IT and Technology
Professional Indemnity Insurance for Technology Companies
Professional Indemnity or Errors and Omissions insurance is one of the most important covers we sell for anyone providing services in the Computer, Information Technology, Communications sector.
Hardly a day goes by without news of fresh disputes and litigation in the technology industries; some companies seem to care more about suing others than they do about running their own business.
Professional indemnity insurance can help by providing cover for legal defence costs and in the event that a claim is lost pay the compensation due to the claimant.
We can provide professional indemnity insurance cover for anyone involved in the IT sector including:
- Analyst Programmers
- Business Analyst
- Change Management
- Computer Consultancy
- Computer Contractor
- Computer Programmers
- Computer Software Design
- Database Administrators
- Database Consultants
- Information Technology Consultant
- Internet Service Providers ISP
- IT Computer Contractor
- IT Hardware Consultants
- Network Communication Consultants
- PC/Network Support Consultants
- Programme Managers
- Project Managers
- Project Support Consultants
- Quality Management
- Security Consultants
- Software Consultants
- System Architects and Designers
- System Tester
- Technology Specialist
- Telecoms Consultants
- Trainers (IT)
- Website Designers
- Web Hosting
There are just so many different ways to end up with a dispute that it is hard to list them all, but to give you some idea, here are some common problems:
Breach of Contract
A software house agrees to provide a bespoke database to a customer. A delivery date is agreed and the software house is confident of delivery on time. A key developer suffers an accident or illness or quits for a better job. The delivery deadline is missed. The client is losing business as a result.
The client cancels the contract and sues the developer for breach of contract.
Privacy and Data Loss
An employee copies customer records and account details onto a memory stick intending to work on some projects at home. On the journey home he leaves it on the train.
An employee is made redundant and after he has left it is discovered that he made a copy of the employer’s database and may have passed it to a competitor.
We can provide professional indemnity cover that becomes effective at the time the data loss is discovered rather than waiting for angry customers to complain. This allows pro-active management of the problem to reduce losses to you and your customers.
Libel and Slander
An employee makes incorrect statements about a competitors products to a potential client. The customer challenges your competitor on the basis of that statement. The competitor sues.
At the moment the UK is the Libel and Slander litigation capital of the world, and this won’t improve unless the law is changed.
Intellectual Property
A company decides to sell its product in the USA. An American company sues alleging that the product infringes on their intellectual property. This is a common way to attack competitors. Even when the attacking company has a weak case and ultimately loses it can cost large amounts of money to defend the action.
We can provide professional indemnity insurance cover for companies transacting business in the USA and Canada, this is excluded by many UK insurance policies and you should check your cover if your product or service is going to be used by American or Canadian customers, particularly for web-based services that have no territorial limits to use.
Other Cover
If you are self-employed, you should give serious consideration to arranging public liability insurance as well, to protect you against claims for injury to persons and damage to other people’s property.
We can add the following extra cover to professional indemnity policies:
- Public Liability
- Employers Liability
- Office Contents