Tata AIA Life plans to strengthen its reach in the Northeast by empowering its sales force with state-of-the-art tools and quality training, with an eye on providing optimum insurance solutions to customers.

“We have been operating in the Northeast for a decade now and intend to take new initiatives. One of them is to empower the sales force with smart tools and convenient solutions for serving our customers,” Mukesh Dhawan, deputy chief executive officer, Tata AIA Life Insurance Company Ltd, told reporters in Guwahati on Friday.

The private sector insurance major also launched eLife, a mobile electronic solution that simplifies the process of buying and selling life insurance solutions, in the city. The key features of eLife include a secure digital process, an easy-to-use interface on an Android tablet (with or without access to Internet), mobility, completeness of information and ease of documentation and reduction in use of paper.

“Tata AIA Life believes that providing the ‘right’ advice the ‘right’ way will bridge the protection gap and also facilitate long-term saving habits among people. Towards this end, we had launched Premier Agency that aims to create a formidable distribution force of productive advisers. In fact, we are the first to implement ‘Career Choice’, a talent selection profiling tool, to improve the overall quality of the agency force,” Dhawan said.

Premier Agency, launched in 2011, has a network of over 160 branches across the country.

Tata AIA Life currently has a Premier Agency force of 2,400 in the Northeast. “We intend to double this number in the next three years,” he added.

The company also organised a distribution outreach programme for its agency force, Power Up Fest, in Guwahati.

“The idea behind the fest is to reach out to our agents and make them aware of the new initiatives taken by the company. Subsequently, we will be organising such programmes in other towns of Assam. There are plans to cover Agartala and Shillong as well,” the official said.

A joint venture company formed by Tata Sons and AIA Group Ltd, Tata AIA Life started operating in the country since 2001.

On the life insurance market in the Northeast, the official said, “Today, we are among the top private sector insurance companies. But much needs to be done to penetrate the insurance market by companies here.”