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eneral insurance company PT Asuransi Adira Dinamika, better known as Adira Insurance, plans to aggressively digitalize its services next year to lower operational costs and provide better services to its customers.

Adira Insurance business support division head Tanny Megah Lestari said on Monday that her firm would allocate a bigger portion of its capital expenditure (capex) next year for developing information and technology.

'€œNext year'€™s IT allocation will be 15 percent to 20 percent higher than that of this year,'€ she said on the sidelines of a seminar held by Adira Insurance'€™s parent company, private lender Bank Danamon, in Central Jakarta.

Tanny said next year'€™s IT spending would be the most Adira had ever spent on IT, but refused to mention the amount as it was still being discussed with Bank Danamon.

She added that the funds would be used to develop mobile applications and websites for its insurance products, which range from motor vehicle insurance Autocillin and travel insurance product Travellin to health insurance Medicillin.

The company projected its app downloads and website visitor numbers would grow by 50 percent to 60 percent next year.

Data from the company, which launched online services last November, showed that around 17,000 Internet users had visited its website as of November. Meanwhile, more than 700 travel insurance policies were sold through Travellin'€™s website, 5,000 downloads were recorded by Autocillin'€™s mobile claims app and Medicillin'€™s app was downloaded 18,000 times during the period.

Tanny said that a digitalized system would enable Adira Insurance to simplify procedures in insurance transactions and claims through web and mobile platforms, automated processes, online payments and self-service for customers, she added.

The system also enabled the company to respond faster to customers'€™ needs, gather accurate data and be more accessible to customers, she said.

'€œA digital system creates a distribution channel to increase sales,'€ Tanny said, adding that online systems contributed only a small part of Adira Insurance'€™s revenues at present, at around 5 percent.

Insurance penetration remains low in Indonesia, with less than 2 percent of the population of over 250 million accessing insurance products.

Digitalized systems are becoming a popular way for insurance companies to further reach customers, with life insurance companies FWD Life and Commonwealth Life recently expressing plans to increase capex for building better online systems for their customers.

As of October, Adira Insurance had booked premium value of Rp 1.79 trillion (US$128.68 million), 1 percent higher than in the same period last year. Motor vehicle insurance contributed 54 percent of the value, mainly driven by car insurance, followed by non-motor vehicle insurance at 46 percent, dominated by health insurance premiums.

The company aims to book around Rp 2 trillion of premium value by year-end and Rp 4.7 trillion by 2017.

Its net profit stood at Rp 337 billion as of October, 5 percent higher year-on-year (yoy) than the Rp 320 billion in booked in the previous year. Its asset value was recorded at Rp 4.75 trillion.

Currently, Adira Insurance has more than 9.5 million active insurance policies and aims to reach 15 million by 2017.

'€œWe will use the apps to add more touch points for our customers,'€ she said.