Insurance for Software Companies

While the tech sector is one of the most exciting and fastest-growing sectors in the UK, it’s also the most at risk. Software Companies face several unique risks, including intellectual property lawsuits, licensing issues and consumer data breaches, software failures, server downtime and cyber threats. Claims relating to software companies can also be extremely costly.

What does this means for Software companies?

Your clients are reliant, if not dependent on your software.
Their expectations are high. Higher than ever before.
If things go wrong, they are not afraid to point their finger in your direction.

More than ever you need insurance to cover you against the wide range of risks you face. Importantly, it must be the right insurance. Unfortunately, that’s not as easy as it sounds. There are plenty of insurance companies willing to insure software companies. Very few understand the industry. And therefore, very few cover the key risks you need insuring.

We’re experts in software company insurance

Whinney Insurance is one of the few brokers with the necessary experience and expertise required to advise software companies and developers on their insurance requirements. With over a decade of working with software companies and developers, we understand the complexities of the industry. We also recognise that experience and continuity are incredibly important and work with you to understand the most critical risks to your business, from intellectual property, licensing, and publishing risks to confidentiality and consumer data.

Always personal, always bespoke

As a privately owned broker with a small and dedicated multi-disciplined and experienced team of advisors, we pride ourselves on our exceptional service. Whether you’re getting a quote or making a claim, your insurance will always be handled personally by an expert member of our team.

Professional Indemnity Insurance for Software Companies.

The most important insurance that you need to get right as a software company, is professional indemnity. If you already have professional indemnity insurance, below we have highlighted a few areas you should check are covered. Remember if you are currently insured under a generic or miscellaneous professional indemnity insurance policy, the key exposures faced by you, as a software company may not be covered:

Breach of contract. Nowadays very few software companies proceed with a job without a contract in place. But it’s critical to understand how that contract affects your liability and important if your professional indemnity insurance will protect you if things go wrong. Very few insurers provide cover for breach of contract and if they do, it’s very restrictive. This is important to check. Often you can source an alternative policy including breach of contract cover at no extra cost.
Warranties covered. Often claims against software companies are brought as a ‘breach of warranty. Unfortunately, some insurance companies don’t understand this, so will only cover you for claims if it can be proven that you made an error. Sometimes, you will have taken all the reasonable care and skill but still breach a warranty agreement. It’s in these circumstances you need the peace of mind you are covered. We can arrange cover for you that extends to cover breaches of an IP warranty, a warranty of quality, a warranty of reasonable care and skill, or a warranty to conform to a written specification. All important extensions.
Avoiding a claim. Whether a client rightly or wrongly makes a complaint about your work, we know the last thing you need is an expensive legal fight. More often than not, with specialist technology lawyers at hand, it’s possible to avoid claims or lawsuits altogether. If you’re already buying professional indemnity, it’s well worth checking whether the insurance company has their own in house legal team, or if not what law firms they outsource to. A specialist technology lawyer will be worth their weight in gold if things do go wrong. We only arrange software insurance with specialist insurers who have in house specialist software/technology lawyers. The professional indemnity policy we provide also includes an ‘avoiding a claim’ extension. In short, insurers will pay your contractual fees to avoid a claim being made against you by a client.

Here’s a list of some of the software related business activities that can be covered under the software company insurance that we arrange:

software developers including games and apps developers
software suppliers, including installation and configuration
SAAS – Software as a Service
Software consultants and systems integrators
Software implementation and project management and/or provision of contract staff.