Technological advances

Extensive efforts to revolutionise the way commercial lines business is traded continue apace - with electronic trading portal imarket now entrenched at the fore of technological advancements.

The time and cost-saving benefits that the portal offers brokers have been well documented, alongside the customary challenges and teething frustrations that go hand-in-hand with any ambitious new initiative.

Considerable advancements have already been made - and in significantly less time than it took to introduce electronic trading into personal lines. The results of these have led to transaction levels rising over recent weeks, and Martin McLachlan, managing director of Polaris UK, the organisation that operates imarket on behalf of participating insurers, has revealed his high expectations for further developments over the coming 12 months.

McLachlan's confidence is epitomised in his belief that during this period, the industry could expect to witness the greater part of small to medium-sized enterprise business being transacted through the portal.

In its infancy, imarket promised a lot but failed to meet many brokers' expectations. The pace of delivery has accelerated dramatically, however, with Brit, imarket's latest insurer, going live with directors' and officers' within just one month of joining.

"The range of business that can be placed via integrated trading through brokers' software house systems will continue to expand, with the likes of motor trade coming on stream to populate the portal," McLachlan says. "Increasingly, the products are likely to expand into more complex areas such as commercial combined and imarket will also progress in terms of its functionality."

Indeed, development work is currently being carried out by Allianz and Norwich Union to incorporate, via imarket, the use of an accounts reconciliation facility provided by CGI.

"These latest moves serve to demonstrate the breadth of functionality that can be provided when individuals are connected via a secure portal," McLachlan continues.

Easier navigation

One of the most significant progressions for imarket has been the recent introduction of improved forms for comparative quotes. These are easier to navigate, with messages displayed without the entire webpage being refreshed. Critically, a system known as 'dynamic questioning' means that only those questions relevant to each insurance product are presented to users.

If brokers are seeking quotes on cases that have no claims for example, a 'no claims' tick box can be checked with the effect that they are not then asked questions about this.

Criticism had been fairly levelled at imarket for the complex and protracted nature of the preceding X-forms. Brokers' views have been heard and a substantial investment has created new forms that simplify and streamline data input while improving the portal's ability to change as it develops and evolves.

Further investments have been made to tackle any confusion over the operation of the site with the establishment of an online training centre. Password expiry issues have been resolved and iNotes e-mails can now be automatically forwarded to a users' personal e-mail account.

The key to securing the long-term future of imarket at the heart of the commercial lines industry, however, has always depended upon successful software house integration, and the subsequent broker adoption of this. Integrated trading is no longer a theoretical goal but is now a proven proposition. Furthermore, the economic case for brokers adopting imarket to save costs in the SME sector, with its lower premiums, has been widely acknowledged. The time-honoured process of manually handling work has historically swallowed the lion's share of commissions.

With integrated imarket trading, the broker has only to input data once and, thereafter, the client's record and accounts are updated automatically. Quotations from insurers can also be obtained automatically without the need to re-key information. Imarket becomes invisible to the broker, linking the handling of standards, the security and the communications. Furthermore, full cycle trading is now a reality, following hot on the heels from the groundbreaking development of real time electronic mid-term adjustments.

To date, Acturis and Sirius have led the way with integrated product availability for shops, tradesmen, offices and surgeries, pubs, restaurants and hotels, working from home, property owners and hair and beauty.

Over the next few months, Software Solutions Partners and Open GI are set to follow suit. Both have successfully completed Polaris system testing and are now piloting their respective systems.

"The progress being made by these two software houses is hugely significant," says McLachlan. "Their systems are operated by several thousand smaller brokers that may not individually provide the quote levels of the likes of Swinton Business, that went live with Acturis earlier this year but they will still profit from imarket."

While some brokers may have been vocal in their criticisms of the technology in the past, imarket can now boast a strong core of supporters for whom it has made a major positive impact on their working lives.

The benefits of integrated trading, for example, have been championed by the likes of Hine, which was the very first broker to ever accept a live imarket transaction - a shops package with Groupama - and it has been continually improving efficiency and customer service with the trading platform ever since.

"Because premiums can be low for this industry, it's of paramount importance that business is turned around as quickly as possible in a bid to maximise profit margins," says Chris Booth, group development manager of the Manchester and Bolton-based broker.

"Today's market is one in which virtually every insurer is rushing to get their online propositions up and running in as swift and efficient a manner as possible. The downside for brokers, however, is the need to re-input the same information into a plethora of different quote systems. Increasingly, brokers are having to become IT experts, figuring out the intricacies of different insurers e-networks. Through imarket this is no longer a problem."

Employees at Chester-based Astbury Wren have been using the portal ever since its full integration with Acturis in August 2006 and are similarly impressed.

Benefits

In addition to the time saved in obtaining quotes, brokers are also benefiting from the ability to download further information, such as summaries of cover, without having to log on separately to each individual insurer's extranet.

"We currently use imarket, for the most part, for the likes of tradesman packages," says John Davies, small business unit manager, Astbury Wren. "However, with more products from insurers being launched on the portal all the time, our use of the system is likely to continue spiralling onwards and upwards over the coming weeks and months."

Total monthly transactions are currently hovering in the region of 45,000 and McLachlan expects to see this number double by the end of the year. Jim Noakes, distribution leader for Royal and SunAlliance, agrees: "In April 2007, we saw a significant increase in use, resulting from Swinton's operation of imarket via the Acturis system. We expect to see volumes through imarket more than double in 2007 as other brokers recognise the benefits that can be derived in terms of efficiency savings."

Phil Nunn, head of marketing and strategy at Norwich Union, believes software house developments will also have a considerable impact: "Mirroring the Acturis trend, the momentum should gather pace in the fourth quarter of the year as increasing numbers of brokers begin trading through SSP and Open GI."

Polaris is quick to concede that a number of brokers who registered with imarket when it was first launched, left disappointed. Over the coming months, however, a campaign is being embarked upon to encourage these brokers to revisit it.

"More brokers are talking about the competitive advantage they get from using it and so we would like to see those who were initially disenchanted give it another go and see, firsthand, the changes and advancements that have been made," McLachlan says.

He concludes: "Full cycle motor EDI is now ubiquitous in personal lines, comparable full cycle trading of commercial lines is just around the corner."