For now, however, the focus is upon the core German market.

There was understandably a degree of nervousness about the new platform, that was formally launched in July, and, as ever with such initiatives, the team at inex24 needed to show the market that it would actually work before signing up large numbers.

For this reason it signed up the insurance managers at ThyssenKrupp, Bosch and Tchibo as partners in a pilot exercise and also included HDI-Gerling and Aon as ‘design’ partners to help establish the concept. A number of brokers within the Unison broker network have also signed up for the tool.

ThyssenKrupp put its global property programme forward as the first tender on July 1 with a renewal date of October 31 and the programme has been successfully completed, said Mr Witzel.

Mr Witzel told CRE that he had received positive feedback from a number of other German insurance managers about joining the club now that the ThyssenKrupp pilot has worked.

CRE discussed the new platform with a number of insurers and insurance managers before and during the DVS Symposium to determine interest and its potential role in the market.

All said that they were interested in the concept but a number of concerns were raised.

First, there is a worry among some that such a platform would serve to further commoditise the market by persuading those involved that contracts can be arranged without the need for face to face negotiation and discussion.

Second, some fear that the system will marginalise the brokers as insurance buyers could potentially negotiate and agree terms online and that this would further commoditise the business.

And, third some noted that they were concerned about the security of data that may have to be shared with the platform as buyers, brokers and insurers plug it into their systems.

Mr Witzel explained that inex24 is no way intended to remove the need for proper face to face discussion and negotiation but is rather a tool designed to support and facilitate the very necessary complex discussions needed to arrange industrial insurance contracts.

For the same reason the platform will not marginalise the brokers who have a central role to play, said Mr Witzel and this is why Aon and other brokers have already signed up.

And, Mr Witzel explained that IT security is ceratainly not a problem because the company invested heavily in a robust testing of the platform by a reputable third party that can provide evidence to anyone who asks for it.

Further Mr Witzel stressed that inex24 is more about documentation, efficiencies and process management than negotiation and so no threat to the market.

“The main goals of inex24 are to make work noticeably easier in terms of the day-to-day business, speeding up transactions in all areas, the secure management and exchange of data, the most up-to-date communication and documentation methods with automatic pre-sorting and filing, the preparation of the most complex analysis and reporting with a one-click process, web-based negotiation of wording with several risk takers at the same time, the negotiation of individual topics per risk carrier and much more,” he said.

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