The British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) has criticised insurance software house SSP for its latest service outage and poor interaction with users.
Following Monday’s system failure – the second time in just less than a week – BIBA slammed SSP for not providing their contracted service or suitable communications to brokers.
The industry body said a forced shutdown on Tuesday night did not resolve SSP’s ongoing system interruption and failed to correct the current problems.
The trade group said it is “extremely concerned” over the persistent problems and at SSP’s “apparent lack of clear communication to users.”
Despite conversations with SSP senior officials, BIBA lamented that it has not been given an explanation or an indication of what plans are being put in place to bring all systems back online and fully functional.
“It is not unreasonable for brokers, who are likely to have invested a considerable amount of money in key systems, to expect that system to work fully and that when there is an issue for it to be resolved quickly,” said BIBA CEO Steve White.
“Many members are concerned and angry that they are not receiving suitable communication and have no assurances about resolution. This is unacceptable,” White continued.
White said he expects the Financial Conduct Authority to keep a close eye on the situation.
“BIBA will continue to press SSP to be transparent about the current problems and open and honest with their customers and our members about progress,” he said.
Laurence Walker, SSP group CEO, told
Computer Weekly that the latest outage was a result of “connectivity issues” at a datacentre.
Walker claimed that there has been an “improvement” in the service, but admitted that some customers are still experiencing intermittent problems with Microsoft Outlook.
“We are closely monitoring the situation and providing regular updates to customers through our web-portal and SMS. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this has caused,” Walker said in a statement sent to
Computer Weekly.
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