http://www.rpc.co.uk

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Prompted by a new Financial Services Authority (FSA) directive surrounding the issue of contract certainty for the insurance market, the UK’s top 50 Law Firm, Reynolds Porter Chamberlain LLP (RPC), recognised the need to introduce a solution to help its clients with information on wordings used in contracts. Using its Content Management System (CMS) and LiveServer to deliver an end-to-end solution, RedDot has developed and implemented an extranet for RPC which provides a secure portal of expert advice and information for reinsurance companies.

About

Reynolds Porter Chamberlain Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) is a leading Central London practice employing more than 260 lawyers. Its renowned professional liability practice covers all professions, including legal, financial, construction and medical, and its insurance and reinsurance practice embraces high profile litigation, corporate and regulatory work.

Challenge

Historically, the insurance industry had been providing protection for business customers but not finalising the contract details until a much later date. This practise was leading to disputes over what had been agreed, and the FSA delivered a directive to the insurance market to ensure all its contract wordings were in place before protection commenced.

A big part of contract certainty involves ensuring that both client and underwriter understand exactly what is covered by a policy from the moment it comes into force. This change in working habits would impact the financial position of many insurance companies who would be unable to invoice for payment until the contract was finalised. In the case of major reinsurance contracts, such as the Twin Towers, this process could take upwards of 12 months to complete.

RPC’s focus on customer service and an awareness that its insurance clients would need to demonstrate contract certainty from December 2006, prompted a decision by the firm to develop an extranet to help reinsurers identify legal risk associated with each component clause usually found in reinsurance contracts. 

By using the market wordings database already in the public domain and applying its legal expertise and market knowledge to each of the clauses, RPC’s extranet would enable reinsurers to access quality standard wording to fit each contract.

Crucial to the success of the extranet would be keeping it within specification and working to tight deadlines to ensure it was ready for the market in time for the reinsurance renewal dates.

Solution

RPC explored six different content solutions before deciding that RedDot’s CMS and LiveServer was the exact match for its requirements.

Having defined the requirement in detail, RedDot’s comprehensive solution was ideal for RPC’s requirements providing them with a professional development service through every phase of the project.

RedDot’s internal consultants and product management team created a bespoke environment using its standard products – CMS and LiveServer – and ran the project from its own offices to provide the client with an end-to-end solution.

The simplicity and flexibility of the solution created by RedDot’s professional services enables RPC’s legal team to update the information directly to the site in a secure environment, removing the need for a webmaster and ensuring that those with the legal and reinsurance knowledge remain in control of editing the information.

The live server has been built featuring a very specific clause matrix defining the type and level of information which can be viewed by each audience segment; from RPC’s internal lawyers who enjoy a fully comprehensive view of the information through to more limited views for certain customer profiles.

The extranet contains a unique methodology that allows clients to compare clauses and decide which is the most appropriate for their particular circumstance. The RedDot solution creates this interface in one easy-to-find format.

Julie Berry, IT Director at RPC, says: “RedDot proved to be extremely reliable, and demonstrated excellent project management skills. We were heavily reliant on them hitting their deadlines – and they did not miss one date! The solution was implemented in less than three months.”

Results

Since the extranet went live in January 2007, it has become an outstanding success for RPC and for the reinsurers using it.

Figures show that 17 subscribing companies have already signed up for the service, and more than 100 individual users are benefiting from its services.

The selection of RedDot CMS and LiveServer Content Management software helped meet RPC’s objectives of providing quick and easy access to a fully categorised listing of clauses and wordings for its external clients.

It is also being successfully used on a regular basis as an internal tool by RPC’s reinsurance lawyers to create wordings for clients and other related commercial contracts.

Berry says: “The RedDot product is completely stable and sound and we’ve had absolutely no problems with it. Our extranet is now saving our subscribers significant time and effort enabling them to make an informed judgement as to which clause can be used. Information is easily searchable, and we have received very positive feedback.”

She concludes: “When you’re looking for a supplier you’re not just looking at the technical solution; you’re looking at the people you’re going to be working with, and our working relationship with RedDot was second to none. The team understands its product management inside out, and has delivered on 100% of the promises made during the consultation stage. If they say they can do it, they can do it.”