Hello everyone,
I'm working through a number of semi-gov agency procurement processes (from the agency side of the fence), and have been surprised by how adamantly the procurement dept. is demanding copies of currency certification for vendors professional indemnity insurance.
In one specific case, this is being demanded from a software vendor who is simply providing a pay-as-you-go SaaS product with T&C that state support and uptime is best endeavours.
I understand how Professional Indemnity may be critical if a vendor is providing advice/consulting... but is SaaS a product like a loaf of bread? Or provision of expert guidance?
Anyway, I digress: This all got me thinking about my own part time site building efforts.
I'm wondering if I should have professional indemnity insurance... What do others think: is it common in the webdev industry in Aust.?
Anyone have any war-stories that illustrate it being useful?
Comments
All gov agencies and
All gov agencies and departments will have it as a standard requirement, so if you want to go after that work, you need it. Cost starts at around $5,000 for $10m cover, and you can get an IT-specific policy from QBE, and a discount if you're an AIMIA member http://bit.ly/rZOUIy
The rule of thumb I'd use is it's worth having if most of your projects are bigger than $20K or involve business-critical functions that might cause a client to sue for damages if they fail - e.g. e-commerce, member databases.
Always required
PI is is a standard government prerequisite. They don't think twice about asking for it. Often you can offer to take it up if you're given the job, although that makes you sound small. No war stories but legal issues can come up at the drop of a hat so it's best to be covered for large projects.
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Mark Matuschka
Glo Digital
Insurance is one of those
Insurance is one of those things that it's really good to have even when you don't need it as
And advice is to use a good broker, they seem to make some things easier.
You'll feel great about it if
You'll feel great about it if a client threatens to sue over some stupid thing. IIRC I was able to get much less than $5000 for Em Space, but the agent had trouble finding an insurance product to cover our relatively small size. ciainsurance.com.au was the one who helped us if it helps.