational model transformation, ensuring that business innovation was underpinned by robust technological capabilities. We redesigned our processes and developed a new portfolio management information system, fully integrated with the company IT architecture. Our new operating model reduces time to market for products and services, streamlines processes, boosts efficiency, and is accessible 24/7 for customers and agencies.
How have we translated these three strategic revolutions into a business model? Unica Unipol is a platform that, through a single comprehensive offering, meets all the insurance needs of the consumer and their household—property and casualty insurance needs. All coverages are provided within one contract signed by the insurance decision-maker on behalf of household members. The offering model is unique from a technical insurance perspective, featuring a single pricing model that applies across both motor and non-motor protection areas. Customers can purchase through any channel they prefer, benefiting from the excellence of Unipol’s agency network and the boost of digital channels. All of this is made possible by our new information system and redesigned process system.
Unica Unipol is designed to meet every need of retail customers—personal, family-related, and those connected to small businesses linked to the policyholder. The offering is structured across 14 coverage models, organized into four insurance categories: vehicles and mobility, property and family, person, and SMEs.
Vehicles and mobility encompass vehicle-related protections and mobility insurance covering risks associated with personal movement, such as third-party liability for shared vehicles. Property and family include home protection, family protection (including third-party liability), specific covers for dogs and cats, and travel insurance. The person area includes accident and health insurance, as well as segments for personal assistance and life cover, which will be offered in the future. The SME area will cover property, assets, professional liability, and animal treats.
This modular approach enhances flexibility and simplifies success for customers, reflecting a shift from the traditional product-based structure to a client-based structure. Unica Unipol can adapt to diverse and evolving needs, providing robust protection for individuals, families, and small enterprises alike. The product suite grows and evolves as customers’ needs do, with ongoing updates to design and insurance coverages.
A significant innovation is the introduction of the family unit as a key target audience. By focusing on households, Unica Unipol demonstrates its commitment to providing comprehensive and tailored solutions that reflect the realities and needs of modern families. The offer is built around the concept of the extended household, targeting groups of people, families, relatives, and even domestic workers who share a purchasing decision-maker. Cohabitation is the main criterion, but specific family relationships are included, always mindful of regulation.
With a single contract, several assets or individuals can be insured, reflecting the real-life complexity of modern households. All properties, vehicles, journeys, pets, and individuals within a family unit can benefit from relevant insurance coverages under a single contract. The flexibility of Unica Unipol supports the customer and their household throughout the entire lifecycle, following a customer-centric approach.
To manage the complexity of numerous coverages linked to different individuals, the contract is made up of several insurance positions, similar to the current concept of policy, each corresponding to an individual asset or risk area. For example, a household with two cohabiting individuals may insure their house, two dogs, two cars, and accident cover for one member, resulting in seven insurance positions. Each position is managed individually, but all are part of the contract and can be managed separately in terms of payment frequency or policy expiry, providing greater flexibility.
The Unica-Unipol pricing system is flexible and data-driven, aligning motor and non-motor models to ensure a transversal and coherent approach, maximizing the use of data and cross-functionality of all pricing components, and leveraging new claims granularity for richer information in claims management and pricing.
The Unica-Unipol distribution model is omnichannel, empowering the customer at every stage to choose freely between digital channels and agency support, switching seamlessly as needs or preferences change. After completing the purchase, the customer is assigned to an agency for post-sale management, guaranteeing expert care and reinforcing the quality of service and strength of relationships.
Native omnichannel integration enables the company to capture value at every touchpoint, ensuring customer interactions across all channels are consistent and strategically aligned with business objectives. This drives operational agility, supports data-driven decision-making, and facilitates scalable growth by blending technological innovation with the trusted expertise of the agency network.
We guarantee the same premium across all channels, with flexibility in discounts reserved for our agency network. Every area of protection is available on every channel, but the agency channel offers the most comprehensive guarantees and customization, ensuring effective advice for customers.
Our processes have evolved to optimize the customer experience, ensuring seamless transition between digital and physical channels. This transformation has been possible thanks to the partnership between Unipol and our agency network, built and nurtured over decades, establishing a strong foundation of trust and collaboration.
A transparent business model shares value fairly across all stakeholders, with commission sharing attributed to the channel that manages specific phases of the policy and customer life. For example, if a customer obtains a quote and purchases online, the digital channel receives the commission for generating the opportunity and conducting the sale, while the agency receives the commission for customer ownership and after-sales management.
Managing omnichannel operations required a complete rethink of sales processes and a full redesign of IT systems, focusing on simplification, efficiency, and omnichannel approach. Simplification minimizes operational steps and employs self-learning logic to streamline workflows. Efficiency accelerates pricing and service delivery, supported by effective user experience. The omnichannel approach maximizes the benefit of the agency-customer relationship, ensuring agility and responsiveness in a fast-changing market.
Unica-Unipol is now available in our agency network and online since last June, with an advertising campaign launched in September. Our communication strategy is integrated and consistent across all channels, featuring Carlo Ancelotti as a distinguished testimonial, playing with the concept of formation as both a team lineup and a set of insurance coverages.
Our campaign is simple: “Unica-Unipol. Non c’è partita,” which means “Unica-Unipol, there’s no contest.” Although the campaign is in Italian, we are very proud of it.
Omnichannel integration with Unica-Unipol represents a big opportunity for agencies and the company, enabling agencies to strengthen their customer base by providing digital channels, creating new business opportunities, and serving as a distinctive competitive advantage.
The creation of Unica-Unipol has involved the entire company, with everyone working together with a tremendous sense of teamwork. The challenges have certainly not been lacking, both in designing the business model and in bringing it to life. The contribution of the legal department was crucial in setting up the unified contract.
To wrap up, Unica-Unipol is our bold step into the next chapter for Unipol and hopefully for the insurance sector as a whole. It’s built on a clear vision, teamwork, and a persistent focus on customer needs.
Thank you very much for being here and being part of this session. I hope you have picked up useful insights, and I’m ready and curious for your comments and questions.
Ben Telfer:
Thank you very much, Alessia. That was a fantastic overview, very thorough, and really showcased the sophistication that Unipol has developed in launching this new platform. I see lots of virtual claps for your presentations. Thank you so much.
This webinar was always billed as a two-parter. I probably should have announced at the start that this was going to be the first part as they launch the new product, and Alessia and Unipol have committed to return next year and share the progress they’ve made over the first months of the Unica-Unipol product.
Looking forward to welcoming Alessia and her team back in 2026. Please do send an email to myself or the ICMIF webinars team, and we’ll pose those questions directly to Unipol.
Thank you, everybody. Wishing you happy holidays and all the best for the rest of the year and the rest of the week. Thank you, everybody.
