1. Abstract
Nowadays, e-commerce issue has been placed in top of organizations’ priorities. In
fact, Internet and e-commerce have been become a method to create interaction
with customers and shareholders and also to launch products/services. The impact
of e-commerce on all aspects of business is considerable which is increasing every
day. It is advisable to study the effect of e-commerce on different businesses.
Insurance industry is one of the most crucial active sections in financial services
because of its great importance to growth of society’s economy and health. The
important impact of using e-commerce in the insurance industry is revamping
value chain. The use of new information and communication technologies enables
insurers to revamp and rationalize key links in the value chain. The foundation for
the purpose of this research has been created by a prospective study to explore the
impact of e-commerce on value chain of SAMAN insurance company. To
accomplish this, a survey of 92 people working in the headquarters of this
company has been carried out. In this research the activities of SAMAN insurance
company have been analyzed in 2 sections named main activities and support
activities. The main activities include product (and services) development,
marketing and sales, and claims management sections and the support activities
include administration and asset management sections. The impact of e-commerce
on these 5 sections was studied and finally it was clearly specified that using e-
commerce could have positive effects on 5 sections. E-commerce has most great
impacts on marketing and sales section and then product development and claims
management sections.
Key words: e-commerce, insurance industry, SAMAN insurance company, IT,
value chain.