The Association of Financial Consultants for German Physicians (Deutsche Ärzte Finanz) has been using RegioGraph since 2002 and DISTRICT since 2005 for the visualization of company data, in addition to the planning and further development of service structures.

The Association of Financial Consultants for German Physicians (AFCGP) is one of the leading financial consultancies in the area of established medical professions and providers. The association’s specialty is offering advice and delivering insurance packages that protect physicians (including dentists) from personal and work-related risks. The AFCGP is  part of the AXA Group, one of the largest insurance and financial services bodies in Germany, with approximately 340 agencies as of the end of 2007. In 2003, we developed a so-called “scoring model” in order to measure and bring clarity to the level of potential in a given region. The scoring model takes into account not only data such as the number of target group members (employed and resident doctors, dentists and graduates in the fields of human medicine and dentistry), but also inventory data (e.g., number of customers per health care provider). A notable advantage of employing this benchmark is that it allows us to assign new health insurance agents a larger number of new customers than to existing agents, who already have their hands full with a significant number of clients.

For the further development and planning of the agents’ organizations, we formulated scenarios that are aligned with the longstanding business plans of the sales division – e.g., “500 agents by 2015”. We use DISTRICT in conjunction with this scoring model to plan new agency locations nationwide and provide goals for the further development of existing agents. Our ongoing aim is to secure the sustained and balanced growth of our agents’ organizations in their target group market.

For the fine-tuning of specific regions, we use DISTRICT to visualize the locations of consultants – e.g., with symbols scaled according to turnover. Unlike in the case of organizations with permanently employed agents, our freelance agents will not accept rigid sales territory boundaries. This is because potential customer agglomerations tend to overlap, something that is particularly the case in urban areas (see illustration).

Service territories are very important to the AFCGP: these areas are the basis of allocating customer queries within a given region to the local agents. Also, our headquarters plan regular customer visits based on these defined service territories. And finally, internet-based searches for consultants also draw on the existing service territory structure.

Our assessment of the result of five years of potential-oriented location-planning with DISTRICT

The visualization of locations and service areas with DISTRICT has contributed significantly to achieving objectivity and acceptance in the location assessment and development process. Equally important in terms of transparency and acceptance has been the option to plan and harmonize the scoring models and planning principles with the expressed aims of executive sales managers. Service territory planning is not a one-time affair, but rather an ongoing process. The procuring of up-to-date market and company data as well as the ongoing planning and development phases require significant time and effort.

The best results are achieved when service territories and locations can be visualized directly on the computer screen and then fine-tuned in dialogue with the responsible sales managers on an ad-hoc basis.

In addition to its invaluable role in the above described processes, DISTRICT has also proven indispensible in the planning of overarching service structures for the company leadership and specialized consultants.
  
In short, service territory planning would be unimaginable these days without DISTRICT.

Author: Detlef Jahnke
Association of Financial Consultants for German Physicians
Director of Development and Customer Management

detlef.jahnke(at)aerzte-finanz.de