Cox Insurance wants to integrate troubled broker system provider Brokersoft with its own broker system Brokersure, a leading industry source has said.
The source said Cox's move to save Brokersoft, which stopped trading at the beginning of April, was probably an attempt to strengthen Brokersure.
He added that in the struggle for market share, Brokersoft's 80 users would be a significant addition to the Brokersure user base.
He said it would also give Brokersure a more comprehensive quotation engine and an off-line back office administration system, which it did not have at the moment.
"It gives them an edge to go and talk to the brokers who are dissatisfied with some of the other systems out there," he said.
Brokersure is an online trading system that provides quotations, policy issue and documentation.
Cox Insurance Retail Division chief executive Neil Utley did not rule out a possible tie-up between Brokersure and Brokersoft.
But he said it was too early to talk of that because the Brokersoft negotiations still had to be completed.
This, he said, was something he expected by the end of this week.
He added that Brokersoft fitted in well with Cox strategically and that many of Brokersoft's users already traded with Equity Red Star, Cox's motor syndicate.
Utley said the move was consistent with Cox's decision to exit the commercial market.
