Peter Knowles, strategy and marketing director, Imarket
There are six myths about Imarket:
1. Imarket only handles small risks.
It doesn't. It allows small business like shops to be auto-rated, and for larger risks, it's a secure and efficient way of communicating data between broker and underwriter.
2. The questions sets are really short Actually, the feedback we get is the question sets are rather long. This is because we have to cater to the needs of 10 insurers.
3. You can only get quotes on Imarket, not mid-term adjustments or renewals MTA and renewal functions will be coming along this year from various insurers.
4. Imarket can't handle schemes.
Yes it can. If there's a particular niche or affinity or scheme which requires a slightly amended version of the standard information, then we take the existing standard and create a version specifically for that scheme. Imarket is set up so that insurers can make that product available to specific brokers and specific individuals within specific brokers.
5. We haven't delivered much yet
I disagree. We've got 10 leading commercial insurers on board, the six leading software houses in the UK either already integrated, or in the process of doing so, and 2,305 broker firms have signed up.
6. We did it too quickly
Perhaps we did raise expectations too high when we launched in 2003, but we have built something that's pretty complicated, and it's working.
