XTML launches ebusiness insurance

Internet service provider (ISP) and reseller XTML has collaborated with insurers and Lloyds brokers to offer the world's first insurance for ecommerce.

Internet service provider (ISP) and reseller XTML has collaborated with insurers and Lloyds brokers to offer the world's first insurance for ecommerce.XTML has developed the cover, named Ensure, in conjunction with Independent Insurance Group and Lloyds broker, Houlders Insurance Services, and has been underwritten to the value of £1.5bn.The Manchester-based ISP claimed the service offers peace of mind to customers whose major headache over Internet trading is downtime, either through business interruption or hacking and viruses. The service will be aimed at the medium-to-large corporate sector, and customers will be refunded for revenue lost thanks to downtime."High-value items are insured in businesses and in the home. It's logical that firms should protect themselves where online services handle millions of pounds of transactions," said John Ridd, managing director of XTML.Premiums will be negotiated on an individual basis, but will cost "a few hundred pounds a month for cover in excess of £1m," said Eugene Boyle, sales director at XTML.Ridd said at the heart of Ensure is XTML's ServerBank, which will eventually run about 5,000 Hewlett Packard servers. Security features include triple redundancy on every component and three autostart generators with multiple UPS units.HP has provided working capital for ServerBank worth £4m, in the first example of the vendor's shared risk and reward programme of investment in e-services companies. HP's investment gives it the right to exercise a 10 per cent option in XTML.But some analysts were sceptical about how to compensate for a server failure that led to a fall in share price. "I struggle to see how you reimburse a market capitalisation," said one.