This article looks at how financial services are, in contrast to physical goods, perfectly suited for the Internet.
As banks and insurance companies offer different services, their Web sites differ significantly. More and more banks are switching their standard services to the Web to be more cost efficient. Approximately 50% of all corporate clients today are willing to switch over to another bank if their online offering is better than their current bank's. Customers also expect add-on services, such as multilingual Web sites.
From the customer's point of view, an insurance Web site needs to show adequate insurance cover for an existing risk. The importance of the transaction as such is relatively small. Insurance Web sites are often operated by brokers as B2B platforms. Corporate insurance requirements are much more complicated than consumer requirements and need individual solutions, so non-standardised products must be offered as well.
In future there will be platforms for insurance companies, brokers, re-insurers, and operation partners. Furthermore, insurance companies will try to sell standardised mass business to their company clients. These so-called "Corporate Portals" ensure better customer retention and positioning of the own brand.
In 2000, B2B turnover was DM28bn and by 2004 it will be four times as much. Globally, experts expect that in only a few years B2B turnover will be 10 times as much as B2C.
In Germany, only the three big banks offer significant online services. In the insurance sector, there are seven B2B portals, at the moment intermediaries are predominant.
Many companies also sign corporate retirement pension contracts for their employees. This involves the company that wants to insure the employees, the broker who presents several offers and the insurance company. A joint B2B platform in which all employee data is stored could help to reduce duplicate work and save time and money.
