TriSystems e-broking application drives modernisation in the London Insurance Market

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The brokers and underwriters working in the London Insurance Market have traditionally carried out all of their transactions with one another face to face – from the simplest policy endorsements to the most complex, high-value contract negotiations.

The market is in the throes of a multi-faceted reform programme (the London Market modernisation programme – coordinated by the London Market Group), of which a key element is transformation of working methods through an increase in electronic transactions. For this purpose Lloyd’s established the Exchange: a transaction hub for electronic information exchange using an open messaging standard.

As the largest provider of electronic messaging technology to the London Insurance Market, TriSystems is at the heart of helping brokers and underwriters to communicate with each other via the Exchange. While many underwriters were already using TriSystems products and services, the majority of broking firms were unfamiliar with the use of electronic transactions and were uncomfortable about having to manage the technology in-house. TriSystems knew it had to offer a different approach.

Simplifying e-broking with SaaS

With the help of Colt’s Enterprise Cloud Service, TriSystems has been able to repackage its electronic messaging technology as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) online broking application that lets brokers process endorsements and placements over the Exchange.

Known as Lime-St.com, the application is cost effective, easy to learn, and accessible from any device — PC, smartphone, tablet — that has an internet connection and a web browser. With this offering, TriSystems can confidently position its business to address the needs of brokers.

TriSystems makes the partnership with Colt clear to its clients on its web page and in its marketing literature. Jeff Ward, Director at TriSystems, explains why:

"For any company providing a SaaS solution, having a reliable, secure and scalable hosting platform is critical. Neither our clients nor the market would tolerate any application downtime. It’s important for us to be able to assure our clients that we’ve chosen a trustworthy infrastructure partner."

The London Market modernisation programme has mandated a phased rollout of the Exchange, both in terms of the types of insurance business handled and the order in which brokers come on board. TriSystems needed a platform that was not only ultra-reliable, but one that could easily expand as the user community grew.

Not a second of downtime: why the right infrastructure matters

For these reasons, TriSystems decided to look for a specialist cloud infrastructure provider rather than hosting Lime-St.com itself. The company selected Colt over two other competitors.

"We had excellent references from other companies already working with Colt, so we felt we could trust them to help us with this key business venture. Colt’s Cloud Infrastructure Service certainly offered the advanced levels of reliability and scalability that we needed, at the right price." Jeff Ward, Director, TriSystems

Colt meets TriSystems’ requirements for reliability and scalability by hosting Lime-St.com in a highavailability cloud computing environment within a secure Colt Tier 3 data centre. The data centre’s European location enables TriSystems and its clients to comply with the EU’s Data Protection Directive that requires data to be stored within the EU. The service is specifically designed to support new ways of doing business, with minimal risk.

"If the platform were to go down or experience a security breach, our clients’ business would grind to a halt and it would be a highly public failure that would damage our reputation." says Ward. "What’s impressive about the Colt solution is that we’ve not had a single second of downtime since the platform went live a year ago, nor any sign of a security incident."

When growth doubles and there’s more ahead, scalability is critical

One year since launch, four of the major broking firms are using Lime-St.com and between them have sent over a quarter of a million messages via the application. A further 29 firms will go live on Lime-St.com shortly, with other smaller firms to follow.

Soon after Lime-St.com was launched, the volume of transactions grew so rapidly that the processing capacity of the hosting platform had to be doubled. The current volume of transactions handled by Lime-St.com represents 15%–20% of the future potential volume. Ward can see that he will soon need to increase the capacity again, as Lime-St.com rapidly becomes the dominant e-broking platform.

"Because it’s a cloud hosting solution, that will be easy,” says Ward. "Cloud computing means I have the resources I need now, and access to more resources whenever I need them. It’s like a staircase: I can go up one or two steps or all the way to the top, simply by picking up the phone to Colt. There’s no contract renegotiation, and I don’t have to worry about things like servers, load balancers or racks — that’s all taken care of behind the scenes by Colt.” He concludes:

"Colt is the secret ingredient that lets us reliably deliver information for London’s brokers. Colt makes it easy for us to work with them and we’re confident that they won’t let us down.”

Contact details
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7390 3900 or
Email: info@colt.net
www.colt.net