How Allianz turned Outlook into an intelligent interface for its operations

Modernization often starts with an integration project

Insurance operations rarely run on one system.

A case may depend on a policy administration platform, a claims system, a document repository and other specialist tools accumulated over many years. Each system holds part of the official record. Connecting a new operational platform to all of them can require data mapping, APIs, security reviews, testing and a carefully sequenced rollout.

Those integrations may be valuable, but they can also delay the moment when employees and customers experience a meaningful improvement.

Meanwhile, much of the work required to move the case forward is already happening somewhere else.

It is happening in Outlook.

An employee receives a message, reviews the history, understands what is missing and decides what to do next. They explain a requirement to a customer, request supporting documents, answer a question or follow up on an incomplete response. Email carries the language of the customer, the judgment of the employee and a large part of the evolving context around the case.

Allianz saw an opportunity to start there.

Starting where operational work already happens

With the Penbox add-in, Allianz brings intelligence directly into Outlook. Employees do not need to leave their everyday working environment to begin the next interaction or reconstruct the purpose of the request in another tool.

Penbox uses the context already available across the email conversation and the Penbox case. That includes previous exchanges, information already collected, documents received and the next steps that remain outstanding. Because this context already flows through Outlook and Penbox, Allianz can create substantial operational value before connecting deeply to every system behind the case.

This is not a claim that core-system integrations no longer matter. Official records, governed data and system synchronization remain important. The difference is one of sequence. Allianz can first improve the work employees and customers experience every day, then deepen integrations where they add further value.

Outlook becomes an intelligent interface to the operation, rather than another channel sitting beside it.

“Penbox saves us valuable hours every day. Adoption via Outlook was very fast. Penbox is now essential to our operations.”

Vincent Delghust, Property and Casualty Claims Director at Allianz

Turning Allianz’s procedures into every draft

Writing an email is only a small part of the work. The employee also needs to understand the case, know which procedure applies, decide what information is required and express the request in a way the recipient can act on.

Allianz provided Penbox Agents with its process documentation and existing communication templates. Penbox Agents used that operational knowledge to build reusable case templates reflecting the way Allianz wants cases to be handled.

When an employee prepares a case-related email in Outlook, Penbox drafts the communication using three sources of context:

• the recipient and the situation they are in

• Allianz’s internal procedures and approved communication patterns

• the complete evolving context available in the Penbox case.

The result is not a generic AI-generated reply. Each draft is personalized to the contact while remaining aligned with the relevant process. Employees spend less time searching for the right template, copying information between systems and rewriting standard explanations around the specifics of the case.

The communication becomes more consistent without becoming impersonal.

From an email request to a structured customer journey

The biggest change happens when the email asks the customer or another party to provide something.

Traditionally, an employee might list the missing information in the body of the message and ask the recipient to respond with attachments. The answers then return across one or more emails. The employee has to identify what arrived, determine what is still missing and connect each contribution back to the case.

From Outlook, Allianz employees can instead use a ready-made Penbox journey designed for a recurring operational need. Information already held in the case is prefilled, so the customer does not have to provide the same details again. The email remains personal, but the response happens through a secure self-service journey that collects the required answers and documents in a structured way.

What begins as a familiar email becomes an executable next step.

Handling an exception without building a new workflow

Not every request fits a predefined template. A case can suddenly require a specific document, an additional person or a set of details that nobody anticipated when the standard journey was designed.

That is where operational flexibility is usually lost. The employee can return to an unstructured email, submit a request for a new workflow or work around the system manually.

With Penbox, the employee can describe the requirement directly. For example:

Ask for the driving licence, how many children they have, and the basic information for each child.

Penbox turns that instruction into custom collection steps. It creates the appropriate questions and document requests, structures repeated information for each child and presents everything through the secure Penbox journey.

The employee does not need to design a form or wait for a development cycle. They express the operational outcome they need, and Penbox turns it into a clear experience for the recipient and structured information for the case.

This makes exceptions part of normal casework rather than a reason to abandon the process.

First time right before expert handling

Sending the request does not mean the case is ready to progress.

A customer may open the email and postpone the task. They may provide only part of the information. A document may be unreadable, incorrect or unrelated to what Allianz requested. Without an active system around the interaction, each of these situations creates more work for the employee.

Penbox continues to manage the request after it has been sent. Intelligent reminders follow up with the recipient by email and SMS. The journey retains what has already been completed and makes the remaining steps clear. When documents arrive, Penbox validates them against the requirements of the specific scenario so issues can be identified before they create another manual exchange.

Allianz calls the resulting operating principle first time right. An expert only starts working on the case when all required information and documents are available and validated.

This does not mean every case is simple or that Penbox makes the expert decision. It means specialist attention begins with a case that is ready for expert work. The expert can focus on assessment, judgment and resolution instead of discovering a missing document and sending the case back into collection.

Penbox automated case management is what makes that possible. It identifies the expected contributions from the scenario, tracks what has arrived, follows up on what is still missing and checks that each document is usable. The case keeps moving before expert handling begins, while every interaction remains connected to its context.

From claims to a broader operating model

More than 100 people now use Penbox daily in Allianz’s claims operations. They use the same operating model to prepare cases first time right before expert handling begins.

That adoption matters because the solution sits inside a tool employees already use. Penbox does not ask them to begin every interaction in a separate application or wait until the organization has connected every source system. It brings the relevant context, procedures and ability to act into Outlook.

The same model can support work beyond claims. Underwriting teams also need to request evidence, clarify complex situations and adapt the information they collect to each risk. Corporate operations coordinate their own documents, decisions and external participants. In each case, the systems of record may differ, but Outlook remains a common place where operational work is communicated and advanced.

Allianz is now extending Penbox into these areas.

The expansion suggests a broader pattern for enterprise modernization. A company does not always need to begin by replacing its core systems or creating a deep integration with every one of them. It can begin at the point where people already understand the case and decide what should happen next.

An intelligent interface for the complete case

Allianz began with a simple but consequential observation: much of the living context of an operation already moves through email.

By bringing Penbox into Outlook, that context can do more than support another message. It can produce a communication grounded in the company’s procedures, generate a secure and structured request, coordinate follow-up, validate what arrives and prepare the case for expert work.

The core systems continue to preserve essential records. Penbox helps run the work between those records, the employees responsible for them and the customers or external parties whose contributions move the case forward.

For Allianz, Outlook is no longer only where operational conversations happen. It is becoming an intelligent interface for an operation designed to get the case right before expert handling begins.