Aflac 2006 Annual Report Download - page 24

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Benefits and Claims
(In billions)
Aflac paid or provided for $9.0
billion in benefits for policyholders
in 2006.
97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06
4.8 4.9
5.9
6.6 6.3 6.6
7.5
8.5 8.9 $9.0
Japan U.S.
donated to children’s hospitals and other
pediatric cancer research organizations.
Technology Drives
Efficiency and Innovation
For the last 13 years, SmartApp®, our
proprietary, laptop-based enrollment system,
has improved our ability to accommodate
strong sales growth. In the third quarter of
2006, we completed the national rollout of
an enhanced version of SmartApp, called
SmartApp Next GenerationSM (SNG). SNG
offers many advantages over the previous
version to further streamline the enrollment
process.
We initiated the Billing Transformation
Program (BTP) in 2002 to strengthen our
billing processes and improve service to our
payroll accounts. BTP consists of several
initiatives that focus on automating service
transactions and providing self-service
capability. One of those initiatives, Online
Services, simplifies the billing and service
process for accounts, thereby enabling our
sales associates to focus more on
relationships and sales growth. By the end of
2006, more than 60,000 payroll accounts
were using our new Online Services system
to reconcile their invoices, compared with
33,500 at the end of 2005.
In 2006, we also tested AflacAnywhereSM,
a new technology that greatly improves
communications between headquarters and
our sales force. AflacAnywhere enables sales
associates and coordinators to receive
notification on important information via
e-mail alert, text message on a cell phone or
PDA, or computer-generated voice message
to any phone number. We will roll out
AflacAnywhere in 2007 and believe it will
enhance the productivity of our sales force
and service to our customers.
Conservative and Stable
Investment Approach
We’ve always believed that a conservative
investment approach helps ensure that Aflac
is well positioned to come to the rescue of
its customers. Our conservative philosophy
also produces a dependable source of
investment income that benefits our
20
Columbus, Georgia, is the world headquarters
for Aflac. It’s also the hometown of the 2006
Little League World Series Champions – the
Columbus Northern Little League team. Along
with all nine other members of the Columbus
Northern team, catcher Cody Walker (middle
left) and pitcher Kyle Carter (middle right) are
hometown heroes. Cody and Kyle are 13 years
old, and both have a parent within the Aflac
family who helps deliver peace of mind to Aflac
policyholders. Cody’s mother, Brenda Reis,
works as a quality analyst in Aflac’s
Administrative Best Practices Department, and
Kyle’s father, coach Richard Carter, is a regional
sales coordinator for Aflac.
Aflac to the rescue!