Mumbai - 17 May 2019: IBM (NYSE: IBM) and HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company, India's third largest non-life insurance provider in the private sector, today announced a collaboration to co-create new Artificial Intelligence (AI) based solutions on IBM Cloud, that will redefine customer experience in India. Leveraging IBM Garage, teams from HDFC ERGO and IBM Services will work together to develop and test new solutions. This will help to better address customer queries, ensure faster turnaround time and draw deeper customer insights for a better omni channel experience.

Amid ongoing market disruption, IBM Garage is a tool for executing, scaling and managing an organization's multiple transformation initiatives with strategic purpose. It is designed to help companies develop agile capabilities and change the way work is done. The new unconventional environment will encourage employees to learn on the job, inspiring organizational change and buy-in.

As a part of the engagement, the IBM Garage team, comprises insurance industry experts, Design Thinkers, Data Scientists, Architects and others who will work closely with the HDFC ERGO team to identify data-driven, innovative ideas through short iterations on a continuous delivery schedule. The Garage methodology will help create rapid, scalable and cost-effective ways to develop, test, and deploy high-end automation solutions enabled through AI and analytics capabilities, delivered on IBM Cloud. The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) solution delivery, deployment and testing will involve seamless integration with HDFC ERGO's internal systems. Once the solution has met success criteria, new capabilities will be leveraged for other channels such as Voice or Chat.

“Organizations are managing the dual demands of undertaking digital transformation and reinventing their businesses to respond to changing customer demands - - they must do so at pace and at scale. Through the IBM Garage, HDFC and IBM will leverage exponential technologies and deep insights to co-create, co-execute and co-operate new solutions, capabilities and approaches to transform customer experiences,”said Mark Foster, Senior Vice President, IBM Services and Global Business Services.

"HDFC ERGO has taken significant strides in the areas of emerging technologies to lead with a focus on customer centricity. With IBM’s Garage, we are set to leapfrog this vision to newer heights using the cognitive power of IBM Watson." Mehmood Mansoori, Member of Executive Management & Group Head - Operations, IT, Marketing & Online Business, HDFC ERGO General Insurance.

Companies are already working in IBM Garages around the world to change the way work is done and create cultures of open collaboration and continuous learning. The contract was signed in Q2 2019.

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