Case Study

AXA Assistance is a subsidiary of the AXA Group, one of the biggest insurance companies in the world helping to protect people, their possessions and investments. Employing 6,900 people in 32 different countries, AXA Assistance operates one of the most extensive and efficient assistance networks in the world.

Trial to Full Global Deployment:Cost Savings, OperationalEfficiencies and ImprovedCustomer Care with Ixaris’Payment Partner.

AXA Assistance selected the simple, intuitive, but highly effective Payment Partner solution from Ixaris because it enables us to drastically improve the disbursement of payments across our global assistance network from all our 32 operating centers around the world.

Nicolas Barsky, Group CFO, AXA Assistance SA

THE NEEDAXA Assistance wanted to revamp its payments infrastructure to improve efficiency, reconciliation and to combat any opportunities for fraud.

THE SOLUTIONPayment Partner utilises globally-accepted virtual prepaid cards for instant, low cost and secure payments abroad.

THE BENEFITA modern scalable offering that provides cost savings, operational efficiencies and improved customer care.

Overview

Nicolas Barsky, Group CFO, AXA Assistance SA explains why they upgraded their payments infrastructure with Ixaris: The firm prides itself on offering comprehensive claim support and reconciliation to policy holders, placing the customer at the very heart of their business model. By working with Ixaris, AXA Assistance are able to support this customer-centric philosophy and bring an innovative product to market.

For travellers in emergencies at home and abroad, time is of the essence. AXA Assistance’s duty is to ensure that it can support its customers instantly.

AXA Assistance’s core ethos is to provide timely support to its policy holders in more than 200 countries where the firm operates, handling over 8.5 million case files annually. When a policy holder activates their policy, there are multiple touch points that may require payment fulfillment provisioning for a variety of services, including medical treatments, repatriation, road-side recovery and legal services.

Sending a secure cross-border payment in local currency and in a timely fashion is one of the greatest challenges for travel assistance organisations and even more so to entities outside of their approved vendors list. Payments need to be made to entities

such as hospitals, local transport firms and other essential service providers, where more often than not such payments are mission critical. Historically AXA Assistance made payments via bank transfers and corporate credit cards, which are inherently expensive, inefficient and prone to misuse. In the case of wire transfers, funds take days to clear rather than seconds. This already complex system can be further complicated by banks usually being closed on weekends. Fraught with challenges, payments to local suppliers via wire transfers or credit card payments can also run the risk of seriously undermining the quality of customer care for travel assistance firms.

Reconciling small and repeated payments to suppliers is another common pain point for travel assistance firms, which AXA Assistance experienced on a regular basis. Accurately matching payments to specific orders drained both resources and revenues. This problem is compounded when multiple payments need to be made per case or claim.

Furthermore, many of AXA Assistance’s associated entities around the globe were using corporate credit cards to make payments. The process of using these cards was recognised as being susceptible to a high risk of fraud. Once a supplier or staff member holds cardholder details, they can process unauthorised payments. AXA Assistance identified that a central payments system could harmonise these disparate practices, addressing the flaws within the existing system and support business growth in line with modern travel habits.

Ixaris’ quick-to-deploy Payment Partner solution offered the perfect fit for AXA Assistance’s needs, allowing secure payments to be made quickly and at a reduced cost.

AXA Assistance was looking for a payments solution that would reduce costs of paying suppliers compared to existing methods, replace the need for insecure credit cards and lodge cards, drastically streamline reconciliation processes, and most importantly, speed up the payments process.

Seamless implementation of an efficient, cost effective payments system.

AXA Assistance initially rolled out the scheme to three strategically important regions in Europe, North America and Asia. Bank accounts were set up in all major world currencies from which the issued cards were funded. Ixaris has consequently invested heavily in their customer’s currency needs and have added to GBP, EUR and USD with numerous other currencies to their armoury, including NOK, SEK, DKK and CHF. The pilot scheme ran for six months in which time payments were made to assistance suppliers in real-time. Ixaris set up simple web consoles for the pilot scheme, a quick and low cost implementation method that required no integration into AXA Assistance’s existing IT infrastructure, and minimal training for operators.

AXA Assistance is now in the process of implementing the Ixaris solution in its remaining 29 offices. Thanks to the scalable, flexible and extremely simple nature of the Ixaris system and expertise on-hand throughout, AXA Assistance can add a new entity to the system in just ten days. By administering cards through a user interface and integrating using the Ixaris API through a further wave of development, AXA Assistance will be able to enjoy a totally seamless integration and automated system via pre-defined business rules.

Ixaris made the whole process of designing and connecting the new system simple for AXA Assistance. Working in conjunction with its own development team, AXA Assistance achieved a smooth implementation through Ixaris’ consultancy. Designing a bespoke solution in-house would have been hugely expensive and time consuming.

With the Ixaris Payment Partner central hub, AXA Assistance will operate one of the most efficient travel assistance payment systems in the world. With operational improvements, risk reduction and overall cost savings, AXA Assistance’s customers can travel with absolute peace of mind.

AXA Assistance

• Part of the AXA group, they are one of the world’s leading providers of medical assistance and travel insurance.

• AXA Assistance has one of the most extensive and efficient assistance networks in the world.

• Operates in 4 business sectors.

• In 2012, AXA assistance reported revenues of 992 million euros and handled 8.5 million case files. They employ 6000 people in 34 different countries.

• AXA Assistance do business in more than 200 nation states.

Get in touch at dropusaline@ixaris.com

To find out how Ixaris and our Payment Partner solution could provide cost savings, improve your operational efficiencies and improve customer care, get in touch at dropusaline@ixaris.com

Learn more at Ixaris.com/solutions/travel-assistance

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About Ixaris Payment Partner

Payment Partner is a flexible payment product that enables Travel Assistance companies to instantly deal with customer emergencies abroad by using globally accepted virtual cards to pay for emergency services. Simply issue a prepaid virtual card for any travel assistance expenses.

You maintain complete control over the card characteristics and you can easily track and reconcile all purchasing activity. Instead of giving your employees open-ended corporate credit cards, you can issue virtual cards with built-in controls that ensure their proper use for approved expenses.