A perfect fit

Imarket is a much misunderstood phenomenon. Rather than remove opportunities for brokers to differentiate themselves from the competition, imarket is a tool which actually enables brokers to further differentiate themselves.If brokers have a particular question they ask commercial clients, the answers to which puts the underwriter in a position to better understand the risk, there is an 'any other information' box that can be filled in. This can also include plans, reports and photographs.

It is a little like giving an advanced, functionally rich digital camera to professional photographers. That in itself would not bring about commoditisation of the photography industry. Some photographers would make best use of their cameras and deliver great photos to their clients; other photographers would perhaps not take the time to discover how to get the most out of their cameras and would deliver mediocre photos. Others would shy away from the new technology and carry on using their old cameras to produce pictures the old fashioned, inefficient way. Certainly, the successful photographers would be those who courageously embrace the change and who put in the effort to establishing how best to make the technology work for them.

Those brokers who have got to grips with imarket will already appreciate that it is not a process which commodotises the commercial insurance market, rather a multi-faceted web-based means of efficiently broking business. Brokers making best use of the imarket tool will undoubtedly benefit through more efficient processes. The direct benefit of imarket to brokers is time saving - imarket reduces the administrative burden and frees up time for value-added broking. It is through adding real value that brokers can differentiate themselves.

Standing out

Any broker who is serious about standing out from the crowd should at least be considering the following points in relation to imarket.

How do we use imarket to drive efficiency in the processing of simple commercial business?

With the recent changes to Post Office charges, there are now potentially greater savings to be made by using imarket to electronically retrieve insurer documentation. There is a huge range of insurer documentation available, and all from one website. Insurers such as Axa are providing point of sale documentation via online transactions for quotations, new business, mid term adjustments and renewals.

imarket can help streamline even the most basic, mundane process of maintaining passwords. Through using imarket, the need to set up, remember and reset multiple passwords to insurers' systems and extranets is eliminated. The vast majority of brokers will access insurer extranets each day to order insurer stationery, for example. All of those brokers would benefit from accessing those extranets via imarket and, in so doing, no longer having to contact each insurer to maintain multiple password details. How much time is currently wasted contacting insurers to reset forgotten passwords or trawling through scraps of paper to find the right insurer website address for the particular task in hand? All this can be eliminated instantly. This is the simplest first step to using imarket in such a way as to remove non-value added tasks and allow the time to focus on differentiating your brokerage.

It is the straight forward Tradesman Liability and Shops and Offices type risks that are most difficult to trade profitably. It is these risks which brokers should be looking to transact as efficiently as possible, thus freeing up time to focus on broking the more complex cases. With imarket, brokers can avoid the need to rekey the same risk details into their own back office system and multiple insurer systems. There are several ways of achieving this through imarket - from trading within broker back office systems which are integrated to insurer systems via imarket standards and infrastructure, to click throughs to insurer systems from the imarket websites, to multi-insurer quotation forms also available on the imarket website.

imarket also alleviates the administration with more complex commercial risks. While there is an argument that electronic trading has further increased commoditisation of the personal lines market, it is difficult to see how this applies across commercial lines. There are huge variations in commercial combined and fleet risks, for example. Although online tools such as imarket should be used to minimise the effort in data keying and document collation, there is still a need for underwriting and broking expertise, which cannot be built into website and system programs.

In addition, have we assessed what is available on imarket, what is beneficial for us, and are we using it to the full?

imarket provides several features for brokers, not all of which will be of use to all brokers. It is up to each broker to keep abreast of what is available on imarket, to establish which aspects of imarket they are going to take advantage of, and to establish appropriate efficient processes.

Lack of appreciation

Feedback from brokers clearly highlights a lack of appreciation of the range of features imarket has to offer. This covers single password to insurer systems, multi-insurer quotes, software house-insurer integration, secure e-mail and non-insurance services. Some brokers may reap benefit from only one of those features, some from three or four features - the point is that imarket has much to offer and brokers who dismiss imarket as a single system and process are probably missing out on a range of benefits.

imarket offers a means of demonstrating complete contract certainty, not least in that, the various imarket methods of electronically trading with insurers entail the complete and final agreement of all terms between the insured and the insurers before inception.

imarket is one single gateway through which brokers can take advantage of the various financial incentives which insurers are offering for online trading. Axa, for example, are offering an additional 2.5% commission plus interest free instalments on all property package new business transactions.

There are a number of sources of information available to brokers on imarket, from the imarket website, to marketing material produced by Polaris, to experts within insurers, such as Axa's team of e-consultants. Brokers who differentiate themselves from the competition will be those who make best use of these resources.

Also, how do we use our own back office system in such a way as to maximise the advantage of imarket integration with insurer systems?

The most efficient business processes involve the keying of data only once. In the case of underwriting processes, this involves the broker keying the data into his own back office system. The most efficient business processes involve that data being automatically loaded onto other systems; in the case of underwriting processes, this involves the data being automatically loaded into insurer systems.

This is the concept behind software house integration with insurers via imarket. It is already up and running today with all major software houses and insurers currently working on their plans to expand on what is available already.

It is clear though, that the key is for the brokers to enter the risk data into their own systems in the first place. There is evidence that some brokers do not currently do that and, of those, some are not even prepared to change their working practices to bring this about. So those brokers will be left to re-key data into multiple systems, wasting time that their more imarket savvy competitors are potentially using to differentiate themselves.

Maximising potential

Finally, how do we work with insurers to maximise the potential of imarket for our brokerage?

imarket does not replace the relationship between brokers and insurers, rather it allows those parties to focus on broking and insurance as opposed to admin and wasted effort. Axa, for example, have clearly demonstrated that e-trading underpins its position as number one in relationship management, this being through their consistent support of imarket and through their appointment of a team of e-consultants to support their established account managers on all matters relating to electronic trading.

Brokers who feel that discussions with an underwriter would add value to the placing of a risk, are still free to make contact with that underwriter while placing business via imarket. Insurers are using e-trading to remove non-value added tasks and to free up underwriters to concentrate on underwriting and broker contact.

imarket offers insurers and brokers an efficient vehicle for transacting scheme business. By working together, both parties can establish an efficient means of utilising the imarket framework to transact bespoke scheme business.

Why not go direct to insurer extranets?

- Direct access to insurer extranets involves the need to have individual user ids and passwords to each insurer website. In such a scenario, much time is wasted recalling which is the right user id for each website, changing these passwords, contacting insurers to get them reset and remembering which insurer website address to use for which purpose. With imarket, this need is eliminated as one imarket user id and password allows access to the imarket website, from which brokers can click through to insurer extranets.

- The layout of each insurer website is different and it is no small task to master the menu structure and navigation around each individual extranet, nor to keep abreast of system changes on each extranet. Again, imarket eliminates this issue, as from one set of menus within the imarket website, brokers are automatically directed to the appropriate insurer extranet pages.

- With imarket, brokers administrate user ids and passwords for their own staff, as opposed to having to rely on insurer staff to maintain extranet ids. This puts control squarely in the hands of brokers and greatly enhances broker processes around system security. With direct access to insurer extranets, brokers must contact each insurers to set up newstarters and to remove ids for leavers. This is made much easier with imarket, since brokers have complete control of how each member of staff accesses insurer extranets.

- Brokers can save time by using the facilities on the imarket website to tailor a menu to incorporate favourites. This enables quicker click though access to commonly used pages within insurer extranets.