Electronic Babel fish for scheme brokers

Technology provider Kewill is aiming to up its stake in the insurance market by helping brokers to deliver products to market faster.

Kewill, which essentially acts as a universal translator of computer language, has already established itself with 30 insurer and broker clients. Its ability to translate information from one code to another in real time has meant it has found favour with some insurers, whose legacy systems are unable to directly accept modern codes such as XML.

The provider, which already works with broker Group Direct, is aiming to attract this type of larger scheme broker. Business unit director Debbie Baker explained: "If a broker outsources its business-to-business connectivity to Kewill we can collapse the lead time of product development as we test and ensure all electronic communication between broker and insurer, which can hamper product launch."

Baker also said that, because of their legacy systems, some insurers were offshoring the re-keying of data because of their inability to accept XML directly. "With Kewill there is no room for error as the information is processed electronically straight through, making transcript errors impossible. In short, the information gets to the right place at the right time," Baker added.

Kewill also works with other technology providers such as InsurE-com, Polaris and Acturis. Baker added that it was not a rival to imarket. He said: "We are complimentary to all industry initiatives and are technology agnostic."