imarket - How to use it

Step 1 - logging onWelcome to imarket - three words that should become as commonplace as the Queen's head on a five-pound note. If the Polaris and IBM software designers have done their work right, logging on to imarket will become an essential part of the daily office routine for almost every broker in the UK within months.New and registered users will enter through the same window, www.imarket.co.uk, where first timers will be led through a five-minute sign up procedure and issued with a password to provide access.When the system is fully available early next year the turnaround time for registration should be a week. Brokers looking to beat the queue should be able to sign up now. But if they are not one of the pilot companies, they may have to wait until January for their registration to be processed.

Step 2 - moving to products and servicesBy December there will be over 200 brokers piloting imarket. While this is a fraction of the market, the cross-section should determine the overall success of the system.One of the successes of Polaris has been in bringing together, and keeping together, the insurers and software houses needed to make the imarket a reality.The first screen after registration provides links to insurance industry organisations and a glimpse of the functionality of imarket. A button bar at the top of the screen offers links to services such as iNotes, Products & Services and Admin. Some functions, such as Admin will be available only to specified users such as a senior member of the broker staff.

Step 3 - choosing products and quotesProducts & Services is the engine room of the imarket site. It is where brokers can request quotes and documents from any or all of the six insurers - Norwich Union, Royal & SunAlliance, Zurich, AXA, Allianz Cornhill and Groupama - involved in the scheme.In response to broker feedback one of the key functions imarket has installed on the site is the ability to order or download documents, such as policy forms or promotional leaflets. The approach lets brokers source documents as they need them, rather than acting as a stationary warehouse for thousands of pieces of paper.Buttons on the left hand side of the screen lead users through the steps to finding products and quotes.

Step 4 - selecting servicesOver 800 services or products are already available on the site ranging from accounts and claims inquiries to document requests and quotations.Menus will lead brokers through the process of choosing the service they require. When looking for a quote, lists of all those offered by an insurer, for which a broker has an agency, will be listed.Security firewalls built into the system will restrict unauthorised users from accessing policy information or quotes unless they are specifically validated.

Step 5 - choose a business typeAs the broker searches for a product or quotation some business areas will be broken down into sub business areas, such as 'motor' branching out to 'commercial motor' then to 'HGV'.At present imarket is focusing on market areas that have been badly served by technology, such as small commercial. Private motor policies for example, already highly automated, are not currently available on the system. But brokers will be able to change motor policy details or follow claims through the system.

Step 6 - select insurerWith the business area selected, the broker will move across to the Select Insurer screen, where the system will display only insures with which users have an agency will appear. Users will not see insurers they are not registered to do business with in this policy area.Though imarket is already working with, and funded by, six of the top ten UK insurers the company is in talks with a number of other underwriters and expects to expand its offering in the near future.

Step 7 - view all insurer productsThe designers behind imarket worked under the principle of offering brokers choice and control in their dealings with insurers. Regardless of the number of suppliers listed in connection with a particular product or service, the broker can choose those he wants to deal with or click the default setting for all insurers, to see everything available in the subset. In this case Groupama and Norwich Union provide some, limited, subset information, but more will be added.

Step 8 - viewing quotes from all insurersOnce the search parameters are set, the imarket engine will list its findings under two categories, links to the relevant page of the insurer's website or imarket-based request forms. The process of document retrieval takes seconds rather than minutes. To reach the screen shown, the command sequence is as follows - New Business - Quotation Request - Commercial - All Insurers.

Step 9 - viewing a commercial packageThe click-through to the insurer website will take the broker directly to the page where the service can be requested. This saves the time and effort of navigating an insurer extranet.The security protocols built into imarket will have vetted who can get this far in the system. So brokers won't their time applying for a service or product they have no agreement to sell.On this screen, the user has reached the form details for the Groupama commercial package Optima Trade & Professional without having to enter any additional security check.

Step 10 - sending a multi-insurer requestA service request made from within the imarket system will operate through an 'x' form. This is a single-entry format that will communicate client details and service requests to one or more suppliers. In much the same way as with EDI, the process means details have to be keyed only once for all parties concerned to have an electronic client record.Multi-insurer requests are currently limited to household, office and shop products but, again, more are in the process of being added.

Step 11 - confirmation of quote requestEach service request will end with a confirmation note from the insurer acknowledging receipt of the communication and giving a timeframe in which the quote or other service will be produced.Competition among insurers to get their quotes in first could lead to significantly improved response times.Replies will come in toiNotes, the dedicated e-mail facility provided with imarket.imarket can be used only with Windows-based systems. For more information contact www.imarket.com.