Insurance Age - Small brokers thinking big

Insurance Age - Small brokers thinking big: "Small brokers thinking big
The need to transact small and medium sized business online led two small brokers to start using Xbroker.com. Pearson and CFN Insurance Services explain their experiences
Pearson Insurance Services is a small independent insurance broker specialising in business insurance. The company offers a range of services to commercial clients and a small percentage of their business is personal lines insurance.
Set up in June 2004 by Nick Udall, CFN Insurance Services is a small independent insurance broker specialising in van and courier insurance. A minority element of the business is car insurance.
Pearson's focus was on utilising an online system in order to obtain instant, competitive quotes from a number of insurers, as well as fast online cover. With limited agency agreements, the prospect of waiting up to six weeks for a quote and the lack of faith in the Broker Gateway, prompted it to link up with the Moorhouse Group and start using Xbroker.com nearly two years ago.
CFN's focus was similar to that of Pearson. CFN knew it had to capitalise on the internet in order to provide a competitive and efficient service to its van and courier clients. For many years, van and courier insurance had not been competitive, a situation CFN wanted to change as quickly as possible.
Xbroker.com was developed in June 2003 using asp.net, a Microsoft product. The inter-net accessed system was specifically designed as a comparative quote engine from day one.
In the beginning, brokers were required to place business via HSBC Spectrum to guarantee their account, but it is now open to all brokers and intermediaries after HSBC carried out a standard due diligence check.
Pearson had dabbled with a couple of online systems but was not totally happy with either of them. CFN, on the other hand,"