New technologies are generating a lot of wealth, allowing the creation of companies dedicated to information technology and/or the online market. The start-ups are far from unknown in Spain. We will provide data on how they are driving and helping in the economic recovery and, fundamentally, we will explain what risks they are exposed to and how to protect themselves so as not to have to face claims without the coverage of an insurance company.
The economy linked to the ICT sector
The “technological revolution could be likened to the industrial revolution of a few years ago. This new digital economy is generating jobs non-stop, at a rate that the Spanish labor market does not have the capacity to absorb. According to the European Commission, this lack of personnel is quantified at: close to 500,000 people in 2015 and over one million by 2020. For this very reason, unemployment rates in the ICT sector are among the lowest, so the prospects for finding employment are very good.
Another fact: nearly 3,600 companies related to information technology and data were created in 2016.
Risks in technology companies
Given the situation of the labor market, it is time to comment on the risks to which these companies are exposed when dealing with their clients. The fact is that these relatively new professions generate potential liabilities and claims that have not been seen before in Spain. It will be necessary to work with insurance companies that have imported this experience from other countries.
We are talking about this type of professionals: a graphic designer, a community manager, or the person in charge of an online marketing campaign or a developer and programmer… All these professionals assume a contractual responsibility with their client, and handle very sensitive client information, committing themselves to carry out work within a fixed timeframe.
We are going to leave you with some graphic examples to help you understand what cases (claims) we may encounter in the day-to-day work of these companies:
Specific claims of ICT professionals
As we can see, there are multiple situations that can lead to a claim from a customer for a service we have provided:
- Loss of customer data: possible lawsuit and even, depending on where the data could be filtered, problems before the Data Protection Agency.
- Delays or delivery of a job that does not correspond to what was previously agreed by contract, and that generates losses or damages to the client.
- Transmission of viruses, which may cause damage to the customer, such as loss of data or temporary interruption of its activity.
We are talking about a casuistry that is far from remote. They are situations that, in a certain way, we can anticipate that at some time or another in the life of our company, may happen.
If you want us to inform you better, at PIB Group Iberia e Inversión we have been working on this type of policies for some time. Do not take unnecessary risks and take out a liability insurance.
